IP Passthrough Port vs MAC: Easy Guide to Understand the Basics Now

Hey everyone, today I wanna talk about something I messed with recently – IP passthrough, ports, and MAC addresses. It’s all that networking stuff, you know? At first, I was like, “What’s the difference?” But after digging in, I figured it out, and now I’m here to share my experience with you all.

So, I started by looking into what each of these things are. I was setting up my home network, and I wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly. That’s when I stumbled upon these terms. I read a bunch of stuff online, but it was all so technical. I just wanted to understand it in a simple way, you know?

IP Addresses

First up, IP addresses. I learned that these are like the street addresses for devices on a network. Every device that connects to the internet needs one. I checked my IP address, and it looked like a bunch of numbers separated by dots. I found out that there are two types, IPv4 and IPv6, but that’s a whole other can of worms I didn’t wanna open just yet.

• What I did:
• Searched “what’s my IP” and boom, there it was.
• Tried ipconfig and saw my PC’s IP information.
• Played with my router settings to see how IP addresses are assigned.

MAC Addresses

Next, MAC addresses. These are like the unique serial numbers for network devices. Every network card has one, and it’s set by the manufacturer. I thought this was pretty cool. It’s like a fingerprint for your device. No two devices should have the same MAC address. I learned that MAC addresses are used within the local network to make sure data gets to the right device.

• What I did:
• Used the ipconfig /all command to find my MAC address, which had a bunch of letters and numbers.
• Checked the MAC address of my phone too, just to see if it’s different.

Ports

Then, there are ports. These are like the different doors or entry points on a device where data can go in or out. I always heard about port forwarding but never really got it until now. Basically, when you set up port forwarding on your router, you’re telling it to send specific types of data to a specific device on your network. I experimented with this to set up a game server, and it was awesome to see it working!

• What I did:
• Opened my router settings and found the port forwarding section.
• Forwarded port 8080 to my computer’s IP to mess with a web server.
• Tested it by accessing my public IP with :8080 at the end, and it worked!

IP Passthrough

Lastly, IP passthrough. This one was a bit tricky. It’s a feature on some routers that lets you give a device on your network the public IP address of your internet connection. I tried this with an old router I had lying around. I set it up in IP passthrough mode and connected it to my main router. Then, I connected my computer to the second router, and bam, my computer had the public IP address. It felt like I bypassed some kind of barrier, you know?

• What I did:
• Logged into my old router and found the IP passthrough setting.
• Enabled it and connected my old router to my main one.
• Connected my PC to the old router and checked my public IP, which had changed.

So yeah, that’s my journey into the world of IP passthrough, ports, and MAC addresses. It was a lot of trial and error, but I learned a ton. I hope my experience helps you understand this stuff a little better. It’s not as scary as it sounds once you get your hands dirty. Feel free to ask me anything, I’ll try my best to help!

Keep on exploring, guys! You never know what cool stuff you might discover.