Mac address access only to wifi router question

[happy_highlander]

Been having a bit of bother with the older kids (well one of them) being very careless with wifi password. My question is if I set the router to mac address access only and don't broadcast the ssid can the router be safely run without a password. The reason I ask is even though the dsi can access the internet on wpa protected router it can't use the online part of the games as this can only be accessed on a wep password or open network. Now I am aware that a wep password is as good as none. The older ones haven't annoyed me enough to stop them accessing the wifi yet but they are also clever enough to click show password on lappy or phone and give it to a mate. Any advice on this would be much appreciated. Having the dsi working online is not a must but if it is safe enough with the option I have suggested it would be a bonus.

[Egren71]

Probably not.
It depends on how smart your kids are but they could just spoof your MAC address.
All they would need to do is give the MAC address of a device that you have allowed to use the router to their friends. And the friend could make their device pretend to have that MAC address.
And usually the MAC addresses of devices are printed on the outside of devices. Even if they are not printed on the outside it is easy to find out what the one on a particular PC or other device is.
Broadcasting your SSID makes practically no difference. The security that provides was broken before WEP passwords were.

If it is do able you need to work out how to get the DSi to use a WPA2 password and play the game.

What i don't understand is the part of your sentence that says "even though the dsi can access the internet on wpa protected router it can't use the online part of the games as this can only be accessed on a wep password or open network." this is because access is access. The WEP or WPA is only used to talk to your router, it is not used to access the game engine on the internet. If your DSi can access the internet using WPA then then problem you have with the online games lies else ware.
If you can access the internet but are having problems with online games it is more likely problems with uPNP or port forwarding.
I don't have a DSi so i won't say you are definitely wrong but i had similar problems with a PS2 and then 3 and my issues were blocked ports / port forwarding.

[happy_highlander]

The problem with dsi is that on the new firmware it can use wpa protection to browse the internet but the nintendo game hub thingy can only access wifi through either wep or open. It seems silly I know and I think you can but a dongle from nintendo that will allow online gaming with wpa protection....coincidence or what

[Egren71]

Yes I just had a quick search on the internet and found out the same thing, games seem to control the security encryption, I probably should have checked first.
So it appears what you said was right, at least as far as if the game was not specifically written for the DSi then it cannot cope with WPA but if it was written specifically for the DSi then it can cope with WPA.
Sorry for the duff info. However the first part of what i said was good, MAC address filtering security isn't very strong. And if your kids are helping to compromise it then it is practically non existent.

[happy_highlander]

Yes I just had a quick search on the internet and found out the same thing, games seem to control the security encryption, I probably should have checked first.
So it appears what you said was right, at least as far as if the game was not specifically written for the DSi then it cannot cope with WPA but if it was written specifically for the DSi then it can cope with WPA.
Sorry for the duff info. However the first part of what i said was good, MAC address filtering security isn't very strong. And if your kids are helping to compromise it then it is practically non existent.

Cheers mate but ninty tell more lies than lawyers pokemon black and white are supposed to be able to use wpa but they can't