ASUS RT-AC87U - Wireless MAC Filtering Questions

[John A]

Good day from a newbie here with a couple of questions to which I couldn't find answers here (or elsewhere to-date) on Wireless MAC filtering on the above router which I bought recently, and then updated to f/w version 3.0.0.4.382_50701.

What I would like to do is to set the filter to Accept specific trusted Wireless MAC addresses but also to Reject others because I have a suspicion that "someone" has been trying to "spy" on our network via either this router or an ethernet-connected Wireless Access Point (TP-Link TL-WA901ND) and so I would like to block certain suspicious Wireless MAC addresses (which I have identified using "Acylic Wi-Fi Home Free").

Therefore:

Question 1:
Under the "Wireless MAC Filter" in "Wireless General" I can set the MAC Filter Mode to either "Accept" or "Reject" a list of Client MAC addresses, and I have already done that to Accept those for most of the wireless devices in the house.

However, if I then try to set the Filter Mode to Reject, that list of those devices remains visible - and must I assume that it will then reject those addresses and accept anything else, as opposed to my being able to add the suspicious addresses in order to reject those?

Question 2:
Nevertheless, since I now think that I probably can't have both Wireless MAC address Accept and Reject lists, would there be any other way of selectively filtering out the suspicious ones whilst accepting the ones that I know to be valid home network devices?

Thanks in advance for any info/guidance.

 

[ColinTaylor]

1. Correct

2. Not really, but there's no need. Just change the WPA2 password on your access points.

I'm not sure what information you think you're seeing with Acylic because that will only show you access points. Clients will not show up. If you want to know what WiFi devices are currently connected to the Asus look at the System Log > Wireless Log page. I assume the TP-Link has a similar page.

 

[John A]

Colin

Thank you very much for the clarifications - I will take a look at the logs and see what I find.

BTW: do any wireless routers support separate "Accept" and "Reject" lists of MAC addresses?

John

 

[ColinTaylor]

BTW: do any wireless routers support separate "Accept" and "Reject" lists of MAC addresses?

Probably, but I don't know what they are (not my field of expertise). The few home routers I've owned have always been one list or the other, not both. You might need to look at products from the likes of Cisco and Aruba for that sort of thing.

MAC filtering tends not to be that popular nowadays because it's not a security feature. It's fairly easy for someone with the right knowledge or tools to spoof wireless MAC addresses and bypass the filters. The real security is with the WPA2 authentication. MAC filtering is still useful as a method of directing clients to use specific access points.

 

[John A]

Good afternoon, and my apologies for not responding yesterday.

However, things have "taken a turn for the worse" with the RT-AC87U - this is an Amazon Marketplace (UK) unit which was received last weekend but has now locked up and failed to "communicate" at all twice in the last few days after running it for about 9-10hrs, and so I think the issue is probably overheating.

I think it's "telling" that this a Marketplace unit and thus it was probably already a customer-return that was then briefly "checked out" and passed as working - but not run for a long enough period to uncover the underlying issue (as above).

On reflection, I'm "cutting my losses" and have bought something older and cheaper (RT-AC66U B1 !!) this time around as I actually don't need the performance that the 87U could probably bring as we currently have no 801ac devices - and I need the extra cash towards a comprehensive "off-site" backup system (actually it'll be in the garage & thus well away from the house!).

Anyway, many thanks again for the info so far as I think that is equally applicable to any of the other ASUS (and other) routers that might be within my budget.