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Comments on Unique identifier for a computing system

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Unique identifier for a computing system [closed]

+2
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Closed as unclear by Canina‭ on Dec 18, 2021 at 10:04

This question cannot be answered in its current form, because critical information is missing.

This question was closed; new answers can no longer be added. Users with the reopen privilege may vote to reopen this question if it has been improved or closed incorrectly.

If IP address is a unique identifier of a computing device in a network (LAN and/or WAN) and MAC is a unique identifier for a network card and/or modem, what would be a unique identifier for a computing device in and of itself (used by software installed on that computing device to refer to the computing device itself)?

It might be a mainboard unique identifier, it might be an operating system installment unique identifier, both or one string for both; what is the terminology to use here?

terminology
posted almost 3 years ago
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3 comment threads

What do you want to achieve? (1 comment)
IPs and MACs are not unique, nor persistent, nor necessarily available, identifiers (2 comments)
How do you define a "computing system"? (1 comment)
IPs and MACs are not unique, nor persistent, nor necessarily available, identifiers
Canina‭ wrote almost 3 years ago · edited almost 3 years ago
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An IP address is not a unique identifier; aside from the traditional private assignment ranges (RFC 1918; 10/8, 172.16/12, 192.168/16), there are both multicast (224/4 IIRC) and other ranges that are not globally routable or globally unique (e.g. 100.64/10 for CGNAT), even if you assume Internet connectivity (which is not a given). They are also not persistent, as they can and do change on a regular or irregular basis.

MAC addresses are not necessarily unique. Vendors have been known to reuse MAC addresses; some networking hardware allow changing MAC addresses (this is often used for privacy, and makes MAC addresses also potentially non-persistent); a computer might not have any networking hardware that has Ethernet-style MAC addresses; and a computer might have multiple MAC addresses (so which do you use?).

4015.alt‭ wrote almost 3 years ago · edited almost 3 years ago
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+1: I was about to comment by the same, or just upvote this comment if it was possible.