Phones have unique phone numbers, why dont computers have unique computer-numbers?

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨jeffhykin@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

Why doesn’t every computer have a hardware based static ipv32 address, along with a private key to prove it is the sole owner of the address?

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

user224@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Well, phone numbers do get re-assigned too.

source
JakenVeina@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
They do, it’s called an IP address.

Phones get numbers assigned to them by a cell service provider, in order to communicate on their network, which is basically the exact process for computers and IP addresses.

If you’re asking about the equivalent of like a SIM card, in the computer/internet world, that’s handled at higher layers, by digital certificates. And again, the process is almost exactly the same, except they don’t (usually) get put on physical chips.

source
- henfredemars@infosec.pub ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  IP address is really the best comparison here. Some computers share an IP just like entire call centers may share the same phone number. And neither IP addresses and packets nor phone numbers are properly authenticated without additional enforcement systems.
  
  Internal networks exist for computers and phones. It’s a nice parallel.
  
  source
  - JesterIzDead@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    No, computers can’t share IPs
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- 800XL@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Except you can spoof an IP address or get another one from the ISP just by asking. You can spoof a MAC address too.
  
  Intel introduced unique processor id’s back in the late 90s.
  
  source
  - lemmyng@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Phone numbers can be spoofed, and SIM cards can be cloned. The analogy stands.
    
    source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Cell phones don’t get a new number every time they switch cell towers, so why do laptops.
  
  Its not like I can write down the IP address of my friends laptop so I can send it a message once he gets to a new city.
  
  source
  - lemmyng@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Laptops don’t get a new IP address every time they switch from one AP to another in the same network either. Your cell phone will get a new IP address if it switches to a different cell network.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    Its not like I can write down the IP address of my friends laptop so I can send it a message once he gets to a new city.
    
    With static IPs that’s possible, but you already do that when you email them already.
    
    source
  - JakenVeina@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Main difference there being that switching cities means probably switching ISPs. You can absolutely carry over your IP address when you move between the same provider, if that’s part of your service plan, and that may well happen with some ISPs even without it being part of your plan. There just isn’t really much of a need for people to carry a static IP, except for some businesses, and I’d say the main reason is that people don’t visit websites by memorizing and typing in an IP. They do memorize and type in phone numbers.
    
    source
  - SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    [deleted]
    source
    -> View More Comments
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Isn’t that what a MAC address is? There is a few ways to ch age it unless that’s been fixed iirc.

source
- Guest_User@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You will always be able to spoof your MAC address if needed. I don’t see the standard ever changing enough to prevent that.
  
  source
  - AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Though the same is true for phone numbers
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- pinchcramp@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I don’t think that’s something that needs to be fixed. Your phone (and probably your computer) can randomize its MAC address every time it connects to a new WiFi to make it harder to track you.
  
  source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m shocked this answer has so many upvotes. No, a MAC address is not close to a phone number.
  
  “two network interfaces connected to two different networks can share the same MAC address”
  
  “Many network interfaces, however, support changing their MAC addresses”
  
  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
  
  source
  - SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You ask a question then try to call out an answer? Bold I’ve cotton.
    
    Sure you can change your phone number, it’s called spoofing, or just call your provider and get a new one, sometimes they charge.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    [deleted]
    source
    -> View More Comments
MajorHavoc@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Lack of demand.

Phones having unique unalterable numbers was never an intentional feature desired by users, just a limitation of the available technology.

Computer network cards do have such a number, their MAC address, but modern ones can scramble it to avoid being tracked, without any loss of ability to be reached by everyone you want to be reached by.

source
adespoton@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Along with the other comments on UDID, IMEI and MAC, I’d just like to point out that phones don’t have phone numbers.

On land lines, the number is assigned to the line that goes to your house from the local operations center; on mobile phones, the number is linked by your carrier to THEIR SIM card that you stick in your phone.

eSIM almost gets there; instead of a physical card linked to the phone number, all the logic and secrets are stored in a secure enclave on your phone and THAT is linked to the number, which is in a directory managed by your carrier. It’s linked to the phone itself because of the phone’s IMEI.

source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sure, change the title to say “phones have unique phone number (b/c sim cards), why don’t computers have an equivalent?”
  
