Wireless Station Access List

[Ronnie2136]

Hi

So, I have a new Sky Hub for my new fibre connection and I have to send back my old equipment - the old hub (aka router).  In the old router, on the initial page, there was an option to setup a Wireless Station Access List which is an enhanced security measure.  The way it worked is that it would show all the devices that were attached to the hub wirelessly and their MAC addresses.  By selecting these and adding to the list, these would be the only devices that could attach to the hub wirelessly and would be identified by their MAC address, not their IP address.  Once the list was enabled, no other wireless device could attach to the hub/router.

I cannot find this function on the new fibre hub and I am hoping that it is just me - I'm missing it somewhere.  If not, if Sky have removed this, then this would be a backward step in terms of security, particularly in todays world where wireless signals extend far beyond the perimeter of the walls of your home and where software exists to allow anyone with a smart phone to gain access.

Can anyone that has any further information on where this is on the new fibre hub get in touch.  Or can a Sky team member confirm what I hope is not the case - that the function has been removed.

Thanks

[Highlinder]

@Ronnie2136  What hub have you now been provided by Sky for your service from the link below.

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/broadband-diagnostic-which-sky-hub 

[Chrisee · Accepted solution]

@Ronnie2136 Sky abandoned the concept of filtering by mac address when they introduced the Sky Q hub in 2016. Although it gave customers a sense of safety it was essentially useless as the ability to spoof mac addresses is well known. 

Wifi secirity is greatly improved with the WPA2 system which all Sky hubs support and the new WPA3 standard that the new Wifi Max hub includes. As long as the wifi password is kept secure your hub should be secure.

[Ronnie2136]

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

I tend to believe that given time anyone can break into anything whether bricks and mortar or digital.  It's the number of obstacles that are in place that makes intruders think about whether it is worthwhile.  The WSAL put a further obstacle in place (on top of knowing the password) for potential intruders and for me, that's beneficial.

It's a shame Sky have decided to bin this - putting all eggs in the password basket - as I know from experience that the little card that comes with the router with the password on it often gets left on the coffee table for all to see - friends, neighbours and anyone else that comes into the home (including the guy that installs the fibre and opens the boxes - the password cards are not in a secure envelope).

Anyway, many thanks for confirming that it is not part of the hub operating system any more.

Regards.

PS - I don't suppose you know how many cards with the password on it come with the hub.  I got one but my old router - which is very old - came with two.

Thanks again.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Ronnie2136 wrote:

I know from experience that the little card that comes with the router with the password on it often gets left on the coffee table for all to see - friends, neighbours and anyone else that comes into the home (including the guy that installs the fibre and opens the boxes - the password cards are not in a secure envelope).

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Certainly, which is why changing the wireless password is a good idea.  Once changed, the original password is only useful after a hardware reset which requires physical access to the router to carry out, and if an intruder has physical access (including to a wired LAN) then all bets are off anyway.

 I believe current Sky Hub models have the default credentials only on the sticker on the device itself.

[jamesn123]

@Ronnie2136 

Worth noting that MAC addresses can be so easily spoofed that if anyone was actually interested in getting into your network it would take them a lot longer to break the WiFi encryption key than to simply spoof a MAC address which can be done in a matter of moments. It really offers basically no extra security.