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Forum Discussion
virtual MAC addresses?
I saw another thread here that says that the EX6200 extender assigns so-called "virtual MAC addresses" to its clients. This might be why my laptop and iPad can't connect to wifi - I have MAC filtering...
> just disable the MAC filtering on the router - it doesn't significantly enhance your security
I didn't know that was true.
> Let's look though at this "virtual MAC address" concept - which quite frankly I would see to believe.
check out
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24806/~/how-can-i-retrieve-the-virtual-mac-address-from-the-wifi-range-extender-to
"NETGEAR WiFi Range extender, wirelessly connected to the router, the MAC addresses of all the connected wired and wireless clients will be replaced by a virtual address."
> IF your extender is functioning as a repeater (the extender itself connects to the router via wireless), it will/should substitute it's MAC address for the client's MAC address as/where necessary - as a repeater, the client has to send data to the extender, and the extender then repeats or retransmits that to the router, and the router must then reply to the extender which must then retransmit to the client - the data get's to it's destination based on the MAC address, so, since the client never connects directly to the router, what the router will/should see for all the repeater clients is the extender's MAC address - so adding that one MAC address should suffice.
that's what I figured, but I did add the extender's (3) MAC addresses to the control list and that hasn't helped. What I do see is that the "Show connected devices" pane on this extender shows my laptop and next to it lists a "virtual MAC address" - must be used for something, right?
I didn't know that was true.
> Let's look though at this "virtual MAC address" concept - which quite frankly I would see to believe.
check out
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24806/~/how-can-i-retrieve-the-virtual-mac-address-from-the-wifi-range-extender-to
"NETGEAR WiFi Range extender, wirelessly connected to the router, the MAC addresses of all the connected wired and wireless clients will be replaced by a virtual address."
> IF your extender is functioning as a repeater (the extender itself connects to the router via wireless), it will/should substitute it's MAC address for the client's MAC address as/where necessary - as a repeater, the client has to send data to the extender, and the extender then repeats or retransmits that to the router, and the router must then reply to the extender which must then retransmit to the client - the data get's to it's destination based on the MAC address, so, since the client never connects directly to the router, what the router will/should see for all the repeater clients is the extender's MAC address - so adding that one MAC address should suffice.
that's what I figured, but I did add the extender's (3) MAC addresses to the control list and that hasn't helped. What I do see is that the "Show connected devices" pane on this extender shows my laptop and next to it lists a "virtual MAC address" - must be used for something, right?