MAC Address Formats of the Networking World

Why on earth does everyone have to display their MAC addresses differently?

  • Cisco: 0021.a0ab.cdef
  • HP: 0026f1-abcdef
  • Microsoft: 00-24-D7-AB-CD-EF
  • Most UNIX variants & JunOS: 00:0a:f3:ab:cd:ef
  • Solaris: 0:1c:c0:ab:3:ef
  • RHEL arp: 00:09:6B:AB:CD:EF
  • Windows DHCP: 0024d7abcdef

Mixed formatting, mixed capitalization, and mixed leading zeros. We’ve standardized the way we display just about everything else? Why not this?

[Solaris added in response to comments]