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Forum Discussion
Managing devices
I just bought an orbi 770 plus one satellite. Setup was a breeze and the app installed on both my iPad and iPhone with zero problems so all in all I am quite pleased. There are, however, a couple of things that are confusing and I am hoping to get some clarity of from you guys.
1. We have a couple of iPads, one is showing up in the app as an apple iPad with a nice iPad icon. The other is showing as an iPad generic with a circle icon.
2. Both our iPhones are showing up the same way.
What gives? The wifey’s iPad is an 11” iPad Pro and her phone is an iPhone 14 Pro Max. My iPad is an iPad Pro 13” and my phone is an iPhone 16 pro max. Hers are showing correctly mine are showing as the generic.
the other irritation is I haven’t found a way to identify the devices in the list nor edit their descriptions unlike the Linksys this is replacing. I know which is which after I compared the MAC addresses but I would like to see Georges iPad and Gracie’s iPad so I know just by looking at the list.
your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated. Cheers, RDJ
4 Replies
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Awesome guys thanks very much for your help. Changed the MAC setup and boom! I shall now undertake the well used and RTFM.
Be sure to disable any MAC Address randomizers on phones and pads while at home:
https://community.netgear.com/kb/en-orbi-knowledge-sharing/netgear-mobile-applications-and-androidapplewindows-devices-faq/2457046Orbi routers use software licensed from Fing to attempt to determine what a device is. It seriously impedes the process if the device is set to "randomize the MAC address" (the default setting on newer operating systems for Apple products)
Turning off this feature helps Orbi systems work best. (p.s. every time Apple issues new firmware for devices, it appears that the setting is enabled again. a frustrating experience!)
Both the Orbi web interface and the Orbi 'app' have methods to assign unique labels to individual devices and to specify which "device type" they are.
See page 102 of the User Manual:
https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBE773/RBE771_RBE770_UM.pdf
(there is no User Manual for the 'app'. apparently the expected behavior for smartphone apps is to "click on things" until it does what you want (sigh). Good Luck)
