Security I have a Linksys wireless G router, and I found out that my son has changed his MAC address to get around my computer yime limits. Is there a way to only allow certain MAC addresses on my network - similar to the controls in the security tab that limits what MAC addresses are permitted to use wireless on my network?

If you're running unsecured, then all someone has to do is capture the traffic with an easily obtained packet sniffing software while a legitimate computer is connecting to the router using it's filtered MAC address. Once they get the MAC address of a legitimate computer, "spoofing" or changing the attack computer's MAC address to broadcast the stolen MAC address is just a matter of changing an entry in the Windows registry on the attack machine.

I would go into the router and shut down the wireless for now and just use the hard wire. Leave the wireless OFF for a couple of days. When you bring it back up use WPA2 security.

1. 
   Follow these steps to configure Linksys WRT160N wireless router.
   
   1.Open Internet Explorer, it does not matter if you see error message such as "The page can not be displayed" . now erase everything on the address bar and type in this IP address: 192.168.1.1 or the full address: http://192.168.1.1This is the default IP address for the router set by Linksys.
   
2. 2 Hit the Enter key on your keyboard to connect to the router's web admin control panel. You will be prompted a login window for the username and password: the default admin username is "admin" and the default admin password is "password". If you can't connect to this admin control panel, you will need to change the IP address on your modem, maybe your modem is using the same IP 192.168.1.1 also, just unplug the router from your modem, and hook up your computer directly to the modem and fire up the web browser and enter the IP 192.168.1.1 and follow the on screen direction to get in.
   
3. 3 It will then ask you to change password, then you make up a password that is meaningful for you to remember. You will need to write down the username and password for future reference because I am sure you will forget. You will need to reset the router if you forget the router password, and that will erase everything saved inside the router setting.
   
4. 4 After successfully login, you will be in the Basic Setup of your Linksys WRT160 wireless router. You also might need to clone the Mac Address if you are using Cable Broadband (Comcast), to do this go to Mac address clone -> Enable, then clone my computers Mac.
   
5. 5 If you are using Verizon, you might need to change the Internet Connection Type to PPPoE and enter your username and password that is created by Verizon.
   
6. 6 I think many of you concern more on the Wireless secrutiy. Click the Wireless tab and enable the wireless security, you will need to choose a type of security encryption, WEP is weaker, you will need to type 10 characters for the pass code. The WPA or WPA2 is much stronger that it takes passphrase. For more security on wireless connection, you can also try to use MAC authentication, each of your laptop or wireless card has unique MAC address, you find out the MAC address on your laptop then enter it into your router so only this laptop can have access to the wireless connection.
   

1. Follow these steps to configure Linksys WRT160N wireless router.
   
   
   Open Internet Explorer, it does not matter if you see error message such as "The page can not be displayed" . now erase everything on the address bar and type in this IP address: 192.168.1.1 or the full address: http://192.168.1.1
   This is the default IP address for the router set by Linksys.
   
2. 2 Hit the Enter key on your keyboard to connect to the router's web admin control panel. You will be prompted a login window for the username and password: the default admin username is "admin" and the default admin password is "password". If you can't connect to this admin control panel, you will need to change the IP address on your modem, maybe your modem is using the same IP 192.168.1.1 also, just unplug the router from your modem, and hook up your computer directly to the modem and fire up the web browser and enter the IP 192.168.1.1 and follow the on screen direction to get in.
   
3. 3 It will then ask you to change password, then you make up a password that is meaningful for you to remember. You will need to write down the username and password for future reference because I am sure you will forget. You will need to reset the router if you forget the router password, and that will erase everything saved inside the router setting.
   
4. 4 After successfully login, you will be in the Basic Setup of your Linksys WRT160 wireless router. You also might need to clone the Mac Address if you are using Cable Broadband (Comcast), to do this go to Mac address clone -> Enable, then clone my computers Mac.
   
5. 5 If you are using Verizon, you might need to change the Internet Connection Type to PPPoE and enter your username and password that is created by Verizon.
   
6. 6 I think many of you concern more on the Wireless secrutiy. Click the Wireless tab and enable the wireless security, you will need to choose a type of security encryption, WEP is weaker, you will need to type 10 characters for the pass code. The WPA or WPA2 is much stronger that it takes passphrase. For more security on wireless connection, you can also try to use MAC authentication, each of your laptop or wireless card has unique MAC address, you find out the MAC address on your laptop then enter it into your router so only this laptop can have access to the wireless connection.
   

