Further to a thread that I posted in November, I'm trying to do some access control on this router and I'm hoping that someone familiar with it might be able to answer some basic questions.
1.) I want to block access for all devices attempting to connect to the network (or at least the Internet), except for two specific devices owned by myself. There appear to be two places where I can go to perform access control based on MAC addresses.
Firstly the wireless setup allows me to only allow certain MAC addresses, but that's no use as I don't have physical access to the router so I need this whitelisting to be effective for the ethernet ports as well as the wireless facility.
Secondly, there is a general access control feature which allows me to block certain MAC addresses, but I can't figure out how to block everything except for the two specific whitelisted devices. There is an 'allow/deny' radio button on this screen, but it appears to only relate to the time/date blocking immediately below it as entering a particular MAC address and then selecting 'allow' will not actually block all other devices as I would intend.
2.) I wonder if blocking a range of IP addresses would be an effective alternative to the above? Does the router dynamically assign IP addresses to devices on the network or can I set fixed IP addresses on the individual devices (Mac and iPhone)?
3.) Why won't this router stay disconnected from the ADSL connection when I tell it to? I have switched from 'stay connected' to 'connect on demand' and selected 'save settings'. However, when I click disconnected then it stays disconnected only briefly and then reconnects as if the setting were still on 'stay connected'. I guess I could put an incorrect password into the ADSL setup to force it to stay disconnected, but I can't help feeling that I shouldn't have to do this.
Any advice would be appreciated.