[Gllug] [OT] How secure is MAC Address restrictions on wi-fi?

[Wiehe, Simon]

> On 25/7/2005, "Wiehe, Simon" <simon.wiehe at csfb.com> wrote:
> 
> >Does anyone know how secure MAC Address restrictions are on a wi-fi network?
> 
> Not at all.  Anyone can spoof the MAC address.
> 
> >Ideally I would not broadcast the network's existence and use WEP but the VPN
> >setup of a work supplied laptop will not work if I do not broadcast the SSID
> >and I cannot get WEP to work with it at the moment, although it is meant to
> >work fine.
> 
> WEP isn't much more secure, either.  Not broadcasting the SSID doesn't
> help either.  You just wait until you see some packets and you'll know
> the SSID.

To be honest, I don't think people are going to be that bothered about 
trying to find the network if it does not jump out at them. This is
for my home network and I doubt there is much 'industrial espionage'
going on where I live. I am more concerned about neighbours finding my
network and using my download limit for their P2P downloads.

My Linux box is running as a server and provides a DCHP server service for clients
is there anything I can do there (other than the obvious firewall) to prevent
someone getting into my network, e.g. by forcing them to log in to the network?

Thanks

Simon

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