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D-Link Unified Access Point Administrator’s Guide
Controlling Access by MAC Authentication
A Media Access Control (
MAC
) address is a hardware address that uniquely identifies each
node of a network. All IEEE 802 network devices share a common 48-bit MAC address
format, usually displayed as a string of 12 hexadecimal digits separated by colons, for example
00:DC:BA:09:87:65
. Each wireless network interface card (
NIC
) used by a wireless client has
a unique MAC address.
You can use the Administrator UI on the access point or use an external RADIUS server to
control access based on the MAC address of the wireless client. This feature is called MAC
Authentication or MAC Filtering. To control access locally, you configure a global list of
MAC addresses that are allowed or denied access to the network. To use the RADIUS server,
you configure authentication based on the MAC address of the client. When a wireless client
attempts to associate with an AP, the AP looks up the client’s MAC address on the RADIUS
server. If it is found, the global “allow” or “deny” setting is applied. If it is not found, the
opposite is applied.
You choose whether to use local or RADIUS-based MAC Authentication, local MAC
Authentication, or no MAC Authentication on the VAP page. For more information, see
“Configuring Virtual Access Points”
on page 62.
Configuring a MAC Filter List on the AP
The MAC Authentication page allows you to control access to the access point based on
MAC addresses. Based on how you set the filter, you can allow only client stations with a
listed MAC address or deny access to the stations listed.
When you enable MAC Authentication and specify a list of approved MAC addresses, only
clients with a listed MAC address can access the network. If you specify MAC addresses to
deny, all clients can access the network except for the clients on the deny list.
To enable filtering by MAC address, click the MAC Authentication tab.
NOTE: Global MAC Authentication settings apply to all VAPs. For the
DWL-8500AP, the settings apply to all VAPs on both radios.