  With VOIP I can get phone calls even without cell service, even behind a NAT. Why is the network designed in such a way where that is possible, but I can’t buy an address that will persist across networks endpoint changes (e.g. new wifi connection) such that I can initiate a connection to my laptop while it is behind a NAT.
  
  source
  - SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Static IP
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - adespoton@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    All you have to do is buy your own IP, and you can use it whenever you want. You don’t have to use one given to you by the upstream gateway via DHCP or BootP.
    
    Of course, you need to make sure the upstream router is configured to not drop addresses it didn’t assign itself.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - Sethayy@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    For the laptop thing you realistically could by a WAN IP per device, itd just be expensivr and also a massive security issue DMZ’ing all your devices
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
Honytawk@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
MAC’s used to be static, but then hackers found ways to spoof it. Now manufacturers don’t care to make them static anymore.

Get a laptop with a SIM and you will have an IMEI and phone number, plus 5G.

source
- ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Android defaults to lying about your Mac address, which can be frustrating if you want to manage your home network.
  
  source
  - rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Really? So I don’t have to worry about them recording my MAC address when I torrent on mcdonalds wifi?
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
ChaoticNeutralCzech@lemmy.one ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Because

When the internet was rolling out, a decentralized, open, best-effort solution of TCP/IP thankfully won over telephone companies’ centralized system

IPv6 is still not universal for some damn reason

Onion addresses solve these problems but good luck getting everyone aboard with Tor

You always trade anonymity for reachability, and with the amount of threats, NAT and firewalls have been put up to make it harder for unsolicited requests to reach you by default
source
valen@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That would be a privacy nightmare.

source
- slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yep. See EUI-64 IPv6 addressing.
  
  source
Shadow@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Intel tried this on the Pentium 3, we all hated it so they stopped.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_III#Controversy_a…

source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This is the kind of answer I was looking for, thank you!
  
  source
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
[deleted]
source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Thank you for such a long and detailed post! I indeed did not know about things beyond the SIM, and I didn’t know about the extra details about the country codes either. That is extremely interesting to me.
  
  With the phone spoofing though, does that mean two factor with a phone number is basically useless? If I had authentication based on a MAC address, it would take seconds to break it. But I think, and sure hope, that auth based on phone numbers is more secure.
  
  I think your domain name answer – that for the most part computers didnt need them – is a very satisfying answer.
  
  source
  - skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    [deleted]
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - pishadoot@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Phone number 2FA isn’t useless, insomuch as it’s better than no 2FA at all, but it is easily the worst form of 2FA because SIM jacking (usually involves a scammer tricking a customer service agent into migrating your phone number to their device instead of yours in order to intercept the 2FA messages) is laughably simple using easily acquired info such as your DOB, address, and last 4 of your SSN.
    
    If phone 2FA is the only option, use it. But don’t use it if you have any other option.
    
    source
ArbiterXero@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s called a MAC address.

The problem with it is mostly routing.

The osi model has 7 layers of connection to form a proper internet connection.

The MAC address exists but doesn’t leave the physical network. The MAC address is used to physically connect your computer to the router, and it defines your piece of hardware.

The IP address can change, because your computer can connect to different networks.

If you tried to route everything with a MAC address, (which isn’t possible, but for arguments sake we will pretend it is) the problem is that when you take your phone with its MAC address off your wifi and on to your work wifi, Where would the registry be? How would the Internet know how to find your phone? Do you just log into one giant global registry so that everyone can find your phone when they are trying to communicate with it? That would be a giant fucking database and everyone would always be trying to use it.

Routing is a big and complex problem, and these things didn’t work with ipv4

They do work better with IPv6. IPv6 adresses don’t need to change like ipv4 for a bunch of reasons.

From a philosophical level, the Internet was designed for people to be anonymous and make relatively anonymous connections. You wanted to be flexible enough that you can just be assigned a new number and work with that new number quickly.

