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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...
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.
Identifying by MAC ID can be done sometimes, but more and more devices are allowing MAC ID randomization/masking which causes some of the lookup tools not to work. Do a web search on "OUI lookup". If the MAC ID is not being masked by the device/firmware, you may be able to find out what "brand" the device is. Other than than, it's checking each device individually and hoping the MAC ID is printed on it somewhere and comparing it to the list of devices connected to the router.
As for why devices connect to router or satellite or the other satellite - that's always been a mystery. Many devices will connect to the first router/sat it sees has a good enough signal, and not swap to another one unless it is restarted. You'll find this a lot when the mesh router is rebooted and it takes a bit for the satellites to connect. If the signal from the router is good enough, and the satellite hasn't fully connected, the device will connect to the router and not necessarily the closest satellite. Sometimes just restarting that device once the satellites fully connect get them moved around.
If you see this happening to a lot of your devices (connecting to a further away router/sat), you may find that you have more signal than you really need. Too much wifi signal is sometimes worse than not enough. You'd be surprised how many people try to put a router and 4 or 5 satellites in a 1,200 sqft home thinking more is better. If you find devices bouncing around between router and satellites this may be the case. You can see this by looking at router log and seeing if you have a device that does a lot of disconnecting/reconnecting (lots of DHCP requests). If you see this, you may be able to drop the power level for that SSID (depending on model - they took that out on later models). Or it can be fixed sometimes by just repositioning the satellite by a few feet (if possible).
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.