I just moved into a flat where there's no communal WiFi since most of my flatmates don't need it. I've been working from home a lot and borrowed WiFi from a flatmate who does have a personal connection. Initially, he was cool about me using it, and I even offered to chip in for the cost. I managed to get my personal laptop, work laptop, and phone connected. However, he later mentioned that too many devices interfere with his gaming, which I get. Since then, my personal laptop has stopped connecting, and now my work laptop has also lost access, even though my phone still connects fine. I'm wondering if he has blocked my devices on purpose, and is that even possible?
3 Answers
Your devices could have been blocked, or he just changed the password. It’s pretty common to manage connections this way, especially if someone’s gaming and needs a stable connection.
If it were me, I'd just get your own WiFi. It seems a bit unfair to depend on someone else's connection when he’s clearly not okay with sharing it. But yeah, MAC address blocking is definitely a thing and could be what’s happening here.
It sounds like your flatmate might have blocked your devices or changed the WiFi settings. If they have access to the router, they can block devices by their MAC address, which is something you might want to look into. It’s also possible that they simply changed the password, but since your phone still connects, that seems unlikely.
Thanks for the insight! I'll try to see if I can find out if my laptop is blocked. It won't change anything, but it'd ease my curiosity.
The password hasn't changed since my phone connects just fine, so that might mean he blocked my laptops. I appreciate the help!