This is a really simple explanation, and I got some basic facts wrong just for ease of understanding, but the principals are correct.

source
- slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  If you tried to route everything with a MAC address, (which isn’t possible, but for arguments sake we will pretend it is) the problem is that when you take your phone with its MAC address off your wifi and on to your work wifi, Where would the registry be? How would the Internet know how to find your phone? Do you just log into one giant global registry so that everyone can find your phone when they are trying to communicate with it? That would be a giant fucking database and everyone would always be trying to use it.
  
  This is a solved issue called EUI-64 IPv6 addressing. It is a privacy nightmare.
  
  source
  - ArbiterXero@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah I addressed that IPv6 CAN do it, but you’re right.
    
    Philosophically, I don’t want people or companies following me around that much, hence the “private MAC addresses” that came out a few years ago
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I cant edit my phone number, but I can edit my MAC address. They’re categorically different.
  
  How would the internet know how to find your phone?
  
  The same way phone calls try to find my phone when its powered off. Attempt, and then fail under a timeout.
  
  source
  - ArbiterXero@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The domain registry is NOT, and it’s categorised by various tld’s the scope of the routing is MUCH higher traffic.
    
    Your cell phone is run by a provider and has maybe 0.0000001% as much lookups as routing would have.
    
    These things are all done in various tree light structures to try and eliminate central points of failure . The Internet was designed to try and resist failure, and you are creating some central failure points.
    
    Even if you created several of them, synchronisation issues would be Basically impossible to fix or take up unbelievable amounts of bandwidth
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You seem to have be missing a fundamental thing about tech but I can’t pin down what it is. So I will respond to your edits.

but I can’t buy a static address that will persist across networks endpoint changes

You can. It’s called Provider Independent Space and it a pain to go with as an individual.

Yes, it would be a privacy nightmare, I want to know why it didnt turn out that way

Because people smarter than you, I, and everyone else in this post said 'Yes EUI-64 is a good idea in principe but the problems on a privacy perspective outweigh the advantages. So let’s build a system called MAC randomisation so people can get multiple address to access the internet with. ’
The good news is you can turn off MAC randomisation.

AFAIK IP addresses (even static public ones) are not equivlent to phone numbers. I don’t get a new phone number every time I connect to a new cell tower

In some parts of the world or before 2000 if you changed mobile providers, say from Vodafone to Telstra you had to get a new number. Since that change number routing has become a nightmare and it makes the BGPv4 table look sane in comparison.

Even if a static IP is assigned to a device, my understanding is that connecting the device to a new uncontrolled WiFi, especially a router with a NAT, will make it so that people who try to connect to the static IP will simply fail.

This is a complex one due to NAT in the ipv4 space. NAT exists purely to allow devices to have the same private IPv4 address and hide behind a public v4 address.

No, MAC addresses are not equivalent phone numbers. 1. Phone numbers have one unique owner, MAC addresses can have many owners because they can be changed at any time to any thing on most laptops. 2. A message can’t be sent directly to a MAC address in the same way as a phone number

MAC do have unique owner blocks. Cisco somewhat owned the 0000.0C block.

Yes you can. That is literally how it works down the TCP/IP stack.

Yes, IMEI is unique, but my laptop doesn’t have one and even if it did its not the same as an eSim or sim card. We can send a message to an activated Sim, we can’t send a message to an IMEI or serial number

If your laptop has a regular Sim slot it will have an IMEI. True we can’t send messages via IMEI or serial because those systems were never designed for message routing.
source
apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
IMEI numbers for phones are more unique than phone numbers.

source
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No, MAC addresses are not equivalent phone numbers. I can’t edit my phone number for free in 30sec to whatever I want, and I can’t send a message to a MAC address.

Image

You sure about that?
source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Okay, then change you number to 911 and I’ll call it to check.
  
  source
  - SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Try to change your ip to a taken one. What’s your point?
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
ulterno@lemmy.kde.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

its not the same as an eSim or sim card

I think you have part of your answer.
Get a laptop with a SIM Card reader, and do what you may.

The reason it doesn’t work with IP is because, it started out with local networks and was expanded from that. A domain name is similar to a phone number, just that the user has the IP routing information available, whereas in case of phone connection, a probably similar system for routing is all abstracted by cell exchanges.

source
JesterIzDead@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
a) what the hell is ipv32?

b) it’s astounding how many upvotes some of these nonsensical answers have

source
- adam_y@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I see you getting downvoted for a correct answer.
  
