A client has new latop & needs to get it working on his home network.

Since I’ve dealt with him before, I know he has a fully wireless computer network.

I check the laptop settings & it all seems ok, but still no connection… it can see the WAP, but it won’t connect to it, won’t get an IP address & won’t ping anything. An “ipconfig /all” shows the wireless adapter as being disconnected. I know the WEP password is correct, as I’ve previously setup another wireless computer in this household.

I start looking at the wireless access point (via its web interface, through another computer) & in wandering through the WAP menus, I come across the MAC filter menu.

It has MAC filtering switched on.

MAC filtering is a very good idea, as another computer won’t be able to sneak onto the network, even if it uses the correct password the only way to get around this level of security is to know the wireless password & to hack a wireless card to use the same MAC address as an existing card (highly difficult, and can cause conflicts the original card). It would be easier to break into the house, access the WAP, & add the MAC of a new card… But then if you got physical access to the WAP, you wouldn’t need to hack the network. 8-

Anyway, the WAP has a list of 4 MAC addresses, so I add the MAC address of the new laptops wireless network adapter, and then everything starts working.

Another job well done.