MAC ADDRESS

MAC (Media Access Control) aka Hardware Address is burned into every ethernet NIC.
48 bits (6 bytes in Hex).

MAC Fields

Bit Range	Field Name	Decimal	Hex	Info
47 (1 Bit)	Individual/Group (Broadcast)	0		1 Indicates this MAC Address is a Broadcast or Multicast Address 0 Means this is a Device Address.
46 (1 Bit)	Global/Local OUI	0		1 Indicates this is a locally governed OUI Address 0 Globally Administered IEEE OUI Address.
45-24 (22 Bits)	OUI (Organizationlly Unique Identifier)	0	0	Company ID. Assigned by IEEE.
23-0 (24 Bits)	Vendor/Maufacturer Assigned ID	0	0	Usually NIC SN.

Link to lookup OUI at IEEE
http://standards.ieee.org/develop/regauth/oui/public.html

Ethernet Cable

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP). The more twists the less cross talk.
In 56A Pins 1 and 2 have green in them.
In 56B Pins 1 and 2 have Orange in them.
If the colors on one side of the cable are in different order than other side, then we have a crossover cable as apposed to straight thru cable. My home routers all have Smart Sense technology so a crossover cable is not necessary to connect WAN ports. Crossover cables are usually used to connect switches/routers or workstations directly without the use of a router.