  IP addresses are like street addresses. I can live at 10 High Street in London, you can live at 10 High Street in Ohio. Those are not the same address right? Folk confusing public and private ip addresses.
  
  source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah I was lazy with saying ipv32. I didnt want to say ipv6, since I kinda think it needs to at least be 64bits, and really for a public-private key pair should be larger, so more like 512 to avoid anything like the v4 v6 cacatestrophe again in 20 years with post quantum forms of assymetric key challenges. But I didnt feel like writing all that out.
  
  I’m with you. I knew I’d get people not reading and say “that’s the ip address”, but MAC address? 🤦‍♂️
  
  source
slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
What makes you think all phones have unique numbers? Some have no direct dial numbers.

As for each device getting a unique IP address this is somewhat in the spec for EUI-64 IPv6 address. Your IP is based on your interfaces MAC address but this becomes a privacy nightmare.

If the MAC address’s of the wifi chip in your phone is 1122.3344.5566 your IPv6 address at home can be 2001:0db8:0000:00000:1122:33ff:fe44:5566 but when at work your address may be 2001:db8:1000:0000:1122:33ff:fe44:5566. No matter where you connect to the last 4 sections of the address is the same and companies will use that as one of the data points of your digital profile.

source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I meant “in the same way that phone numbers are unique to phones (not perfectly unique, some phones have dual Sim, some have no sim, sometimes a Sim changes numbers after contacting the provider, etc)”
  
  Its just typing all that^ in a title is kinda long.
  
  EUI-64 IPv6 (and why its not a reality) though is kinda what I’m curious about. But not really because, even under that spec, its still a MAC address. Its not static like a phone number. I want to know why networks were not created in a way where I can send a message to a laptop regardless of what WiFi its connected to (assuming it is connected and online).
  
  source
  - slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Because it will be an ungodly thing to manage. The national phone databases are already a nightmare to manage. it would be far worse if we had a global one.
    
    source
- JesterIzDead@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The IMEI is unique
  
  source
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Phone numbers aren’t exactly unique. It’s really not much different than being assigned a static IP address from your ISP. They’re assigned and if a line is cancelled or you change your number, it goes to a dormant state for a while then is reassigned to someone else.

Your phone’s IMEI on the other hand is a unique number, similar to a MAC address for network devices. Unlike a MAC though, it is illegal to spoof or clone an IMEI. Infrastructure however wasn’t designed to use the IMEI or MAC as the publicly accessible address, it was designed with a middle translation layer in mind.

Not 100% sure, my early history is lacking a bit, but I think that was simply because the fundamental network design underlying everything we use predates unique identifiers like MAC addresses existing.

source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Solid answer, thanks! You deserve all the upvotes that were, instead, for some reason, given to the guy that just said “I think its a MAC address”
  
  source
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Notwithstanding the instant privacy nightmare this would create, essentially abolishing online anonymity overnight, this is kinda-sorta what MAC addresses are already. As to why MAC addresses can be spoofed so easily without any real impact on anything, refer to my first statement.

source
SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I haven’t read all of the replies to see if somebody else had said this, but it’s because the Internet was designed to be completely decentralized, whereas the phone system requires your line or device to be registered with the network operator(s). Any device that can get a valid Internet address for the local network can communicate with the whole Internet, but a phone will only work if it’s explicitly known by the phone service provider, and that information shared to all providers.

We could set up a system, layered on top of the Internet, by which each computer could register itself in a central directory each time it connects, and thus be reachable at the same address no matter where it connects, even on a NAT connection. In fact, it’s easy to do with a VPN and Dynamic DNS (both of which require the cooperation some centralized authority). It’s just not universal, because, well, what’s the utility of doing so?

source
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Every land-line phone I’ve had didn’t carry it’s number with it. The number is assigned to a fixed, immovable address. Back then it was part of a physical switching system - in the switching center, shafts would move up and down and rotate to connect one circuit to another. These were circuit-switched networks.

