Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and devices for transmitting or receiving beacon frames and probe response frames that include MAC addresses of a multi-link device (MLD) operating on multiple links in a wireless network. For example, the beacon frames and probe response frames can include an MLD MAC address that uniquely identifies an AP MLD in a wireless network, and can optionally include one or more WM MAC addresses of STAs of the AP MLD. The MAC addresses can be used to by wireless devices (e.g., STA MLDs) to connect to and associate with the AP MLD, and can be used to generate a password element used during authentication between wireless devices.