HOME HUB 4000 internet blocking schedules etc ?MAC ID rules /whitelist /blacklist etc

[JAYGEE]

Have HOMEHUB 4000 with WIFI app to attempt some control over WIFI users. Some Apple (and presumably other vendors) are sneaky in that they change MAC addresses (Private?) setting to defeat internet block usage. Is there some automated /other way to enforce device blocking to surpass this? If there was MAC whitelist as example then the users could presumably not change MAC ID and need to stick to their deisignated one with associated rules.

Thank you

[ZaneP · Accepted solution]

Hi @JAYGEE ,

There's really no automated procedure to accomplish what you want to do. The HH4000 cannot build a whitelist table in order to permit logins by MAC-address-only.

Your first line of defence, in terms of controlling who's on your LAN, is obviously the SSID password(s). You control who gets the password and you can change it whenever it suits you.

You can also reserve an IP address for a device that you wish to allow on your LAN and the user has already logged in.

Log into the HH4000 dashboard, click on My Devices, then click on Advanced. You'll see the MAC address (and hostname) of each connected device. Then click on the pencil icon in Settings, and change the IP type for that device to Reserved. Even if the MAC address changes, the hostname will remain the same. 

You could also ensure that "private wifi" addressing is turned off on the Apple OS devices that want to connect to your LAN. More here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227. This may be a time-consuming procedure if there are many iOS devices, but your LAN may have just a few to deal with.

Hope this helps.

Let us know how it's going.

I don't work for Bell, I'm just a customer

[JAYGEE]

Your response is a elaborate way of saying no. However one thing i thought of in evaluating this shortsightedness of bell is to assign all devices static ip addr then reduce dhcp scope to nil. Thoughts?

[ZaneP · Accepted solution]

I didn't think my answer was an elaborate no lol. You can't do a whitelist on the HH4K (likely due to firmware, imo).

Much depends on how many devices are connected to, or will be connecting to your LAN and the work you want to put in. I think doing an IP reservation at the router level is both less time-consuming and error-prone than setting a static IP on the device itself.  

Nothing stops you from reducing the DHCP scope. But do you need to?