Doorbell WiFi MAC Filtering

Temporarily turn off MAC filtering, join it to your network, get the MAC address in your router, then add it to the allowed list and reenable the filter.

As it turns out my MAC Filtering was not on. The modem was replaced with an upgraded model a few days prior and the install must have reset MAC filtering to off. I discovered that the doorbell would not connect to WiFi because my network is set to "hidden". Once I turned off hidden the doorbell connected and the MAC address was visible in the modem preferences and in the camera preferences on the Simplisafe app on my phone. If there is a way to connect to a hidden network I would like to know.

Get the camera connected first, then turn off the SSID broadcast in the router. Whether that will work I don't know, but I suspect you know soon enough if you try it.

If it seems to works straight away then I'd give it a stress test by unplugging the camera for a couple minutes to simulate power out then reconnect it. Point being to check if it will reconnect by itself to the hidden network. I'd try that with the router too, then maybe even both together.

OTOH and FWIW...

Not broadcasting the SSID doesn't really improve your security as anyone with freely available tools can still easily "sniff out" the SSID. All hiding it really does is make it harder for you, as you've just experienced.

It's more or less the same with MAC filtering. A sniffer can get the MAC ID of any wireless device you've allowed to connect to your network, then spoof that MAC ID to bypass the filter anyway.

Moral of the story? It might feel good at a high level but in a practical sense neither are effective security and both just make it harder for you.

1. Use WPA2 encryption
2. Use a strong WiFi password
3. Be sure to change the router's default router user name and or password

I also like not to use SSID that's personally identifiable. Not really a network security thing so to speak, but no good reason to put anything like that out there.