How to Add or Remove Wireless Network from Allowed or Blocked Filter List in Windows 10
If you have a PC with a wireless network adapter, you will see a list of available wireless networks in your area to select to connect to. The wireless networks will only appear if your PC has a wireless network adapter installed, the adapter is turned on, and the wireless access point is in range.
If you have a lot of wireless access points within your area, then you could have a lot of SSIDs (network names) in your available wireless networks list.
The allowed and blocked filter list allow you to add or remove any available wireless network's SSIDs (network names) you want to these lists to control which ones will display or not in Wi-Fi Available networks.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove wireless networks from the allowed or blocked filter list to hide or show in the available networks list for all users in Windows 10.
Contents
- Option One: To Display List of Wireless Networks Currently in Allowed and Blocked Filters
- Option Two: To Add or Remove a Wireless Network from Allowed Filter List
- Option Three: To Add or Remove a Wireless Network from Blocked Filter List
- Option Four: To Add All Not Allowed Wireless Networks to Denyall
- Option Five: To Remove All Not Blocked Wireless Networks from Denyall
- Option Six: To Hide or Show Blocked Wireless Networks in Visible Available Networks List
EXAMPLE: Wi-Fi available networks list
This is an example of available wireless networks around my current area.
This option will display a list of wireless networks that you added to the allowed (Option One and blocked (Option Two) filter lists.
This can be especially handy to see the list of wireless networks you added to the block list since they are no longer displayed in the visible available networks list anymore by default.
1 Open a command prompt.
2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into the command prompt, and press Enter.
(List all allowed and blocked wireless networks)
netsh wlan show filters
(List only all allowed wireless networks)
netsh wlan show filters permission=allow
(List only all blocked wireless networks)
netsh wlan show filters permission=block
3 When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.
If you add an available wireless network SSID to the allowed filter list, then the network will always be displayed and available to connect to if you should do Option Four below. Otherwise there's really no point in adding wireless networks to the allow list.
You will not be able to add a wireless network to the allow list if the wireless network as already been added to the block list using Option Three below. You would have to remove the wireless network from the block list before you will be able to add it to the allow list.
1 Open a command prompt, and do step 2 or step 3 below for what you would like to do.
A) Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. Repeat this step for each Wi-Fi network you want to add. When finished, go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)
netsh wlan add filter permission=allow ssid="WLAN name" networktype=infrastructure
Substitute WLAN name in the command with the actual SSID of the wireless network.
For example:
netsh wlan add filter permission=allow ssid="Brink-Router" networktype=infrastructure
netsh wlan add filter permission=allow ssid="Brink-Router2" networktype=infrastructure
A) Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. Repeat this step for each Wi-Fi network you want to remove. When finished, go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)
netsh wlan delete filter permission=allow ssid="WLAN name" networktype=infrastructure
Substitute WLAN name in the command with the actual SSID of the wireless network.
For example:netsh wlan delete filter permission=allow ssid="Brink-Router2" networktype=infrastructure
4 When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.
If you add an available wireless network SSID to the blocked filter list, then the network will no longer be displayed in the visible available networks list, and can no longer be connected to.
This can be handy if there are wireless networks that you do not want to see in the visible available networks list anymore.
You will not be able to add a wireless network to the block list if the wireless network as already been added to the allow list using Option Two above. You would have to remove the wireless network from the allow list before you will be able to add it to the block list.
1 Open a command prompt, and do step 2 or step 3 below for what you would like to do.
A) Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. Repeat this step for each Wi-Fi network you want to add. When finished, go to step 4 below. (see screenshots below)
netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid="WLAN name" networktype=infrastructure
Substitute WLAN name in the command with the actual SSID of the wireless network.
For example:netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid="ASUS" networktype=infrastructure
A) Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. Repeat this step for each Wi-Fi network you want to remove. When finished, go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)
netsh wlan delete filter permission=block ssid="WLAN name" networktype=infrastructure
Substitute WLAN name in the command with the actual SSID of the wireless network.
For example:netsh wlan delete filter permission=block ssid="ASUS" networktype=infrastructure
4 When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.
This option will set all available wireless networks that are not currently added to the allow (Option Two) and block (Option Three) list as denyall all at once. You can use Option Five below to undo this.
