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Forum Discussion
Dbsoccer
May 24, 2025Aspirant
What is a IoT device and how do I determine if I have any
I have the same question as Psychopasta had nearly three years ago so I'll just tag on the end this discussion. When I just recently re-created my networks following a 'train wreck' of sorts I n...
- May 26, 2025
Thanks TC_in_Montana. You've provided a lot of things to look at and learn about. I think I may now know what this mystery MAC is and will be able to confirm later this week. At the end of the day it really doesn't matter but I like to have things tidy. I may have too much coverage so I'll look at your suggestions. We have a two story house with a basement. I have the router on the top floor in the office. One Sat is on the main floor and one is in the basement. There is a Peloton in the basement on WIFI and it is a likely place for people to be on their cell phones while watching TV. The TV is hardwired as are the Satellites.
This all started with resetting my router to FS. During the reconfiguration I selected the radio button to "Use The Default" for the Router MAC address. As I'm learning more it seems like my Router has a fixed MAC address so why not use that instead of a Default or, the other option, The Computer MAC address? It may not matter as it seems to work fine. But instead of using DNS addresses from the ISP I'm using something another contributor suggested that being a fixed address.
Again, everything is working as I hoped but there may be improvements I can make and I find this interesting.
Dbsoccer
May 25, 2025Aspirant
Thank you both. Is there a way to assign a device to IoT? We have a Fire Stick that apparently wanted to connect to the IoT and was waiting for a password when my wife first tried to use it. It worked before this reset. I have a WiFi photo frame that must use 2.4 so I'd like to assign it to the IoT. Also we have some Apple Home Pods that should maybe be on 2.4 as well.
Park City or Columbus, perhaps? I once dated a girl who lived in Absarokee.
TC_in_Montana
May 25, 2025Virtuoso
You don't really "assign" a device to the IoT network - you have the device use the SSID assigned to the IoT band. When you activate the IoT band, it will provide a different SSID with the characteristics assigned to that SSID. You can have it use only 2.4GHz, 5GHz, or both. It can have a different password than your regular SSID - if you set it up that way. To "assign" it to the IoT network, you would need to activate the IoT SSID, then go through the setup for the IoT device and select the IoT SSID.
If your IoT device says it "MUST" have it's own 2.4GHz band, don't believe it - that was the problem with many older IoT devices. However, if the device only supports 2.4GHz, and you have your IoT network set up for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, the IoT device will only see the 2.4 band, because that's the only thing it uses.
Please remember that the IoT device will be in the same domain as the rest of your devices - (ie, will still get a 192.168.1.xxx IP address), even though it is on it's own SSID. The IoT devices will NOT be segregated from your main network devices. The only way to segregate would be to assign them to the Guest Network which then adds a whole different madness to maintaining/monitoring them
I am just outside of Park City (between Park City and Laurel).