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Forum Discussion
Easton10800
Jul 16, 2020Aspirant
MAC Address
I have a mac address that continues to attemp to connect to my network which I have blocked. I believe it may be assoicated (due the similar mac address) with either the router or satellite but I ca...
CrimpOn
Jul 16, 2020Guru - Experienced User
On the Orbi web interface (http://orbilogin.net), the Attached Devices page shows the MAC address of every device connected to the Orbi, including the satellite. If the Orbi satellite is functioning, then that MAC address is probably not the satellite, which is easy to confirm.
One suggestion is to record that MAC address and look it up on one of the OUI databases, such as Wireshark:
https://www.wireshark.org/tools/oui-lookup.html
Once you know which manufacturer the MAC address is assigned to, that may provide a clue to which device this is.
Easton10800
Jul 16, 2020Aspirant
Thanks Crimpon
It is listed under the blocked devices nbot currently connected to the network, I am assuming because I blocked it?
I did go to https://www.wireshark.org/tools/oui-lookup.html and it came back as no matches.
I am a novices (pretty much) with the router
- CrimpOnJul 16, 2020Guru - Experienced User
Since it is not connected, can you post the MAC address?
- Easton10800Jul 16, 2020Aspirant
I sent you a PM
- CrimpOnJul 16, 2020Guru - Experienced User
Thanks. I confirm that this MAC address does not match any known vendor. Very strange.
- All of your known devices are functioning correctly?
- Do you continue to get messages about this MAC address trying to connect?
There is a feature of many modern WiFi devices called "randomize MAC address". Check one of these links:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=randomize+mac+address
There is a possibility that one of your WiFi devices is set to randomize and at least one of the connection attempts was rejected.
While I appreciate how this capability allows a person to avoid esoteric attacks, in my environment it is a total disaster. Being a tiny bit OCD, I have assigned IP addresses to all of the "permanent" devices on my network. My IP scheme is not paricularly creative, but at the tiime it made sense to me. Two of my Linux systems somehow got set to randomize the MAC address, and suddenly they were getting new IP addresses from the DHCP pool rather than the IP address that I had so carefully assigned. Took a lot of muttering and grumbling before I finally tracked down the software that had set that up and deleted it. My Android phone now has that "privacy" feature, which I also disabled.
Wish I could have been more help.