You are responsible for technical support at a company. One of the employees complains that his
new laptop cannot connect to the company wireless network. You have verified that he is entering a
valid password/passkey. What is the most likely problem?

A.
His operating system is incompatible.

B.
A firewall is blocking him.

C.
His laptop is incompatible.

D.
MAC filtering is blocking him.

Explanation:

The most likely problem is that, since this is a new laptop, the laptop’s MAC address is not listed with
the router, and is therefore blocked by MAC filtering.
What is MAC address filtering?

MAC address filtering is a security method that enables a device to allow only certain MAC addresses
to access a network. It can be configured on a Wireless Access Point (WAP) to allow only certain
system MAC addresses to communicate with the rest of the network.
MAC address filtering can be performed using either of the two policies: exclude all by default, then
allow only listed clients; or include all by default, then exclude listed clients. MAC filtering can also
be used on a wireless network to prevent certain network devices from accessing the wireless
network. MAC addresses are allocated only to hardware devices, not to persons.
Answer option B is incorrect. Firewalls block certain types of traffic, but would not completely block
an attempt to connect.
Answer options A and C are incorrect. Wireless networking is not operating system or hardware
specific. Macintosh, Linux, Windows, all can connect to the same wireless network.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_filtering