How secure is MAC address filtering?

How much protection and security from snoopers will simply having a open network with only MAC address filtering provide me? I have a Nintendo DS on my network which doesn't connect to WPA protected networks so my only other option is WEP128. Is this better than address filtering?
Does hiding my network have any real extra benefit?
Thanks.

Duane wrote:
...and get one of those Nintendo WiFi dongles for the DS.
The Nintendo Wifi dongles are to be used with a PC running Windows XP to create a wireless network for the DS to connect to. It is not used by a DS to connect to a wireless network.
I believe this is understood, since all DSes have WiFi built in. I guess I should have expressed myself more better!
The dongle also is not compatible with a Mac and Nintendo no longer sells them.
This I did not know. Oh well, it was just a suggestion.

Similar Messages

How to disable mac address filtering

Hello I have a macbook pro. I am using a Westell 7500 wireless router and my hp photosmart 110 printer stopped working, saying that "MAC address filtering may be enabled on your wirelss router". Not sure how to dissble this and/or why it all of a sudden was enabled. Printer had worked perfectly for 2 months previously since installation of new wireless router/internet in our home. Any help is appreciated!

You need to use AirPort Utility to change any of the AirPort Extreme's settings.
However, like Bob Timmons said I don't believe the tech really knows what he is after, and is lost in the weeds regarding MAC Address Filtering.
Perhaps you can ask for another technician who understands you are using an AirPort Extreme. Your Roku box should not require so much effort to configure.
Have you read these instructions?
http://support.roku.com/entries/244199-how-do-i-set-up-my-roku-player
I don't have a Roku but it seems very similar to my Blu-Ray player. Account registration and setup is performed on a computer by going to the address www.roku.com/link in Step 6.
It should not be necessary to change anything at all with your AirPort. Just make sure the Roku is within its wireless range.

How to remove MAC-address filtering? Where? Officejet 4632+HP15 notebook + Huawei 4G

I can't connect wirelessly my new Officejet 4632 printer to my HP15-g041sa (win 8.1) notebook.
Printer can not connect to Wi-Fi router (Huawei E3276 4G Sonera modem in use).
How can I get MAC address filtering off from my system (which can cause this problem)?
Where to go to find the place to get off MAC address filtering?
I got some advice: "Remove the MAC address from the router's access list."
But where is this place to remove... In my laptop, somewhere?
Help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello there! Welcome to the forums @Ysi9
To change your Mac address filtering, you would need to access your router settings. If you're unsure about how to do this, I would personally suggest contacting your routers manufacturer for assistance.
I hope that helps you!
Happy Monday
R a i n b o w 7000I work on behalf of HP
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“Thanks” for helping!
Click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution!

SSID broadcast & MAC address filtering

Have just replaced my elderly Belkin 54G router with a Homehub 3. My network still has some kit where WSP security won't work, so I've always disabled SSID broadcast and used MAC address filtering as well as the obvious password access control. Can't see how to do either of these with Homehub 3. Anyone found the solution? RPH

downfall with BT homehub 3, there is no way so disable SSID Broadcasting this should be a feature to be added within the next firmware update
Kind Regards, Bert

Telstra Gateway max - mac address filtering no longer available

My router received firmware update 2 days ago.
I cannot see anywhere in the config where i can apply mac address filtering.
This is a key security feature that i used and was available in the previous firmware.
Why was it removed and how can i get it back

MPCSM After seeing that this update has apparently failed to fix DHCP reservations, which was reported months ago, and has also now removed the Wireless Card Access List functionality (MAC filtering) I'm very glad I chose some time ago to bridge my C6300BD and put a decent router behind it. It is always extremely risky to remove features in either software or firmware that is in use by clients, because there might be some who are using that feature. When it is an important security feature like MAC filtering, there would almost certainly be clients who depend on it. Telstra appears to have completely ignored this.
The only published detail I could find about what this update was intended to do made no mention that it would remove MAC filtering, and for those who were using this function, and now can't, it is probably sufficient grounds to request and be given a refund.

