NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Dewms26
Jul 09, 2022Aspirant
Phantom device
How can I remove a phantom device from my Orbi Wi-Fi network? It is online but I don’t recognize the device name. ANDROID-A2E3D40A148233E1. Any suggestions?
- Jul 09, 2022
Dewms26 wrote:
How can I remove a phantom device from my Orbi Wi-Fi network? It is online but I don’t recognize the device name. ANDROID-A2E3D40A148233E1. Any suggestions?This is almost certainly an Android device which has the option Randomize MAC turned on. This is defined an an additional option for each WiFi name in the Settings table. (Click on the Gear Icon, then open up the additional settings.) This means the MAC address presented to the Orbi is not the actual hardware MAC address of the device WiFi and thus it will not match anything that you may have entered into the LAN setup table. Orbi has recognized that it has an Android operating system and has created this goofy name which is a mashup of 'ANDROID-" plus the MAC address.
If you change the device network settings, it will appear as it did before. This new 'security' feature of randomizing MAC addresses is supposed to make us feel secure, but (in my opinion) is more of a bother since every time the device updates software, the option gets set back to Randomize. Oh, well.
CrimpOn
Jul 09, 2022Guru - Experienced User
Dewms26 wrote:
How can I remove a phantom device from my Orbi Wi-Fi network? It is online but I don’t recognize the device name. ANDROID-A2E3D40A148233E1. Any suggestions?
This is almost certainly an Android device which has the option Randomize MAC turned on. This is defined an an additional option for each WiFi name in the Settings table. (Click on the Gear Icon, then open up the additional settings.) This means the MAC address presented to the Orbi is not the actual hardware MAC address of the device WiFi and thus it will not match anything that you may have entered into the LAN setup table. Orbi has recognized that it has an Android operating system and has created this goofy name which is a mashup of 'ANDROID-" plus the MAC address.
If you change the device network settings, it will appear as it did before. This new 'security' feature of randomizing MAC addresses is supposed to make us feel secure, but (in my opinion) is more of a bother since every time the device updates software, the option gets set back to Randomize. Oh, well.
CrimpOn
Jul 09, 2022Guru - Experienced User
p.s. I forgot to mention that there is no way to make a device 'go away' from the Attached Devices (or Connected Devices on the Orbi app).
The device has presented the correct WiFi password, which enabled it to connect. If you change the WiFi password, then every device will 'go away', but that is hardly a good solution. (It also means that the Android device will suddenly stop working. along with everything else)