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Forum Discussion
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, and router too: router shows 4 device (4 mac) while extender shows 2 mac.
Sombody can explain that?
3 Replies
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.
- Ok but I don't think the smartphone is connected to extender and router too, but only one by one.
ThanksYes, the smartphone is not connected to the extender and router at the same time.
However, it has two MAC addresses (one of which is the Virtual MAC), depending on which one you connect to (extender or router)