You want to secure the wireless network.
Is there any computer connected to the router with the Ethernet cable?
If not then you will need to connect the computer to the router with the cable.
Check the IP address on the computer. Open the router set up page.
Once you open the set up page, you will find the option to make it secured

Click Here for step by step instructions

The Linksys wireless router needs the wireless settings configured and then the wireless card in the computer with these settings so it can communicate with the wireless router.
To set-up and secure the wireless router from unauthorized access, follow these steps: -
1. Connect the wireless router to your computer with a LAN cable.
2. Start your browser and enter the router's configuration URL IP address.
3. Enter the router setup, login and password
4. Change the admin password
5. Go to the wireless settings and change the default SSID and turn off SSID broadcast.
6. Setup encryption key the strongest is WPA2 (if not then WPA).
7. For further security measures - turn on MAC address filtering and enter the MAC address of the wireless cards on the computer/s you want to connect to this wireless router.
8. Record the settings you have made and keep it in a safe place and Save the settings.
9. Configure the wireless cards on the computer/s with the SSID and encryption settings of the router.
10. Remove the LAN cable between the router and the computer then the computers should be able to connect to the router wirelessly.

The wireless settings of the Linksys needs to e configured and the wireless card in the computer needs to be configured with the Linksys wireless router's settings so it can communicate with the Linksys wireless router.
To set-up and secure the wireless router from unauthorized access, follow these steps: -
1. Connect the wireless router to your computer with a LAN cable.
2. Start your browser and enter the router's configuration URL IP address.
3. Enter the router setup, login and password
4. Change the admin password
5. Go to the wireless settings and change the default SSID and turn off SSID broadcast.
6. Setup encryption key the strongest is WPA2 (if not then WPA).
7. For further security measures - turn on MAC address filtering and enter the MAC address of the wireless cards on the computer/s you want to connect to this wireless router.
8. Record the settings you have made and keep it in a safe place and Save the settings.
9. Configure the wireless cards on the computer/s with the SSID and encryption settings of the router.
10. Remove the LAN cable between the router and the computer then the computers should be able to connect to the router wirelessly.

To set-up and secure the wireless router from unauthorized access, follow these steps: -
1. Connect the wireless router to your computer with a LAN cable.
2. Start your browser and enter the router's configuration URL IP address.
3. Enter the router setup, login and password
4. Change the admin password
5. Go to the wireless settings and change the default SSID and turn off SSID broadcast.
6. Setup encryption key the strongest is WPA2 (if not then WPA).
7. For further security measures - turn on MAC address filtering and enter the MAC address of the wireless cards on the computer/s you want to connect to this wireless router.
8. Record the settings you have made and keep it in a safe place and Save the settings.
9. Configure the wireless cards on the computer/s with the SSID and encryption settings of the router.
10. Remove the LAN cable between the router and the computer then the computers should be able to connect to the router wirelessly.

To configure the Linksys wireless router and the wireless card in the computer, sollow these steps :-
1. Connect the wireless router to your computer with a LAN cable.
2. Start your browser and enter the router's configuration URL IP address
192.168.1.1.
3. Enter the router setup, login and password Login = admin PW-admin
4. Change the admin password
5. Go to the wireless settings and change the default SSID and turn off SSID broadcast.
6. Setup encryption key the strongest is WPA2 (if not then WPA).
7. For further security measures - turn on MAC address filtering and enter the MAC address of the wireless cards on the computer/s you want to connect to this wireless router.
8. Record the settings you have made and keep it in a safe place and Save the settings.
9. Configure the wireless cards on the computer/s with the SSID and encryption settings of the router.
10. Remove the LAN cable between the router and the computer then the computers should be able to connect to the router.

There are wireless networking capabilities of the gateway that will prevent or allow specific MAC Addresses from connecting to the network. Go into the wireless settings and adjust the settings to accept the MAC address from your work computer. To find the MAC address from your computers network adapter go into a command prompt by typing cmd in the run box and typing "IPconfig /all" in the window. The MAC address is there it may be called Physical Address. It is always a 16 set of number and letter combinations divided by ":" between every 2 sets of number / letters. On your home desktop this same window will help you diagnose the problem. Your son's computer will help you with this, do this on his as well and compare the IP address with your home computer the address could be something like "192.168.1.?" the last number is going to be unique if the first three numbers match. If the IP address on your home computer doesn't match the first three octets "192.168.1" it will not get out through the gateway. If they don't match you can force it to be on the same network by setting up a static IP address by opening up the Control Panel / Networking icon and finding the icon for the network adapter that you are using and opening it up and clicking on "Properties" and clicking on IPv4 and clicking properties and clicking on Specify IP address and typing the first three octets of your son's computer and adding a fourth number that isn't "0" or "255". You can use any number between those two numbers except those numbers, and isn't the same as your son's IP Address or the Default Gateway which is the Linksys. The "Subnet Mask" will auto install but will be "255.255.255.0". The default gateway and DNS server will be the IP address of the Linksys which most likely will be "192.168.1.1". Click "Ok" on all the open dialog boxes and the computer should be able to get on the internet.