topic Re: Ipad Privacy warning in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Ipad Privacy warning

sondek02 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 16:22:38 GMT

My wife's ipad has just started not connecting to our Plusnet wifi and comes up with a privacy warning.

A quick google suggest an ios update wants a wpa3 connection but our Plusnet router only has wpa2.

Any ideas please ?

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

jab1 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 16:28:20 GMT

@sondek02 What is the exact wording of the warning, and when does it occur? Very few routers provide wpa2.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Champnet — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 16:51:00 GMT

In the settings my iPad show a privacy warning. Error message says private Wi-Fi address is turned off.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

jab1 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 17:02:25 GMT

Where exactly, @Champnet - I have no such warnings on mine, that I'm aware of, but I do remember having fun when WPA3 eas first released?

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

sondek02 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 17:07:48 GMT

Thank you, turning on Private wifi address has removed the warning and she is connected again.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

sondek02 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 17:09:23 GMT

It appeared under the Plusnet SSID.

Turning on Private wifi address seems to have solved it.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

jab1 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 17:10:58 GMT

OK.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Champnet — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 17:31:47 GMT

On my iPhone Private Wi-Fi Address is turned on but on my iPad it's turned off. There was a good reason for this setup but I can't remember why....

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

jab1 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 17:40:13 GMT

I must have it 'on' on both the phone and pad. Out of interest, where is it set?

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Champnet — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 17:48:17 GMT

Setings -> WiFi -> click on Router SSID

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

jab1 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 18:01:29 GMT

I just have - and can't see anything along those lines. I'll see if I can get a picture of what I see on the iPad.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Champnet — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 18:09:09 GMT

iPhone ::

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

jab1 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 18:15:52 GMT

Cheers, found it now - both my devices are set that way.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Wildroverandy — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 07:10:33 GMT

It’s actually a pretty superfluous feature on a home network. It’s meant to offer an increased level of security when using mobile/public networks.

There are many discussions about it on the Apple forums, and it seems to be a (possible) cause of some issues with devices used in the home (such as HomePods).

On your own home network, it’s safe to disable this, and indeed, may even be desirable. If you’re not running too many other devices, specifically HomePods, then it probably doesn’t matter if you use it or not.

In any case, you need to disable it at least temporarily before setting up other home based devices, such as HomePods. This is, apparently, the only way to enable/disable it on those devices (it definitely needs to be disabled on HomePods).

Cheers

Andy

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Champnet — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 10:09:09 GMT

I seem to remember a problem with my iPad when connecting to the local network trying to enable a static IP address. Turning it on, the iPad MAC address constantly changed causing all sorts of problems, turning it off everything remained static. On our iPhones the security protection is always on so when on the Lan DHCP applies an IP address from the allocated range.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Wildroverandy — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 15:17:19 GMT

They are different things.

The WiFi address is not the same as the IPv4 address issued in the DHCP pool. The WiFi address is a machine identifier, which is unique to your device, and usually remains the same between different networks. The DHCP allocated address is just a device address for a particular network.

The ‘private’ WiFi address that Apple implements here is an attempt to add another level of security when using unknown or public WiFi services. It’s not necessary in a home environment, but could be of benefit in public services. It’s set individually for each network you have stored, so you can enable or disable for each of them.

The IPv4 address is supplied by a DHCP server in a router, and can change at any time. Usually the pool will be from, say, ‘02’ and ‘254’. ‘01’ is normally reserved for the router itself.

If you try to use a fixed IP, then you need to either turn off the DHCP server, and allocate all IPs manually. Or you can change the pool range, and split between auto and manual allocation.

On some routers, you can also fix the IP in the router, instead of the device. This is how I’ve done it myself. I have the DHCP pool set to the range 100-254. Then I fix my home devices in the 2-99 range. Any temporary devices (I.e. for visitors), get an auto allocated IP. Then I set each device in the router to use a fixed IP.

To be honest, this was all in attempts to fix issues the Apple HomePods have when used as a stereo pair on an AppleTV. It seems to have done the job.

cheers

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Champnet — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 16:11:59 GMT

@Wildroverandy wrote:

They are different things.

The WiFi address is not the same as the IPv4 address issued in the DHCP pool. The WiFi address is a machine identifier, which is unique to your device, and usually remains the same between different networks. The DHCP allocated address is just a device address for a particular network.

*Didn't say it was. On our Apple devices the WiFi address is the MAC Address.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Mav — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 16:21:01 GMT

Moderator's note(s):

Thread moved from Broadband to Tech Help.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Wildroverandy — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 16:27:45 GMT

@Champnet wrote:

@Wildroverandy wrote:

They are different things.

The WiFi address is not the same as the IPv4 address issued in the DHCP pool. The WiFi address is a machine identifier, which is unique to your device, and usually remains the same between different networks. The DHCP allocated address is just a device address for a particular network.

*Didn't say it was. On our Apple devices the WiFi address is the MAC Address.

Indeed so, yes, what Apple have named as the WiFi address is of course just the MAC address.

Re: Ipad Privacy warning

Townman — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 17:47:21 GMT

... and DHCP allocates an IP address (and remembers the allocation) based on a device's MAC address. Therefore a device which keeps changing its MAC address is going to chomp through IP address leases, potentially at an alarming rate, whilst making static IP address allocation (via DHCP) a tad difficult.

This has the hallmarks of a solution in search of a problem. The practicality of tracking a device across different WiFi networks based on its MAC address seems technically far more complex than simply dropping a cookie onto the device, which will do exactly the same!