The Computer Oracle

Is securing Wifi with MAC Filter enough?

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Chapters
00:00 Is Securing Wifi With Mac Filter Enough?
00:57 Accepted Answer Score 20
01:30 Answer 2 Score 13
02:21 Thank you

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Full question
https://superuser.com/questions/347003/i...

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Content licensed under CC BY-SA
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Tags
#wirelessnetworking #security #router

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 20


Absolutely not.

MAC Addresses are painfully easy to sniff out and spoof. MAC address filtering is useful - in my experience - only when you're only concern is "ordinary" computer users who won't go any farther than failing to connect to the network. Handy for kicking off a roommate who has abused your generosity at keeping a network open by hogging bandwidth or the like, without incurring much inconvenience to yourself.

But for anyone even remotely determined to poke about your network? It's not enough.




ANSWER 2

Score 13


It is much more important to have a strong encryption method (e.g. WPA2 AES) and key (i.e. password) if you want a secure wireless network.

Without them, others nearby can easily see what you're doing online, fake your identity (online or even real) and attack your computers. MAC filtering does nothing here because the most basic skill of a WiFi hijacker is to sniff and fake MAC addresses.

The MAC filter is only useful if you want to control users from the wired network or if you're forced to use a weak encryption (e.g. WEP). Still it's only useful again honest users/computers and is generally an overkill for home use.

If you want real security/access control, you should disable plain routing/NAT and use PPPoE, 802.1x or VPN to connect your computers to your router.