Format of WCS template file for mac-address filtering

I am looking for the format of the template file used for WCS Mac-address filtering.
I need to know how the fields are delimited within the file.

Sample csv file :
#MAC Address,Profile Name,Interface,Description
22:22:22:22:22:22,profile8,management,cisco
00:00:00:00:00:01,myprofile,int1,First filter
00:00:00:00:00:02,,management,Second filter
00:00:00:00:00:03,,,Third filter
Note: "MAC Address" and "Description" are mandatory fields

Set up MAC Address Filtering on WRT54G - now nothing connects

I set up MAC address filtering on the wireless router. Added 5 MAC addresses to the PERMITTED list, by selecting them from the available devices. Saved the changes. Now, none of the machines can connect to the access point. That includes the PC I use to log in and administer the access point. I connected the network cable directly to my PC to manage the router/access point. Still not able to connect. What happened? How do I get back in and turn that nonsense off. I know MAC Filtering is questionable wrt effectiveness, but I decide to try it.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Reset the router back to defaults. Reconfigure it from scratch.

How to see mac address in IPS 4240 ???

Hi all,
How to see mac-address of inline-vlan-pair ? and how to see mac-address of management interface in IPS ?
Regards,
Kiran

Hello Kiran,
The inline-vlan-pair itself is tied to a particular interface. So you're really asking for the MAC address of the interface associated with the inline-vlan-pair.
The MAC address of sensing ports will be added to a "show interfaces" via CSCse84414. You can currently view the MAC address of sensing interfaces by doing an "ifconfig -a" from the service account.
Thank you,
Blayne Dreier
Cisco TAC IDS Team
**Please check out our Podcast**
TAC Security Show: http://www.cisco.com/go/tacsecuritypodcast

Mac Address Filtering

I have 1252 autonomous APs acting as non-root bridges and 1242 autonomous aps connecting to the 1252s. I wish to lock down which 1242 access point can associated to which 1252 access point. I don't want the 1242s to roam.
Any suggestions on how to config this?

Here is the URl for the configuration for the AP Mac address filtering follow the configuration guide which will help you :
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/access_point/1200/vxworks/configuration/guide/bkscgch5.html#wp1028504

Mac Address Filtering Issue with DI-624 router and HP D110 Wireless Printer

Just got the D110 Wireless Printer and cannot connect to the wireless router.
I have a D-Link DI-624 Air Plus Xtreme G 2.4GHz Wireless Router.
The error message that I'm recieving from the printer is that "Mac address filtering may be enabled on your wireless router. This can prevent your HP printer from connecting to your wireless network during setup....etc."
The D-Link is setup using WPA-PSK security. If I turn off all security than the wireless printer is able to connect. With WPA-PSK or even WEP enabled I cannot connect the printer to the wireless router. There is no connection to hardwire the printer and the router.
I've logged on to the router's admin and have confirmed several times that Mac filtering is turned off by going to Advanced > Filters > Mac Filters > and choosing Disabled Mac Filters. Where else is this setting? Why is the printer not able to connect?
Further, I check the logs on the router and it shows "Wireless PC Connected" and "Authentication Success" with a note that has the Mac Hardware Address matching the printer's mac hardware address on the Wireless Network Test Report. It would appear that the router is letting the Print in but that the printer is not able to communicate for some reason. It even shows under status > wireless that the printer is connected.
When i spoke to HP, they said to contact the router company and that they could not help. When I called D-Link they said tech support is no longer available for the model. I'm stuck, can anybody help?
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Windows XP, tried both the front of the printer as well as connecting via USB and using the software.
After a few hours on the phone with both D-Link and HP, the issue has been resolved.
Apparently eventhough Mac Filtering was disabled (set to Disabled MAC Filters), the Mac address had to be entered into the router to allow it while keeping the setting to Disabled Mac Filters. To me it appeared counter intuitive to enter the Mac address while it's set to Disabled Mac Filters so I did not try that before getting on the phone with HP. Further on this, the problem did not go away right after adding the mac address but rather after restarting the router as the mac address addition did not take effect without a reboot of the device.
HP was much more helpful than D-Link on this one though it would be nice for HP to add to their instructions and Wireless Network Test Report to add the Mac address just in case. I would have tried that step if it was stated that it's okay to add the mac address and keep mac filters disabled.

