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Old 07-05-2011, 01:33 PM   #931
pilotbob
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller View Post
Can you elaborate?
I know it's not the safest method against "hackers".
But still: I only allow certain MACs to my router. Doesn't this stop the average user from using my WiFi? At least personally I wouldn't know how to circumvent it...
There are two issues...

1. MAC's can easily be cloned. A simple sniffer can watch your packets and I can set my network card to the same MAC address and get on your network.

2. WPA encrypts the traffic between the router and the PC. If you only use SSL then this isn't an issue. But, many web sites don't use or force SSL on login pages. Someone could watch your traffic and see the usernames/passwords you use on [non-ssl login page] web sites.

I don't think most people want to keep others off their WiFi... but they don't want others to have access to their conversations.

Oh, and "average users" aren't the ones that you have to worry about.

Also, MAC filtering is a PITA as you already said. You are better off using WPA with a fairly easy to remember random 6 character password than using MAC filtering.

BOb
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