Many home users and organizations have a need for keeping unauthorized users out of their wireless networks. In addition to taking away network bandwidth from legitimate users, intruders can use the network for illegal purposes or eavesdrop on others’ traffic to gain sensitive information. A security measure available in many routers is Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering. When it is active, the wireless router only lets a wireless adapter join the network if the adapter’s MAC address is contained in a list stored in the router. Intruders using devices with unknown MAC addresses are denied service.
