What a MAC address tells you

Every network device carries a MAC address like 28:6F:B9:12:34:56. The first half, called the OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier), is assigned by the IEEE to a specific manufacturer. Looking it up reveals who made the network hardware, useful for auditing devices on a network, spotting rogue hardware, or identifying an unknown gadget by the MAC shown in your router.

MacVendorCheck reads the official IEEE MA-L, MA-M and MA-S registries, refreshed monthly. There is also a free JSON API and, for network folk, our sibling IP address lookup.