3.1. Local Area Network Addresses
Devices connected to a LAN have their own unique physical or hardware address. This assists other machines on the network in delivering data packets to the correct location. The address is useful only in the context of a LAN, however—a machine can't be located on the Internet by using its physical address, which does not indicate the location of the machine. Indeed, machines often move from location to location, in the case of laptop or palmtop computers.
Java network programmers do not need to be concerned with the details of how data is routed within a LAN. Indeed, Java does not provide access to the lower-level data link protocols used by LANs. Supporting the wide range of protocols available would be a mammoth ...
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