MAC Filtering?
I have a DLink wireless G router (Model WBR-2310) that I use to hook up my laptop with the internet wirelessly. The router is also hardwired to my main desktop PC.
We will soon be getting a 2nd PC which we plan to hardwire to the router. But we want this PC to only have access to the LAN (ie, my son can play games vs my other son using the main PC and the new PC) BUT we don't want the new PC to have access to the web.
My router's settings gives me the option to turn MAC filtering ON and either:
1. Allow the computers listed access to the network.
2. Deny the computers listed access to the network.
Question: I'll be using option 2 and will be adding the new PC's MAC address to the router config. But will this still allow them to play LAN games? Or will it disallow access to the internet only but allow them to play games, which is what I want?
I don't seem to have the option that specifically says to disallow net access - or will the MAC filtering do that?
DLink WBR-2310
Thank you
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Using that feature will not allow the new computer to connect to anything on your network. Will not allow it to play games or anything of that nature. Best option for you is to give the machine a static IP address, and block port 80 to that address. Also go into the system and open Internet Explorer and use Content Adviser to block all websites from opening on that machine. You could also install what you want and use a program called Anti-Executable from Faronics, www.faronics.com and stop any programs you don't want from opening. That could be a simpler solution. Whatever you do, don't use MAC address filtering to stop internet access.
You DO NOT want to Deny the computer listed access to the network. If you do that he will not be able to play the game(s) head to head with his brother. It would prevent his system from passing any data to any computer at all.
As a security measure you can Enable the Mac Filtering, and select only allow the following to access the network, then add all the MAC addresses for all of your computers. This prevents your neighbors or passersby from "leeching" (stealing) your bandwidth.
In reading through the manual for your wireless router, I am not seeing a clear cut way of doing what you would like via the router. You may have to install a program like Norton Internet Security on the system(s) your children will use and enable the Child Protection features of Norton Internet Security.
MAC filtering generally only applies to wireless connections, and once an address is blocked it can not connect to anything. One option would be to add either a wireless card or another wired card to the pc. Then configure one of it's cards manually to a different subnet from the internet side, and configure the new machine with this same subnet. Connect them with a cross-over lan cable. This will allow only pc to pc connection.
MAC Filtering is usually used for wireless connections to prevent or allow certain MAC addresses from obtaining connection. If you want to completely block web access, you will have to close port 80 on the computer that you would like to restrict access to the web. Port 80 is the port that is used by HTTP.