Does an ethernet network switch have its own MAC address?

Question

I am currently a uni student in a dorm and we're only allowed to have one device connected to the ethernet. The way it controls that, is through a website where you have to register the MAC address of the computer or device you want to use ethernet on. Ideally I would like to have multiple devices connected via ethernet.

I have a gigabit desktop switch and I was wondering whether that had its own MAC address so I could subvert the single ethernet connected device restriction. Does it have its own MAC address or does the network still see the individual MAC addresses?

Answer 1

Yes, the mac address is just a physical footprint. It's, to say, the unique name of a device.

You could get a router, register its MAC and then use NAT to forward the packets to multiple devices.

Answer 2

L2 Switches have mac addresses for certain functions like telnet, snmp etc. Some manufacturers have just one, cisco uses a lot of mac addresses for their devices, 1 function - 1 mac. So, what model of switch you have?

Answer 3

Cisco Switch has many ethernet ports. Where naming conversion is fast-Ethernet 0/0 etc.

Every port has MAC/Physical address. See screenshot:

For more information, you can check out: here