title: What is the difference between a physical address and MAC address in networking?
body: <p>Somewhere I have read that both physical address and MAC address are the same,which is exactly the same attached with the NIC of a machine. And also in some other place I have read that a router is forwarding data packets based on the information such as Physical and Logical addresses available from a data packet. I have the knowledge that a MAC address will never go beyond the LAN's gateway. Then how come the other routers collect the information regarding my MAC address from a data packet send by me?</p>
  
  <p>Am I supposed to believe that physical address is different from MAC address when comes into networking?</p>