Despite active MAC address filtering turned on, computers still connect!

I am noticing a very strange problem that I was hoping v5.7 would fix but it hasn't. I have MAC address filtering turned on, as I have a number of MAC addresses listed in my access control tab.
Despite this, macs and pc's are able to connect wirelessly to my Base Station without being listed. Has anyone else noticed this major flaw?
I used WPA2 for a bit, but it must have slowed my network down by 40% so I would certainly prefer to use MAC address filtering instead.
Perhaps I am doing something incorrectly?
Thanks in advance,
Scott
Macbook Pro 2.0ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

scotteeboy, Welcome to the discussion area!
I don't know why they were still able to connect but MAC address filtering is not a real security measure since it is easily defeated.
WPA2 shouldn't cut your bandwidth 40%. Did you try WPA? That is also very secure.

Mac address filters on the 2006 wireless controller

How many MAC address filters that can be configured on the cisco 2006 wireless controller database?
Is it 100?

I don't think there is any limitation on the number of MAC filters that can be configured on the Wireless LAN Controller. When you use MAC filtering for client or administrator authorization, you need to enable it at the wireless LAN level first.

Missing MAC addresses filtering in Linksys E2500 config

Hi,
I'm currently setting the MAC address filtering for my Linksys E2500 router.
I have about 20 devices which i'm allowing to access my router, so i keyed in the MAC addresses into the config page and save setting.
But only 16 addresses are registered, the rest refused to register no matter how many times i key in, it just reset back to 00:00:00:00:00:00 after i click on save setting.
Please help.
Thank you.

I am having exactly the same problem with the same device (E2500; Firmware Version 1.0.01).
For the first several days (less than a week after I upgraded from excellent by every measure WRT54GL) E2500 worked fine with twenty one MAC addresses in the list.
Yesterday I tried to add a twenty second MAC address, and the list went down to 16 items (the rest being zeroes) .
Now I am limited to 16 addresses in the list.
It looks like a firmware bug to me.

Time Capsule Set Up - SSID Broadcast and MAC Address filtering

How does one set up TC for MAC address filtering, and also to disable SSID broadcast? Apple store salesman assured me I could do both, but had no idea how. I can't find anything in the set up. I am used to looking at Linksys routers, so maybe it is buried somewhere.

Selecting only "Timed Access" doesn't really fully activate MAC Address filtering. Even you have that enabled any wireless client can join the network (provided they know the password, if you have any and the SSID, if disabled). You also need to do this:
In the AirPort Utility > Manual Setup > Access screen, the MAC address of the TC (defined as "default") is always listed. Select that and press "Edit" and on the next page, under ".... set the default network time limits" select No Access from the drop down list and then that will prevent computers that aren’t on the access control list from accessing the AirPort network. Is this what you wanted?
This is applicable to the new TC (I didn't have a old one, so can't comment) and it's undocumented. It took me hours to figure out. Hope this helps!!!

WRT160N PS3 MAC Address Filtering

Does anybody know how to set up the MAC address filtering for a PS3, or if the PS3 even recognizes it? I find the MAC address for the PS3, enter it into the MAC address allow column and try to connect. Doesn't work. Take the MAC Address filter off and bingo back to working. I am using WPA at the moment, and that is it. Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated! Thanks.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Once you remove the Mac address...it is working fine...that means the Mac address you are using is probably not correct Mac address.Each and every device has its own Mac address...
Follow the steps to get the wireless card Mac address for your PS3
. Power up the PlayStation 3 without any disc in the drive.
2. Once the PlayStation 3 operating system has loaded, select "Settings."
3. Once you are in "Settings" select "Network Settings."
4. When the "Network Settings" list appears, select the first option which is titled "Settings and Connection Status List."
5. The physical address of the wireless card will be listed under "MAC Address." Write this number down...(this is Mac address).
Now login into the setup page of your router and try this Mac address.

How secure is MAC address filtering?

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