Setting up such configuration instructions is an easy, though tedious, process: You determine the MAC address of every device you want to allow on your network, and then you fill out a table in the router’s user interface. A tech myth asserts that you can safeguard your network and prevent unwanted devices from joining it by configuring your router to allow only devices that have specific MAC addresses. Networked devices use this address as identification when they send and receive data over the network. A MAC address is an alphanumeric string separated by colons, like this: 00:02:D1:1A:2D:12. (Click to enlarge.)ĭisabling SSID broadcasting will hide your network name from the average Joe, but it’s no roadblock for anyone intent on hacking into your network, be they an experienced blackhat or a neighborhood kid just goofing around.Ī unique Media Access Control ( MAC) address identifies every device on your network. The analyzer captured the SSID from the association packets that the device exchanged with the router. This wireless network analyzer showed the hidden SSID of ‘cottage111’ after I connected a device to the network. A wireless network analyzer like Kismet or CommView for WiFi, can snatch an SSID out of the airwaves in no time. You can prevent your router from including its SSID in its beacon, but you can’t stop it from including that information in its data packets, its association/reassociation requests, and its probe requests/responses. In fact, attempting to hide an SSID in this way might pique the interest of nearby Wi-Fi hackers, by suggesting to them that your network may contain sensitive data.
Mac filtering for hosted network windows windows 7#
But some devices-including PCs running Windows 7 or later-will still see every network that exists, even if it can’t identify each one by name, and unmasking a hidden SSID is a relatively trivial task. Preventing your router from broadcasting this information, and thereby rendering it somewhat invisible to people you don’t want on your network, might sound like a good idea.
An SSID that isn’t broadcast will still show up as
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