The only number that’s static on my cell phone is the EID, because it’s necessary with a mobile device connecting to a radio-based network. The system needs to know how to route a connection whenever the phone moves - “which tower is it on” - which is handled by the device registering with the tower, the network then updates it’s database. The phone number with a cell phone is specifically for routing user connections (essentially tells the system what subscriber is associated with a given endpoint - your phone).

None of is is required for internet connections, as you get connectivity via a router which is the Internet-facing address for other devices to see. Things were established this way initially because there’s no need for an endpoint device to be directly exposed (plus hardware and software capabilities at the time).

Also, I hope to never see the day when all consumer endpoint devices are directly on the internet. That’s a bad idea in so many ways (and why I argue IPv6 is generally useless for endpoint consumer devices). IP6 is great for plenty of other reasons.

source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  no need for an endpoint to be directly exposed
  
  If I were an engineer in the past, trying to send a message back to an endpoint (e.g. a server response) I would’ve reached for everything having a static IP, same as the EID system with phones, instead of the DHCP multi-tier NAT type system with temp addresses.
  
  I’m all but certain they didnt do it for privacy reasons at the time.
  
  source
  - BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Well, endpoints then were largely mainframe type systems, long before PCs existed, let alone network-capable PCs and http. So it was a different idea than what we have today.
    
    Before internet, you could connect two physically disparate systems using point-to-point, permanently switched connections (so it always consumed a potential connection even when no data was being transmitted). If you had Point A connected to Point B, you need a third connection to comm with Point C. The idea was, if B already had a connection to C, why not share that bandwidth/connection so A only needed one connection? And then apply a data-switching concept (e.g. Packet switching), instead of circuit-switching.
    
    We were still using P-to-P connections in the late 90’s because internet capabilites weren’t quite up to what some systems needed for latency, timing, and bandwidth.
    
    At first, just getting two endpoint mainframes connected was a big deal, and individual user devices wasn’t much of a thought, yet. Most stuff was still mainframe based, so having those connected was sufficient for user communication/data sharing anyway. Since user connectivity wasn’t the main concern - moving data from one system to another was, say an entity has 2 locations, and needs to sync the systems in those two locations. So you either use a circuit-switched P-to-P, with downtime for users when sync is happening, or send physical tapes (magnetic or even pinched paper tapes) cross-country to move data, with that data being out-of-sync and requiring manual updates to re-sync.
    
    Routing was necessary primarily for backbone transit, secondarily for organizations with multiple systems, hence the IP Classful approach.
    
    DHCP is a local network requirement - ask any Admin about static IP addresses - that’s a nightmare. I don’t even like it at home with a handful of devices.
    
    NAT is a result of the limited IP address space, not DHCP - there’s simply not enough addresses in 32bits for every local device to have a public IP (nor would you want this), plus having multiple services behind a router using local addressing. Even with static local addresses, you’d need NAT.
    
    Also, look at the time - if you had a LAN in the late 80’s, it was something like Banyan Vines or Netware IPX (neither of which was routable originally), for local comms between local systems. Any internet/external network requirements were for (again) moving data between disparate locations. The idea that a workstation needed specific internet/non-local access to (what?) really didn’t make sense. It would comm with a local data source (mainframe/IBM 360, etc), and that system would manage retrieving or syncing data from elsewhere. A workstation was largely a dumb terminal before PCs (other than actual “workstations” which is a different animal".
    
    source
dhork@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Who is gonna assign it? There is no one central authority who decides who gets a computer number or not.

source
- slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  There kinda is IANA . They assign addresses to regional registraties like RIPE, APNIC, LANIC who in turn assign addresses to ISPs and large corporations.
  
  source
  - dhork@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They assign ip addresses, they don’t assign hardware addresses. The closest thing to a hardware address is a MAC address.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- whostosay@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Without unique number assignment, the Internet would not function
  
  source
- jeffhykin@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Uh, then how do phone numbers work?
  
  source
  - dhork@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Because phone numbers and domain named are managed by network operators, not manufacturers. A phone doesn’t ship from the factory with a phone number, it gets assigned by the mobile operator based on the subscriber’s number. Same with domain names, computers aren’t shipped with them, they get assigned later.
    
    source
Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
UDID is kind-of what you’re talking about, but not an exact analogue.

source
Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That’s what the serial numbers on the parts themselves are.

source