Wireless – ny way to differentiate MAC address of an Access Point from that of a client

mac addresswireless

If I have got a list of MAC addresses, is there any possible way to differentiate MAC of an AP from that of a Client. I am asking whether there is any pattern of the characters in the MAC address by which we can identify it belongs to an Access Point?

Best Answer

Short answer: No.

Long answer: You can narrow down your list to a few candidates. The first 3 bytes of the MAC address is called the OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) and is assigned to manufacturers. You can look up the manufacturer of a MAC address by using a tool like http://www.wireshark.org/tools/oui-lookup.html

Based on the manufacturer, you can get a pretty good idea of who is who. If the manufacturer is "Cisco," odds are it's an AP. If the mfr is "Dell," it's probably a PC. This isn't perfect, but as you collect more data, you will able to be more certain of your results.