New Training: Basic Wireless Network Security

In this 2-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Jeremy Cioara teaches you how to secure a basic wireless network. Cover topics such as Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), and MAC filtering. Watch this new networking training.

Watch the full course: CompTIA Network+

This training includes:

• 2 videos

• 13 minutes of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Basic Wireless Network Security: The Wireless Security Evolution

• Basic Wireless Network Security: Wireless Authentication and Authorization Types

What is MAC Filtering?

MAC filtering is a security feature that limits access to a network based on a device's unique MAC address. You can use MAC filtering to allow or deny access based on whitelists or blacklists that you maintain. It is important to understand that these lists control access by devices not by users. To allow or deny access to users, you would have to whitelist or blacklist all the devices that they use.

MAC filtering is far from a perfect form of security, as an attacker could use a packet sniffer to identify the MAC address of a device with access to the network and then spoof this address to circumvent the mechanism. For this reason, the effectiveness of MAC filtering is often dependent on whether or not an attacker knows that it is in use.

Devices can support MAC filtering either on a per-device basis or a per-port basis.