Finally, click the Details button to show the Network
Connection Details window shown in Figure 7-14; the six-segment
Physical Address is the MAC address for this adapter.
Build Your Network | 369
Networking and
Internet
To show the MAC addresses for all the network adapters on
your PC at once, open a Command Prompt window and
type ipconfig /all. Or, for a more abbreviated view, type
getmac at the prompt. (Note that only the MAC address of
your wireless adapter matters here.)
You??™ll need to enter the MAC address of each and every PC that connects to
your network wirelessly; leave one off, and it won??™t be able to connect (and
the person using the PC won??™t know why). Don??™t worry about any PCs connected
to your network with cables; they won??™t be affected.
Figure 7-13. Use your router??™s wireless MAC address filtering to keep out unauthorized PCs
370 | Chapter 7: Networking and Internet
Now, MAC address filtering is a useful solution, but it??™s not foolproof. For
one, anyone with access to your router setup page can make changes to
the approved list, so you??™ll want to change your router??™s administrative
password if you haven??™t done so already; you??™re asking for trouble if you
leave the default password in place (e.g., ???admin??? for Linksys routers).
Next, turn off your router??™s Remote Administration option to ensure that
only those connected to your private network have access. Finally, consider
the potential weakness in MAC address filtering explained in the upcoming
???Why MAC Address Filtering Is Not Perfect??? sidebar.
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