Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
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Orbi Pro SRS60 - manufacturer shown as "OCOSMOS" ?

vinbro
Aspirant

Orbi Pro SRS60 - manufacturer shown as "OCOSMOS" ?

Hey guys I have an ORBI Pro setup with three SRS60 satellites. They are all on the latest firmware (.110). I use WIFI Explorer to monitor my signal, etc. I recently noticed that one of the satellites no longer shows "Netgear" as the manufacturer. Instead, it shows "Ocosmos." It stays this way after full reset, re-pairing, etc. Should I be worried? See picture below. Thanks!
Message 1 of 6

Accepted Solutions
hnagaraju
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Orbi Pro SRS60 - manufacturer shown as "OCOSMOS" ?

our

 

Short answer,  there is no harm for your network. as these BSSID mac address are valid only locally.

You do not need to unplug it from your network.

 

But if you interested to know more, here are the details.

 

There are few ways to support multiple BSSID in Access points.

 

Why virtual mac address are needed :

When there are many APs or Satellites  in an ESS (extended service set) may advertise the same SSID, the BSSID serves as a unique identifier for clients to know which AP they are associated with. The BSSID will be seen in wireless packet captures and as the MAC address a client is associated to.

 

Method 1)

In Orbi pro,  to support same SSID across multiple radios, we use generated local value of BSSID.

Each Radio has one base mac address assigned by factory. The software in order to support 4 SSID (Wireless1/2/3/Guest),  genrate dynamic Local Administration bit enabled bit to derive mac address (LAA MAC).

Please read more details

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address#Universal_vs._local

 


This may confuses scanner , if the scanner that does not consider the LAA bit in mac.  Ideally when L/U bit is set in mac address, the OUI look up may not make sense.

 

Method 2)

While in our  WAC500/WAX600 series we reserve more mac address per radios and uses a different LAA mac generation method that will keep the OUI intact.

 

View solution in original post

Message 5 of 6

All Replies
schumaku
Guru

Re: Orbi Pro SRS60 - manufacturer shown as "OCOSMOS" ?

@YeZ Orbi Po on non-Netgear OIDs as per the official http://standards-oui.ieee.org/oui.txt assignments?

 

 

Message 2 of 6
schumaku
Guru

Re: Orbi Pro SRS60 - manufacturer shown as "OCOSMOS" ?

Orbi Pro (the classic one) was extended from three to four "networks" resp. SSIDs - well possible Netgear does swap some high bytes of the original MAC (e.g. CC40D0521Bxx) lack of an officially assigned spare MAC. And as per Murphy's law the first ones get the random OID MAC.

 

Hey in times where Apple and Google/Android make random WiFi MAC standard ... who cares about correct OID MAC addresses? Kidding - it's a very bad story the generation tin hat has triggered!

 

 

Message 3 of 6
vinbro
Aspirant

Re: Orbi Pro SRS60 - manufacturer shown as "OCOSMOS" ?

Thanks for the response! Interesting idea. But can you really run out of MAC addresses? Aren't there infinite combos following the first manufacturer IDs?

 

For what it's worth, I did reset the satellite to get back the original ORBI setup network, just to see if it made any difference. As the attached picture shows, it doesn't. The first BSSID MAC address corresponds to the one printed on the device and manufactuer shows as Netgear, but the other signals have the OCOSMOS MAC address. None of the other satellites exhibit this behavior. 

 

I welcome any other thoughts, but to me this is a little too weird. So I'm just gonna unplug it for now... 

Message 4 of 6
hnagaraju
NETGEAR Expert

Re: Orbi Pro SRS60 - manufacturer shown as "OCOSMOS" ?

our

 

Short answer,  there is no harm for your network. as these BSSID mac address are valid only locally.

You do not need to unplug it from your network.

 

But if you interested to know more, here are the details.

 

There are few ways to support multiple BSSID in Access points.

 

Why virtual mac address are needed :

When there are many APs or Satellites  in an ESS (extended service set) may advertise the same SSID, the BSSID serves as a unique identifier for clients to know which AP they are associated with. The BSSID will be seen in wireless packet captures and as the MAC address a client is associated to.

 

Method 1)

In Orbi pro,  to support same SSID across multiple radios, we use generated local value of BSSID.

Each Radio has one base mac address assigned by factory. The software in order to support 4 SSID (Wireless1/2/3/Guest),  genrate dynamic Local Administration bit enabled bit to derive mac address (LAA MAC).

Please read more details

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address#Universal_vs._local

 


This may confuses scanner , if the scanner that does not consider the LAA bit in mac.  Ideally when L/U bit is set in mac address, the OUI look up may not make sense.

 

Method 2)

While in our  WAC500/WAX600 series we reserve more mac address per radios and uses a different LAA mac generation method that will keep the OUI intact.

 

Message 5 of 6
vinbro
Aspirant

Re: Orbi Pro SRS60 - manufacturer shown as "OCOSMOS" ?

Got it - I understand now. Makes sense! Thanks so much for clearing this up for me. 

Message 6 of 6
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