Another strange Apple broadcast “feature”: If you try to block ARP MAC address broadcast (not IPv4 .255 type) on the router, your iPhone and MacBook will not connect to the WiFi.
Try yourself:
ebtables -A INPUT -d ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff -j DROP
ebtables -A FORWARD -d ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff -j DROP
(Tried on standard ASUS router by adding ebtables rules using SSH)
To clean: ebtables —-flush
Or restart the router, because this also flush ebtables
That's the ethernet broadcast address, not multicast. In addition, if you block ARP, you will probably find that not very much of IPv4 anything will work on any platform.
I think macs can add static arp entries if you did want to disable arp for some reason.
If I remember rightly, apple devices when connecting to wifi
1) Get IP, router, DNS details (either static or via dhcp)
2) Attempt to load a http page to detect any portals
3a) If page loads, is connected.
3b) If page doesn't load but redirects, pops up the portal page (in a cut down browser), then eventually connects
3c) If it doesn't load at all it asks if you want to use the wifi even with no internet access
I suspect if it cant configure an IP at all (because you're blocking arp and dhcp), it doesn't fully bring the interface up. Are you saying that with a static IP entered in wifi you can't connect to a wireless network?
Try yourself:
ebtables -A INPUT -d ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff -j DROP
ebtables -A FORWARD -d ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff -j DROP
(Tried on standard ASUS router by adding ebtables rules using SSH)
To clean: ebtables —-flush Or restart the router, because this also flush ebtables
(Edit: Corrected multicast to broadcast)