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Anonymous User
Not applicable

MAC adress filtering

Is there any way I could ban certain MAC addreses from connecting to my WiFi?

19 REPLIES 19
Rnie
Mentor

Not sure why you need to cut and the paste contact stuff, don't see how that can help in this situation.

I think what your missing is the very useful parental control you can implement and I explained in my previous post.  I used to use them to limit my child's access to the internet during school days.  Monday to Friday I would set cut off times using the MAC filtering and Scheduling features that are common on most routers.  Once I used it as punishment to deny internet access for the weekend without having to turn it off for everyone, or change all passwords on all devices in my house, and damn that was effective.  That was until they were older and worked out factory resetting a device can bypass ALL levels of router security, I rewarded them for doing that as they learnt how to investigate and work around a problem.

The howtogeek link you provided is only about using it for general security, and yes it is useless for that.  

Joe6
Advocate

It doesn't matter. MAC filtering is a basic functionality that always have been there and still is in new routers. Why not in these? Nobody is saying it is silver bullet but a tool to content the situation until a new reliable router is bought, that was the intention.

In my case, my NOW router was hacked twice and the second time within less than 24 hours. So, changing the password, doesn't help. These routers are vulnerable, that is a proved fact.

I leave in a countryside area, there are only a couple houses within my WIFI range. Who's my neighbour then, Kevin Mitnick, Amonymus, Aaron Swartz?
For sure they hooked a repeater to my WIFI.

RoyB
Legend

@Rnie 

The Rolls Royce service I was talking about was from Now, not from us volunteers.

You buy cheap broadband, you are going to get a cheap, i.e. limited, router.

Used to be that Now were pretty restrictive, and would insist on their router or nothing, but they have relaxed a bit recently. And router manufacturers have started offering the idiosyncratic MER 61 that Sky and Now use. So you can, if you wish, replace the standard supplied Now router with a more capable third party one, and quite likely get the features you find missing on the Now router.

Now still haven’t got round to offering the configuration details you need - like a slightly bewildered BT did after a couple of Hubs failed on me, and I insisted on using a Netgear Nighthawk - but you can find them with a search of this Community, and get more what you need.

Now are pretty big on age restrictions - or restriction, as it’s one size fits all, tough if you have children of different ages - but not on time-of-day restrictions on usage.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Rnie
Mentor

Cheap?  They are all priced within 2 or 3 percent of each other and they switch around, hardly cheap and deserving of such low quality equipment and service, but as they are getting away with it we will see more companies follow this trend.

Third party routers are not really an option are they, the cost and hassle together with the skill level required is higher than nearly every one I know and not worth the minor price differrnce.  

But anyway as I said the answer of "you don't need it" is a dumb*ss response instead of "No sorry it can't do that" maybe with a "here are a few ideas", you know, how support people used to respond.  And the bit about "change all your passwords on all of your device is easier", you gotta admit that is total bullsh*t, but as you repeated it I doubt.

 

RoyB
Legend

@Rnie 

I repeated it? Where?

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
RoyB
Legend

Thought not…..

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
chilli2
Elite

On the Subject of  cheap:

 Now broadband: £20/month ( avg 67mbps)

 

Zen £34.99/month

Andrews arnold £45/month

 

The skill level required for setting up a third party router isnt exactly that high - certainly not much more than setting up a facebook account/whatts app etc

RoyB
Legend

@Joe6 

My money is on next door being a GCHQ safe house.

But re the above, I would welcome your explanation of how security.org got it so wildly wrong here:-

https://community.nowtv.com/t5/Setup-Performance/WiFi-P-w/m-p/610292/highlight/true#M19229

Or failing that, some rundown  on how breaching your security might be accomplished by some other method that didn’t involve cracking your password.

It would also be illuminating to know why somebody would go to all that trouble. Just so they could piggyback on your WiFi? Or to do nefarious things they didn’t want to do on their own broadband? Though when the Special Branch come knocking, you’ll be able to say “Well it wasn’t me guv, so it must have been neighbour A or neighbour B”. Which should hole the perp’s OpSec below the waterline…

If they keep getting in, though, try Fing. Basic is free, though you might need Premium, or even their hardware device; but they claim they can keep the bad hats at bay.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Joe6
Advocate

Hi @RoyB 

You said

"Or failing that, some rundown  on how breaching your security might be accomplished by some other method that didn’t involve cracking your password."

After doing more research/forensics, YOU ARE RIGHT, it was not by cracking the router password, it was by hacking a IoT, smart bulbs and plugs. I won't mention the brand here, I get passionate too easy.

I WAS WRONG, I APOLOGISE, especially my post and mention to @RoyB 

WPA is crackable anyway but does not NOW's fault, 

I was upset that day and I got carried away when I wrote the previouos posts. That's not excuse. 

I want to delete them. Can you advise on how to do that @RoyB ?

Still MAC filtering missing in the NOW routers and still I think that shouldn't be the case. But that's a different matter than to say  NOW HUB2 is vulnerable and easyly crackable.

I WAS WRONG ON THAT STATEMENT, I CANNOT SAY FOR SURE, AS I DID, NOW ROUTERS ARE CRACKABLE.

Apologises to the community too.

Best Regards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

RoyB
Legend

@Joe6 

Bless you for that, it made me fill up 🥲

Don't worry about the earlier posts, time will bury them, and if it doesn’t, this will serve as a useful dialogue for anyone else with this sort of issue.

Wow, I knew that some IoT devices had security that was a bit lax, but I’ve not come across an actual example till now. I hope you weren’t hacked via Philips Hue, or Hive, as our house is permeated by those. And I’ve got a box of Teckin smart plugs somewhere, one in use on some lighting, but not connected, so I just use it as a manually switchable plug.

So, your IoT devices, can you harden them now you know where the breach was, or are they fundamentally unsafe?

But either way, do have a look at Fing, because I think it would have some value even for this very different penetration. And I think it can add MAC filtering to your armoury, even if the router can’t do it. I’ve no idea quite how, but Fing seem confident of this,

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.