Using MAC Address Filtering To Secure Your Wireless Network

MAC adDress Filtering is a very simple yet effective way to secure your wireless network. With MAC Filtering you can specify precisely which Computers can connect to your wireless network and which cannot. This way even if someone knows your hidden SSID and security key they will not be able to connect to your wireless network if you don't want them to. This is a great form of additional security.

A MAC adDress is a unique hexadecimal number which has been burned into a networking devices circuit board at the manufacturer. In most cases a network devices MAC is invisible without the use of a command called "ipconfig". By going to your command prompt and typing in "ipconfig /all" (Without the quotes) you'll find your Computers "physical adDress". The physical adDress is your MAC address and usually looks something like this: 00-0F-1F-D5-6A-37. Theoretically no two Mac addresses in the world are alike.

Computers and other wireless devices can only connect to a network if it is assigned an IP address that belongs on that network. Generally speaking if your routers IP address is 192.168.0.1 a network device must have an IP address somewhere between 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.254. A network device with an IP address of 192.168.2.10 would not be able to connect directly to that network. IP addresses are typically assigned to computers and network devices dynamically by a service called DHCP. DHCP uses a network devices MAC address to identify it and keep track of which IP address it gets.

No MAC - No IP address.

No IP address - No network connection.

Using MAC Filtering we can influence this behavior to our advanTAGe. We can create what is called a MAC Filtering table on our wireless router and specify only the MAC addresses that we want on our network. This is done by using the "ipconfig /all" command Mentioned earlier to find the MAC of each of our preferred network devices and adding them to the MAC filtering table on our router. Adding addresses is done by accessing the routers web interface. Many routers have utilities which make this process a breeze.

Once everything is set up the router will check a computers MAC before allowing it to connect to your network. If there is a match in the routers table it will be allowed to connect or "associate" to the network. If not a connection is not allowed. Period.

MAC address filtering is not a foolproof way to secure your wireless network and should not be considered a substitute for wireless encryption. It's an additional layer of security for your wireless network and added peace of mind for you and your family.

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