This is how you can improve the security of your Wi-Fi network and your devices by activating MAC filtering from your router

The security of our computers is not only based on the use of a good antivirus or antimalware system. Many times we can take the first step by improving the security of the Wi-Fi network at home and for this the router we have offers us a whole world of possibilities.

As a general rule, it doesn't matter if it's the operator's router or the one we bought to manage the Wi-Fi network at home. In all models we can access a function that allows limiting access to our networkIt is about MAC filtering and we are going to explain what it consists of and how to use it.

What is MAC filtering

Surely at some point we have found that some unwanted and unknown equipment was connected to our Wi-Fi network. It's not common and it's not easy, but it's far from impossible and it's not as difficult as we might think.

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It can be simply with the intention of gossiping and accessing the Internet for free or what is more tricky, for more dangerous purposes. And a defense that our router offers as a gateway to the network of equipment that we have at home and therefore to the data they handle, is the MAC filtering option."

The word MAC is the acronym for Media Access Control and serves to identify the devices that connect to our router and is that each one has a kind of license plate based on the network cards they integrate.

Whether it's a _smartphone_, a tablet, a game console, a _Smart TV_… they all have their own MAC address, so it's important to know it to avoid unwanted access. This is normally established in the network settings of each device and constitutes a kind of DNI. It is unique and unrepeatable

The process that we are going to carry out seeks to enable our router to limit access to the network only to those devices that we authorize .

Setting MAC Addresses

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To do this, the first thing to do is access the router&39;s administration website by typing the IP address of the router in our browser Normally it is 192.168 .1.1 and by pressing Enter we will identify ourselves to access with our username and password.Normally they are admin as username and password, although these parameters should be changed as soon as you buy the router."

The process may vary in ways depending on the router used (brand, operator...), but basically the base is the same and It is based on access to either the Wi-Fi configuration menu or the security menu of each model. In this case we have done it with a Jazztel Livebox router.

On this occasion we have used a white list with which we allow the connection of the devices added to said list of MAC addresses and those that are not are blocked if they try to connect to the network.

The only drawback is that if a visitor arrives it will be a pain to have to add the MAC of your computer if you want to connect, please What is most interesting will be to enable the Wi-Fi network for guests, which may have a limited validity.

To speed up the process, which is usually more annoying depending on whether we have to add more or fewer devices, it will be interesting to previously annotate in a text document all the MAC addresses to later add them all more easily with copy paste.

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We must go to the MAC filtering section of our router, a menu that can vary in location depending on the brand of router that let&39;s use. In this case, it is located in the Wi-Fi section, at the end of the window. We must activate the filtering option MAC"

And here's a warning If we do, it's interesting that the first to register once enabled MAC filtering and before clicking on save, be the computer with which we are doing it, otherwise we will lose access to the network and the router and we will have to reset the router to start over new.

We see how there is a box in which we must write each MAC and then click on the add button. Since it is a dual-band router (2G and 5G) we can add the device to both or to just one (the older ones can only connect to the 2G one).

Once added click to save and the router will take a few seconds to assimilate the changes. In fact, if we enable MAC filtering we can check how unregistered computers cannot access the Wi-Fi or cable network (depending on the MAC used).

Once we have finished, we can check how each of the devices can connect to the network without any problem.