Revised: September 22, 2005
By Richard G. Baldwin
File: FwlProj150.htm
This laboratory project was prepared specifically for the benefit of my students who are enrolled in ITNW 1351, Fundamentals of Wireless LANs.
The project was designed under the assumption that students enrolled in the course have successfully completed the prerequisite course, ITNW 1325, Fundamentals of Networking Technologies.
The project design also assumes that the students are actively studying the material in the prescribed textbook for this course, which explains such complex topics as the IEEE 802.11g wireless specification.
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In this project, you will set the MAC address filter on a Linksys AP.
The following equipment is required to complete this laboratory project:
See Chapter 8 in the textbook for background information on setting MAC address filters.
Configure the wireless router or routers if two or more are being used. Be careful to make certain that they have different SSIDs and are operating on channels that are separated by at least five channels. Also make certain that they are protected by a WEP key.
Then complete Project 8-2 at the end of Chapter 8 in your textbook.
Configure the MAC address filters so that some student computers are permitted to connect to the network and other student computers are not permitted to connect.
Note that you must click Save Settings twice in order to cause MAC Address Filtering to take effect. One click is used to save the MAC addresses and the second click is used to save the fact that MAC Address Filtering is enabled. (See http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/desktopsupport/pc_ppp/wireless/NAT/WRT54G/)
Then reverse the process, selecting the option that reads "Prevent PCs listed from accessing the wireless network." Prevent some student computers from being able to access the network while allowing the other student computers to access the network.
Copyright 2005, Richard G. Baldwin. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission from Richard Baldwin is prohibited.
Richard has participated in numerous consulting projects and he frequently provides onsite training at the high-tech companies located in and around Austin, Texas. He is the author of Baldwin's Programming Tutorials, which have gained a worldwide following among experienced and aspiring programmers. He has also published articles in JavaPro magazine.
In addition to his programming expertise, Richard has many years of practical experience in Digital Signal Processing (DSP). His first job after he earned his Bachelor's degree was doing DSP in the Seismic Research Department of Texas Instruments. (TI is still a world leader in DSP.) In the following years, he applied his programming and DSP expertise to other interesting areas including sonar and underwater acoustics.
Richard holds an MSEE degree from Southern Methodist University and has many years of experience in the application of computer technology to real-world problems.
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