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Forum Discussion

Gianluca71's avatar
Gianluca71
Aspirant
Nov 01, 2015

Different MAC number among router and repeater

Hi all, I have a N300 wifi extender and I don't understand why the number of mac showed by extender is different from those showed by router. For instance 1 smarthphone connencted to the extender, ...
Troubleshooting
nhann's avatar
nhann
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Nov 02, 2015

Hi Gianluca71,

 

The WiFi extender assigns a unique virtual MAC to each device connected to it. This extender virtual MAC is different from the MAC that shows on your router. So your smartphone can have both a virtual MAC (if it is connected to an extender) and a MAC address (normally connected to a router).

 

The four devices that are connected to your router do not necessarily show up in your Extender's network map, because those devices aren't directly connected to the Extender.