Setting up a typical home network - Answers
Q1. It is important to set up security properly on a home network because if someone accesses your network and they are doing something illegal, it might be traced back to your house - the police might think it was you doing something wrong and not the other person!
Q2. MAC' stands for Media Access Control.
Q3. The MAC address is the unique code that any piece of hardware that can make a wireless connection has. It is made of 6 pairs of numbers and letters using 0-9 and a-f e.g. 3d : aa : 5c :e2 : 2c : bb
Q4. Access control is where you list all of the MAC addresses you want to allow to access a wireless network. This is a double layer of security; not only does someone need to know the password, their device's MAC code must also be on the list of allowable devices.
Q5. You know what the name of a network is and the password for the network that you want to use because you have asked for it and it has been given to you!
Extension tasks
MAC addresses are an important concept in wireless communications and one which all students should understand. They should know how to hunt down their devices' MAC addresses, as they are often buried in the settings somewhere. It would be a useful practical exercise for them to see the security settings for their router at home, under the close supervision of the responsible, knowledgeable adult, of course!
a) Find out the MAC addresses of all the devices you own which have wireless access. They will all have a MAC address - you just have to find it. If you are struggling, type into Google something like 'Where is the MAC address for Nokia 34GLK phone'.
b) If you have a home network, ask whoever set it up at home if they used Access control. If they are not sure, they probably didn't. Ask them to open the Administrator software and have a look. They could even then add this extra layer of security. They need to collect together all the MAC addresses of devices they want to allow before they begin.