Unique Identifier Main / Data II Articles Date: Dec 26, 2003 - 11:09 PM Unique identifiers are a rare property. Computer machines contain many numbers and character strings. Not many of them are unique and fewer yet are fixed for good. Unique identifiers are a rare property. Computer machines contain many numbers and character strings. Not many of them are unique and fewer yet are fixed for good. IP Address Network unique identifier. (based on IP protocol) It is globally unique (each computer that is connected to an IP network, like the internet has a different IP address) Most IP addresses are licensed to Internet service providers and are logged by the ISP This address may not stay with one workstation for a long time. Most ISP use dynamic IP addresses, which means each time you log in to the network you may get a different IP address. The only guarantee is that while you are on the network the IP will be unique. Check your IP on Windows 98/95 by going to Start->Run type winipcfg.exe (You may have more than one adapter. Only one of them will be active) MAC Address Every workstation on a network has a piece of hardware called the Network Interface Card. Each card has a unique identifier called Mac address. It is physically graved into the card. In contrast with the IP address, Mac address will not change for the given workstation. You can check your MAC address on Windows 98/95 by going to Start->Run type winipcfg.exe (You may have more than one adapter. Only one of them will be active) Notice: If you change or remove the Network Card, the MAC will change for the workstation. Computer Serial Number Each element in your computer has a serial number. The only problem with serial numbers is that they may be troublesome to look up. Each vendor (Dell, Gateway) has its own serial sequence of numbers. They are quaranteed to be unique per vendor. Some vendors include their serial numbers in the BIOS, low level hardware code. This makes the serial number available to software inventory programs. (WMI is Microsofts low level programming access) Most serial numbers can be read from the back of the computer. Some of them are only on a sticker, which can be removed. This article comes from Data II http://www.dataii.com/portal/ The URL for this story is: http://www.dataii.com/portal/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2