@54RV Well since this thread is about teh Deco M9, that isn't really much use......

  @mna I have the x20 and the same issue poor form Tp-link.  :(

  @7dwergen

2024 and still kids able to change MAC address to mitigate parental control.  Come on TP-link. 

  @TP-Link @David-TP 

QUOTE over 2 years ago:

Re:Block unknown devices on Deco M9 - user changes MAC address to fool parental controls

2022-01-25 20:51:00 - last edited 2022-01-25 20:52:30

@mna Welcome to the community.

Lawrence-C is right and Connection Alerts+Blacklist could achieve the same as "block new devices".

The initial concern about not having Whitelist is that users might fail to add the correct MAC address to the list also due to the random MAC address.

Since renaming the SSID or removing/reconnecting to the SSID would change the MAC address to a different one, and once the MAC address was changed, it is hard to get the host smartphone back to the previous MAC address and connect back to Deco, then you might need to keep adding a new MAC address to the Whitelist. So adding Whitelist is not the ideal way to improve this issue.

The community is open to all feature requests and I am quite upset when I heard "TP-Link just don't care about the issue". I am sure we do care and try our best to provide what users wanted from us. But the issue is we need to find a more suitable solution that could fix this issue and do not bring up further chaos.

Compared with Whitelist, "block new devices" or "adding new devices to a profile and you could set up priority for it" sounds a good idea and I will note it down and forwarded it to the senior engineers later.

Thank you very much.

DID THE ENGINEERS GET THE NOTE? How hard can it be to have a toggle to "Block New Devices"? And there would be no "chaos" from that. 

ps. the Connection Alerts+Blacklist are useless in this case. The alert is not always seen until I resume using my phone, and that could be hours. Also, once blocked they just rejoin and get access again!!!

  @Tussockland this appears to finally be resolved in a new release, unfortunately my still on sale M5 was not graced with an update..

I can't believe I've been waiting for this feature for years without resolution, and now that it's fixed they didn't bother you compile an M5 

  @7dwergen 

Hey!

I totally understand the frustration with devices changing their MAC addresses to bypass controls. While Deco doesn’t have an automatic way to block unknown devices, there are a few things you can do:

1. Identify devices: Use the Wi-Fi Assistant in the Deco app to check the manufacturer and name of devices connected to your network.
2. Blacklist devices: If you spot an unfamiliar device, you can manually add it to the blacklist through the app.
3. Turn off "Private Address": For Apple devices and others that use randomized MAC addresses, you can disable the "Private Address" feature, so Deco can detect the actual MAC address.

Deco doesn’t have a whitelist option yet, but it might be added in future updates. You can also send feedback through the app to request this feature.

Hope this helps!

  @GryphonRouter 

Manually checking each MAC address that connects to the network is a hopelessly manual process and should be unnecessary with even the most perfunctorily competent router firmware.

Turning off Private Address works right up until the kid turns it back on again and you're back to square one.

It's clear from the past four years of this thread that TP-Link don't care.

  @Mihu 

I get your frustration. Checking MAC addresses manually is a hassle, and turning off "Private Address" is just a short-term fix. Hopefully, TP-Link will improve things with features like a whitelist in future updates. For now, we’ll have to work with what’s available.

Thanks for sharing!

  @GryphonRouter 

This thread has been open since mid 2019 and there are well over 100 comments bemoaning the lack of TP-Link doing a single thing about the issue.

They're not going to fix it, so there's no point in pretending that any "short-tem fix" is a viable solution because it's not. All the users have are hamfisted manual workarounds such as you've proposed (and BTW the same things have been suggested many times in the last 6 years of this thread's existence.)

The best solution is to ditch the product for a better solution which is exactly what I and many others have done in the intervening years.

I've stopped using TP Link products, and use an alternative brand whose products work as they say they do. Parental controls ae a joke.

I suggest everyone else does the same.