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Microsoft forgets MAC address information in Windows Phone 7

Microsoft may have had some great early reviews so far with their new mobile operating system, but a number of early adopters have found that connecting their device to their Wireless Network isn't the easiest thing to do. This is because Microsoft is not telling users what their MAC address is within the Windows Phone 7 operating system.

A number of users tend to implement MAC address filtering for security on their routers; this means that they can stop anyone accessing their network unless they have the correct MAC address. This is one an additional way of making sure you are as secure as possible at home and in businesses. Some universities such as those in Cambridge require students to provide the computer offices of the MAC addresses of their devices before they will connect them up to the w-fi networks, another problematic issue for users.

The problem here is that Microsoft doesn't seem to allow anyone to find out what their MAC address is, so entering it into your router becomes more difficult. This means the user has to then open up their network and try to find out the phone's MAC address.  This is not exactly the easiest and safest route and certainly not the way it has been in the past for nearly every other Wi-Fi based smartphone on the market today.

Various posts on the Microsoft Answers forum and on the Internet in general have had responses from Microsoft MVP’s who have also stated that this is the only way around the issue at present. No word yet from Microsoft as to whether the MAC address information will be added to the operating system in a future update.

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