How to Secure Your Home Wireless Network Without Passwords

Wireless network router

Tired of playing with passwords when it comes to connecting to your home wireless network? Here's an easy, often overlooked way secure your home wireless network through the use of a MAC address filter.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Wireless Router

1. A MAC address, or media access control number is assigned to every network card, device, printer, or USB device. Simply put, it is a unique 16 digit address in the format 00:1d:e5:7h:3f:8h:0g:3a Every item has a unique MAC address, your first step is to decide what items you want on your home wireless network.

2. Go to each computer and get the MAC address of the wireless adapter, on a PC just open a command prompt and type ipconfig /all , it'll list all the network adapters on the system, get the MAC address for the wireless card. For wireless USB adapters the MAC address is usually on a sticker on the device itself.

3. Collect the MAC addresses from other devices you want on your home wireless network. For printers it'll usually be on a sticker, or you might have to print a configuration page. For tivo devices and game consoles it'll be on the network configuration screen.

4. Once you have all the MAC addresses. Log into the control panel for your router using the IP address, this may be 192.168.0.1 for example. Go to advanced network configuration and prepare to enter the addresses. But first a warning. DO NOT apply the filter until you add the MAC address for the computer you are on right now.

5. Add your own computers MAC address, sometimes there will be a 'clone MAC address' button to make it easy. Continue to setup the other devices that you want to be able to connect to your home wireless network.

6. Once you have added all the devices including the computer you are on, enable the wireless MAC address filter.

7. After the filter is enabled you can remove the requirement for a password. Nobody can connect to your home wireless network unless their MAC address is on the allowed list! Now you have an absolutely secure wireless network.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't enable the MAC address filter on the non-wireless ports of your router, this will allow you to always connect if you plug directly into your router with a network cable.

• Leave one device off the allowed list to test if the filter is working, you can always add it later.

• Be absolutely sure you have added your own computer to the allowed list before you enable the filter or you will not be able to connect to your home wireless network.

Resources

• Wireless networking for Dummies
• How To Setup a Secure Wireless Network in Your Home