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Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

TheRealOC
Aspirant

Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

Apologies for the repeat of an earlier post, but I'm still having the same problems with my XR500. 

 

I hadn't checked in on routerlogin.net dashboard for a few months, and when I checked the Device Manager, there were a lot of 'unnamed devices' that I didn't recognise.

 

I went around the house and made a list of wifi-enabled devices we have, and checked them off against the devices that were showing up on the routerlogin.net dashboard (I didn't check using the IP/MAC address but most of the devices in my house have names that were imported from their individual device settings - for example, my iphone was called MYIPHONE7). So I was able to confirm that none of these 'unnamed devices' on the dashboard corresponded to actual devices in the house. 

 

So I figured that they were probably guest devices that had logged onto the wifi network over the last number of months, so I deleted most of them. However, I ran into two problems:

 

1) There were 2-3 of these 'unnamed devices' actively logged onto one of the wifi networks so I got an 'Unable to delete device beccause it is online' error message when I tried to delete them (even though again - none of these corresponds to actual physical devices in the house)

 

2) When I checked back in a few hours later, there were several new 'unnamed devices' in the offline section of Device Manager. I switched the XR500 off and on again, but this did nothing. 

 

There are currently 10 unnamed devices, of which 7 have the same first six digits in their MAC addresses - the other three share a different first half. None of the unnamed devices share the first half of a MAC address with any of the actual physcal devices that I know should be there. 

 

Can anyone please advise on how to fix this problem?

 

Many thanks

Model: XR500|Nighthawk Pro Gaming Router
Message 1 of 9

Accepted Solutions
schumaku
Guru

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

There are no secrets on a MAC address...

 

The ones with an OUI starting with 02:xx:xx (like any x2:.., x6:... xA:..., or xE:... are local managed MAC, not assigned to a vendor, freely usable, just unique on a LAN, used by VMs, wireless access points offering multiple SSIDs/VLANs. Look there  -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address#Universal_vs._local

 

For the other random ones, say thank you generation tin hat, say thank you Apple (-> Use private Wi-Fi addresses in iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7 [with complete ridiculous enforced defaults!]), say thank you Android (-> Privacy: MAC Randomization [with smart defaults of course]).

 

Needless to say - there is no reason to randomize MAC addresses on a home, private, or business network. A correct hardware MAC key for access control, base line security, .... So disable this **** on the network connection settings (by each SSID).

 

So we can blame Netgear for many things - regardlss on how many times you factory reset your router. Can't see a Netgear problem here...

 

PS. For those hyping Apple for a "great" privacy innovation - Android has this feature  since Android 8.0 Oreo (API 26, August 2017) - and it never caused (m)any issues. 

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Message 4 of 9

All Replies
schumaku
Guru

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up


@TheRealOC wrote:

There are currently 10 unnamed devices, of which 7 have the same first six digits in their MAC addresses ...


And the first part of thes MAC addresses are ... ?

 


@TheRealOC wrote:

None of the unnamed devices share the first half of a MAC address with any of the actual physcal devices that I know should be there.


Any iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7 systems on your network - your own, or guests?

 

 

Message 2 of 9
TheRealOC
Aspirant

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

Thanks @schumaku 

 

PMing you the MAC addresses now; there are two iPhones running IOS 14 on the network. 

Message 3 of 9
schumaku
Guru

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

There are no secrets on a MAC address...

 

The ones with an OUI starting with 02:xx:xx (like any x2:.., x6:... xA:..., or xE:... are local managed MAC, not assigned to a vendor, freely usable, just unique on a LAN, used by VMs, wireless access points offering multiple SSIDs/VLANs. Look there  -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address#Universal_vs._local

 

For the other random ones, say thank you generation tin hat, say thank you Apple (-> Use private Wi-Fi addresses in iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7 [with complete ridiculous enforced defaults!]), say thank you Android (-> Privacy: MAC Randomization [with smart defaults of course]).

 

Needless to say - there is no reason to randomize MAC addresses on a home, private, or business network. A correct hardware MAC key for access control, base line security, .... So disable this **** on the network connection settings (by each SSID).

 

So we can blame Netgear for many things - regardlss on how many times you factory reset your router. Can't see a Netgear problem here...

 

PS. For those hyping Apple for a "great" privacy innovation - Android has this feature  since Android 8.0 Oreo (API 26, August 2017) - and it never caused (m)any issues. 

Message 4 of 9
TheRealOC
Aspirant

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

Apologies for the stupid question, but do I disable this **** on network connecting settings in the router's dashboard, or in each individual device?

Message 5 of 9
schumaku
Guru

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

Hey, no problem! Perfectly understand the confusion caused by this "feature" - and even more the real issues araising where MAC based ACLs are in the game...

Message 6 of 9
schumaku
Guru

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up


@TheRealOC wrote:

... do I disable this **** on network connecting settings in the router's dashboard, or in each individual device?


On each device, and for each SSID/Network connection configured for your home or business networks. 

Message 7 of 9
TheRealOC
Aspirant

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

Is there any way to change the Network Map in Device Manager to a list layout? (The map is getting a bit unmanageable at this point...)

Message 8 of 9
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Netgear XR500 Unnamed devices poping up

Click the 3 line icon in the top left of the panel to change it to the table/list view.
Message 9 of 9
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