Network Bridging & MAC Address Filtering Help?

K

Kevin Jarrett

[Please do not reply via email to (e-mail address removed), that
address is invalid. To reach me via email replace hotmail with yahoo.
Thanks.]

I have been researching this issue for a while in several NGs and have
not been able to find an answer ... so I am posting here.

Background: Desktop PC (XP Pro) connected via RJ45 to a LAN port on a
DLink DI-624 wireless router. Laptop PC (XP Pro) is connected
wirelessly via a DLink DWL-G650 PCMCIA card. Router and wireless NIC
are a week old. Latest firmware is on the router. Comcast cable
Internet is provided via a Motorola cable modem. Laptop also has a
built-in Ethernet adapter (currently not in use though I don't wish to
disable or remove it). I *DO* have Internet on both systems. I also
*DO* have access to a file share (folder) on the desktop, as well as
the desktop's printer. Speed is great. No problems. I am also running
ZoneAlarm Pro (latest build) and XP's Internet Connection Firewall is
disabled. Again, no problems.

My issue is that I wish to enable MAC Address Filtering. When I do so,
via the DLink configuration utility, the laptop is proptly
disconnected from the LAN (the green bars go white). I understand this
is because the MAC address for the BRIDGE (MAC Bridge Miniport) is
what is being used in the DLink configuration screen. The MAC address
for the wireless card itself is nowhere to be seen, and therefore the
filter shuts the system out.

When I first installed the router, I could not get any connectivity on
the laptop (Internet or LAN) via wireless (the network cable was
obviously disconnected). So I ran the XP Network Setup Wizard on the
laptop. It created the network bridge and everything started working.
I did have some issues with XP managing the wireless connections - the
DLink configuration utility in the system tray would not load - so I
deselected that and now that utility loads fine.

I decided to explore MAC address filtering because it sounded like a
good idea. Research indicated that I had a problem with the "MAC
Bridge Miniport" forcing its MAC address onto the router, which was
causing the filter to lock the laptop out. I learned that the bridge
was connected to the Local Area Connection in my Network Connections
folder. I read that I might try right-clicking this connection and
selecting "Remove from Bridge." Doing so made a difference in my
IPCONFIG results but the G650's MAC address is still not showing up in
the router configuration screen. Here is my output from IPCONFIG /ALL
as of now:

C:\TEMP>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : laptop
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com 10/100 MiniPCI
Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : [deleted, I'd rather not
post]

Ethernet adapter Network Bridge:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : plsntvle21.nj.comcast
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MAC Bridge Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : [deleted, I'd rather not
post]
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.102
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 68.46.144.6
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, April 03, 2004
12:01:40 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, April 10, 2004
12:01:40 PM

So what do I have to do to get MAC address filtering to work?

I need the bridge to get from my wireless laptop to my wired LAN,
right?

How should it be configured?

Sorry for the length of this post, I hope I have provided enough info.

Thanks, kj

KJ99GT wireless
 
K

Kevin Jarrett

Update: decided to try the latest stable drivers (2.46, according to
DLink) for the LAN card, which meant resinstalling everything ... long
story short ... I have Internet, and network/resource share
connectivity, and no more bridge ... LAN card MAC address is shown
properly ... WPA PSK is also now working ... but MAC filtering is not.
I have a ticket with DLink support, will post results when I have
them.

FYI, the tech I spoke with said the 2.48 drivers were supposedly going
to be pulled from the DLink site due to instability and other issues.

Thanks, kj
 

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