Thursday, October 21, 2021

Layer 2 and Layer 3 devices

So I think I may have just realized something but I'm not sure if I have this completely figured out yet. I'm new to networking so go easy on me if I have this completely wrong.

Layer 2 switches forward frames. Frames consist of MAC addresses and not IP addresses as that is a layer 3 protocol. When switches forward frames in a LAN, they forward them using their SAT (Source Address Table).

So here's my question. If I'm connected to other computers via switch and we're all connected to a router. If I wanted to ping the IP of another pc. Does the pc keep a record of the MAC addresses and their corresponding IP addresses? I'm not sure how switches are able to correctly identify the PC I would want to ping since layer 2 does not deal with IP addresses.

Would it be forwarded to the router to correctly find the correct PC with the matching IP address?

Thanks in advance!



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