Mac, Windows, Linux - pretty much all desktop operating systems - have a feature called "Internet Sharing", "Internet Connection Sharing" or similar which bridges between network devices.

For example, you might want to share your phone's 3G or 4G / LTE connection to your computer via USB or Bluetooth and then make it available to other devices in your car - such as the kids' tablets - over WiFi.

Also, you might want to share a WiFi connection on your MacBook with a Rasberry Pi connected via Ethernet.

In the case of the latter, it's really useful to know the IP address of the device so that you can log into it, for example.

arp -a

Note: You will probably see a virtual device such as bridge100.

You could look at devices just on a particular interface with commands like these:

arp -a -i bridge100

It's also important to note that most devices will register themselves with a .local address such as raspberrypi.local or ajs-iphone.local.


By AJ ONeal

If you loved this and want more like it, sign up!


Did I make your day?
Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee  

(you can learn about the bigger picture I'm working towards on my patreon page )