If you have a wireless network that you secure by restricting the MAC addresses, then you will have to enter the MAC address of your Apple iPhone in order to allow it to connect to that network.
To figure out the MAC address of your iPhone, start at the home menu. Select Settings -> General -> About. Scroll down that screen and you’ll see a setting called “Wi-Fi Address”, that is your iPhone MAC address.
Now enter that exact address as an allowed MAC address on your wireless network. The directions on this will vary because every router’s menu and interface is different so consult your router manual if you need help with this.
Once you have done this, go back to your iPhone and go to the Settings menu again. Select Wi-Fi and it should display your network in the list of available networks to connect to. Click the network name to connect.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Don’t try to ‘secure’ your wifi by restricting allowed MAC addresses. Anyone who even remotely knows what they’re doing will watch the network until a valid MAC connects, then spoof theirs to be the valid one. Use WPA2.
Oo use both MAC addressing and WPA2. Can’t hurt.
Well I lock my network with MAC address only. But then I do not broadcast my SSID, which in a way hide my SSID, so no 1 would see my router on the computer even if they are in the next room. I think it is secure enough thou.
That tip for the router to hide the ssid it’s great. good one and very secure actually!!
Just FYI: Security of wifi networks is compromised by people using sniffers that passively listen to all wifi traffic regardless of whether you have enabled beaconing on your access point. A sniffer is like a scanner that listens to all channels at once, then records all the packets for cracking later when enough “interesting” data has been amassed.
Nice share, thanks a lot!!
Oh dear, no hiding the SSID is NOT very secure at all, particularly if there are any windows machines which connect to the router. For those interested, here is a link to a Microsoft technet article which describes why hiding an SSID is a bad idea.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726942.aspx
Very usefull link and Very Clear.
Any decent wireless sniffer can find “hidden” SSIDs. Just download NetStumbler.
Thank you! It worked!
Thanks that ‘s really very good
Nice work, but is the the best way to secure Wireless network?
Thanks it worked..
Jim – No, typically once the router authenticates you via a mac address it will stop right there and let the machine onto the network.
You could do WPA2 with client side PKI certificates for machine -and- user authentication, but that’s more for enterprise wireless access, not home users.
This was so helpful, thanks a million!
I use a MAC exclusion and WPA2. I like both a belt and suspenders as a way to make sure I am not caught with my pants down….
Is WPA-PSK [TKIP] ok to use as network security? Is WPA2 much better than WPA?
WPA2 with AES is the best wireless security as of this date.
WPA with TKIP is theoretically crackable, although still very difficult by today’s standards.
i have an iphone 3g but my wifi grayed out, am lookinjg for a solution to fix. i have added the mac address on the system using MobileTerminal but still not working, please help me out solving this issue.
Don’t forget, many people use the MAC address for static routing and IP reservation, not just for security restriction.