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Denying Access to Specific Devices
I have a neighbor downstairs who uses my wifi signal for her devices, but I want to deny access specifically to her smart tv since it's causing my data with Xfinity to go overlimit every so often.
If I deny access to her tv, what kind of an error message will she receive on her screen? I just want to make sure that it doesn't say something along the lines that her tv is not authorized to log into the Internet signal. I don't want her to know that I'm intentionally blocking her signal on that particular device (her phone and google assistant device can still use it). Thank you.
If only "smart" devices were smart enough to provide useful clues on connectivity problems. Then she might be able to work it out. As it is they usually just say that they can't connect. But without knowing exactly the device she owns it isn't possible to predict what she will see.
But if she relies on your wifi and her TV suddenly stops working, it wouldn't take a genius to put two and two together.
5 Replies
You can use access control to block certain devices based off their mac addresses.
I'm not sure of what warning they get.
But if she asks you why it doesn't work, you might have to have the conversation with her of the fact that she's using all your data.
How to configure Access Control or MAC Filtering (Smart Wizard routers) | Answer | NETGEAR Support
plemans wrote:You can use access control to block certain devices based off their mac addresses.
I'm not sure of what warning they get.
But if she asks you why it doesn't work, you might have to have the conversation with her of the fact that she's using all your data.
That's the thing, I don't want to have that discussion with her (it's a long story). I just want to play stupid and act like I don't know why her tv won't connect but all of her other devices do. However, in order to do that, I just wanted to make sure that her tv doesn't specifically give her an on-screen warning that her device is being denied access.
FullGrownNut wrote:
If I deny access to her tv, what kind of an error message will she receive on her screen?
That will depend on the TV. My experience is that the TV will just refuse to connect. The error it shows will be down to the TV. It will not say "The bloke upstairs has blocked you."
Be prepared for her to find ways around your block. Again it will depend on the TV, but not all Mac addresses are not fixed in stone.
michaelkenward wrote:
FullGrownNut wrote:The error it shows will be down to the TV. It will not say "The bloke upstairs has blocked you."
Yes, I know it's not going to say exactly that, but she uses my guest network, so I'm the only one in control of her Internet. It could still give her an on-screen notice that her Wifi login on that device has been denied, but like you said, I guess it depends on the way the smart tv is programmed to work in that regard.
If only "smart" devices were smart enough to provide useful clues on connectivity problems. Then she might be able to work it out. As it is they usually just say that they can't connect. But without knowing exactly the device she owns it isn't possible to predict what she will see.
But if she relies on your wifi and her TV suddenly stops working, it wouldn't take a genius to put two and two together.