This will effectively be the same as the block list. These networks will then no longer be displayed in the visible available networks list, and can no longer be connected to.
This can be handy if you do not want to see any available wireless networks in the visible available networks list except those that you added to the allow list in Option Two.
You will still be able to add a wireless network to the allow list using Option Two above to have it display in the visible available networks list, and be able to connect to it again. Using Option Six to temporarily see all blocked wireless networks can help make this easier to do.
1 Open a command prompt.
2 Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
netsh wlan add filter permission=denyall networktype=infrastructure
3 When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.
This option is the default setting and will undo Option Four to allow the wireless networks to display in the visible available networks list, and be able to connect to again.
Wireless networks that are currently added to the block list using Option Three above will not be affected, will still be on the block list.
1 Open a command prompt.
2 Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
netsh wlan delete filter permission=denyall networktype=infrastructure
3 When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.
This option will let you set to show or hide all blocked wireless networks (Option Three and Option Four) in the visible available networks list.
1 Open a command prompt, and do step 2 or step 3 below for what you would like to do.
This is the default setting.
A) Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, press Enter, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)
netsh wlan set blockednetworks display=hide
A) Copy and paste the command below into the command prompt, press Enter, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)
netsh wlan set blockednetworks display=show
4 When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Related Tutorials
- How to Connect To a Wireless Network in Windows 10
- How to Delete a Wireless Network Profile in Windows 10
- How to Change Wireless Network Connection Priority Order in Windows 10
- How to Change Network Adapter Connection Priorities in Windows 10
Add or Remove Wireless Network from Filter in Windows 10
-
New #1
Shawn,
What a particularly neatly explained procedure.
[By the way, when I was trying to learn more about netsh in Windows 10 I could not find an up-to-date command reference for the Windows 10 version of netsh other than by collecting all the hundreds of netsh wlan show filters /? etc responses. Have you found one?]
Denis
-
New #2
Hey Denis, :)
This is the newest "Netsh wlan" command reference from May 2009 I could find so far from Microsoft.
Netsh Commands for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) in Windows Server 2008
-
New #3
Brink,
Yes, it's a shame. There are hundreds of command combinations within netsh and so many have changed in Windows 10.
Denis
-
New #4
Batch blocking of unwanted WiFi signals
I have augmented the procedure in this tutorial so that only my own WiFi signals are seen when I'm at home. I find this convenient.
- My method copes with new & changed WiFi signals in my area.
I thought my solution might be of interest to others so here it is.
Instead of blocking them individually, I write a list of unwanted SSIDs in a text file [D:\Networking\UnwantedNetworks.Log] and I add new ones to the list as they appear.
- When I've changed the list I run a batch file that applies the blocking command to each entry in the list.
- I also copy that list to my other computers so they can all work from the same hymn sheet.
Sample extract from D:\Networking\UnwantedNetworks.Log
Code:TALKTALK-D308B0 SKYFD696 BTWiFi-X BTWifi-X BTHub5-G9JT EE-BrightBox-rggbss virginmedia7332865 BTWi-fi AndroidAP BTHub4-HWCN BTWifi-with-FON TALKTALK8C3115 DIRECT-18-HP DeskJet 2600 series
Contents of my batch file BlockUnwantedWiFiNetworks.bat [the path to D:\Networking\UnwantedNetworks.Log must be changed to wherever the list has been written]
Code::: Run elevated :: Repeated use of this batch file will not cause any problems for existing Log entries :: - they will just be reported in the batch file window as already being on the blocked list prompt $g Title Blocking unwanted WiFis Set UnwantedNetworksList=D:\Networking\UnwantedNetworks.Log For /f "tokens=*" %%W in (%UnwantedNetworksList%) do (netsh wlan add filter permission=block ssid="%%W" networktype=infrastructure) :: Only one computer needs this next command, the others hide whatever is on the blocked list without any need for it netsh wlan set blockednetworks display=hide
I hope this helps somebody,
Denis
-
Add or Remove Wireless Network from Filter in Windows 10
How to Add or Remove Wireless Network from Allowed or Blocked Filter List in Windows 10Published by Shawn BrinkCategory: Network & Sharing
17 Jul 2023
Quote
Tutorial Categories
Related Discussions
