Mac Authentication; Configuring Mac Authentication; Figure 69 Configuring External Captive Portal Authentication When Editing A Guest Network - Dell PowerConnect W-IAP175P User Manual

2. Enter the URL for the splash page in the URL text box.
3. Enter the number of the port to be used for communicating with the external server in the Port text box.
4. In the Authentication text box, enter the unique signature that the external server will return in the
response after a successful authentication.
Figure 69
4. Click Next and click Finish.

MAC Authentication

Media Access Control (MAC) authentication is used to authenticate devices based on their physical MAC
addresses. It is an early form of filtering. MAC authentication requires that the MAC address of a machine must
match a manually defined list of addresses. This form of authentication does not scale past a handful of devices,
because it is difficult to maintain the list of MAC addresses. Additionally, it is easy to change the MAC address of
a station to match one on the accepted list. This spoofing is trivial to perform with built-in driver tools, and it
should not be relied upon to provide security.
MAC authentication can be used alone, but typically it is combined with other forms of authentication, such as
WEP authentication. Because MAC addresses are easily observed during transmission and easily changed on the
client, this form of authentication should be considered nothing more than a minor hurdle that will not deter the
determined intruder. Dell recommends against the use of MAC based authentication.

Configuring MAC Authentication

To enable MAC Authentication for a wireless network, perform the following steps:
1. In the Network tab, click the network for which you want to enable MAC authentication. The edit link for the
network appears.
2. Click the edit link. The Edit box for the network appears.
3. Click Next and perform the following tasks in the Security tab:
1. For a network with Personal or Open security level, select External Radius Server from the MAC
Authentication drop-down list.
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Configuring External Captive Portal Authentication when editing a Guest Network
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