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Forum Discussion
My Parental Controls cannot Find my son's new iPad
I signed up for the free trial of Parental Controls to see if I works for my family. So for I have loved it. My son receive a new iPad 9th generation for his birthday and I cannot locate this on th...
zmom wrote:
My son received a new iPad 9th generation for his birthday and I cannot locate this on the device list AT ALL to put under his profile.
iOS is one of the operating systems where the default behavior is to create a random MAC address rather than use the tablet hardware MAC address. (I go into settings and change that to "use hardware MAC")
The Orbi router tries to assign a name and device type to new devices using what seems to be a combination of Netgear code and code from Fing. Is there a device on the Orbi Attached Devices page which you do not recognize?
Plus one, you have to change the iPad or iPhone to use a set HW MAC address, this is how the SPC filters on devices by disallowing internet for those MAC addresses you have assigned. Otherwise, it will be like whack a mole where you see the iPad, set it to be controlled, but the next time it reconnects to WiFi it will have a different MAC address and the SPC will not filter it anymore.
- I have the same thing with my daughters new ipad air - it just doesn't show up on connected devices at all, so there' no way to add it to her profile.
I know the ipads have this random MAC address switch, but my other daughter's ipad shows up fine and SPC works, and that has the same function enabled.
Very frustrating, and suggested workarounds would be gratefully received.If the iPad is connected to WiFi and has internet, it has to be on Connected Devices somewhere. Probably with some goofy made up name that makes no sense. (Unless of course the Orbi app is defective, which many users claim to be the case.)
The issue with randomized MAC addresses is that they can change without warning. The whole point is to prevent "Big Brother" from learning about you by which WiFi access points it attached to and when. (aha, 8am at Starbucks. 12 noon at a bordello. 5pm at home... and so on. I am not sophisticated enough to understand if this is 'real' or rampant paranoia.)
If the randomized switch is on, then one day the iPad may show up with a different MAC address, and Parental Controls will not know about it.
My practice is to disable this 'feature' on my Apple, Android, and laptop devices. I like knowing which MAC address goes with which IP address.
Thanks for the response, but the device really doesn't show up in device manager - I'm looking at the ipad to see the current IP address, and that IP address is not showing on any devices in device manager on the app or the web console.