WNCE4004 Passes its MAC addres to router for all connected devices

[PetrolDave]

Just got a WNCE4004 to connect my YouView (terrestrial STB) and Apple TV to my Nighthawk router.

On trying to setup  QoS on the Nighthawk I noticed that ALL the devices connected to the WNCE4004 (as well as the WNCE4004 itself) report the MAC address of the WNCE4004.

This makes it impossible to identify individual devices (and hence setup individual QoS settings) as they are all reported as the WNCE4004. Not good...

I am running the latest firmware so I can't upgrade it.

When will a firmware update be issued that fixes this problem?

Or is there another way to make the WNCE4004 report the MAC address of connected devices and not only its own MAC address?

[JamesGL]

Hi PetrolDave,

The WNCE4004 is a client that is why the MAC address of the adapter will show on the router instead of the adapter. It is not a passthrough like a switch.

[PetrolDave]

Which makes the QoS feature on my R7000 Nighthawk router virtually useless... because my R7000 Nighthawk router allocates QoS priority based on MAC address.

So I can't allocate different QoS levels to the devices attached to the WNCE4004 - an Apple TV, a YouView STB and a Panasonic audio system.

I notice that some Apps on my iPhone CAN differentiate between the devices attached to the NCE4004 (using Bonjour?), I strongly suggest that this ability is included into future firmware upgrades of ALL Netgear roters that implement QoS.

[JamesGL]

Hi PetrolDave,

You can post the suggestion under Idea Exchange board.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/idb-p/idea-exchange-for-home

[sktn77a]

My R7000 router can see both the MAC address of the WNCE2001 and the MAC address of the device connected to it (in my case, a hard drive server) under "attached devices".  Don't know if the WNCE4004 does the same thing.

[PetrolDave]

It doesn't.

[sktn77a]

Interesting.  Does it display any IP adresses that you can't identify (and which could be the attached devices)?  Odd that the WNCE2001 and WNCE4004 would be so different.

[PetrolDave]

The R7000 shows 1 IP address for the WNCE4004 plus an IP address for each device attached to the WNCE4004, BUT all those are shown by the R7000 as having the MAC address of the WNCE4004.

This makes the QoS feature of the R7000 totally useless as it allocates QoS priority using ONLY the MAC address. That's why IMHO either the WNCE4004 needs a firmware update so it reports a different MAC address for each attached device, or the R7000 firmware needs updating so it uses more than just the MAC address for QoS - it does manage to allocate separate IP addresses!

I've removed the WNCE4004 and connected my media devices to my EX6200 which does report a different MAC address for each device, made up of the 3 MS bytes of the EX6200 MAC address plus the 3 LS bytes of the attached device.