Renaming devices - Do not use QUOTATION mark

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CrimpOn wrote:

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This is an interesting assertion that does not match my experience with an Orbi RBR50 router.  I renamed a device to test" (quote mark at the end) and now the device shows as test". I then renamed it to "test" (quote mark before and after), and it shows up as "test".

 

Perhaps the CBR40 Attached Devices function works differently?  Or, there is "something else" affecting the situation. (fun with quotes).

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There are several places where you can rename items ... so I suspect this is dependent of where, and maybe a bit on when the renaming is done. Since I am out of support for the CBR - I won't bother with doing a real defect report, much like the fact trying to interact with support on things in warranty were also never given any legitimate response by Netgear (my personal experience, ymmv). 

However: to be more thorough, just in case anyone else has reason to do this, exactly what I was doing contained these steps:

1: In Advanced Setup LAN, add a device to the reservation list, changing the name to something useful, adding the IP and MAC as required for a device not currently connected or even using the radio button selection then changing the IP and name only. Press Apply.

2: Often the new name is not taken, and remains whatever was there. When that happens click the Advanced-Admin-Attached Devices

3: Click the device with the name you are trying to change, edit the Device Model and Device Name to human readable form: android-76825349289478291 is not generally helpful to know, nor is --. So in this specific case the I think I used Sony 65" TV as the device model. For name I entered XBR65X850D. The two field entries may have been reversed, I can't recall.  Then I pressed Apply. 

Note: In Netgear's defense, the online help text shown below that screen says YOU CANNOT CHANGE VALUES HERE.  I've included the text below. If editing this info is a problem, then why do they let you change things?  Probably another defect.

At this point the Attached Devices list came back blank. Devices were still attached, the router remained working. But exactly what was attached was unknown. I went back to Adv-Setup-LAN and in the reservation list the device name was now XBR65X850D ... when clicking Add the expected attached devices list came up blank. I also tried Basic-Attached devices, also blank. I played some and tried a few "hidden" pages like /DEV_device1.htm and another /Dev_device.htm I stumbled across trying different routes. Note: DEV_device shows the unadulterated list sans user edits of names - just whatever the device reports to the router as its name, and MAC address. I suspect it is a engineering toolbox for discovering more about intrusions.

4: Inclusion of a " was the only thing I am aware of that could have caused the corruption.  The entire web interface with regard to attached devices broke down at that point and all my attempts (including reboot) to recover without losing all the settings failed. The router still worked, but without any visibility of attached devices. See attached image.

I even went so far and dug out an old android tablet and installed the app. This was the first time I have tried the app: can you say unimpressive broken process?  Unlike the web interface, the android app did show connected devices, but never showed nor could it change the Device Model field.

5: A full and hardy power cycle holding down the reset buttton for 30 seconds, then another reset button hold for 30 seconds, and a final power cycle seems to have cleared the router and got me back to basics.

Caveat Emptor: I am now setting up the LAN IP Reservations again, but this time saving the config between every item I am changing. A bit more tedious, but will save me hours if I do somethign silly again.

ps: 

Attached Devices Help

This screen shows the IP address, device name, and MAC (Media Access Control) address for each computer attached to the router.

You cannot change any of the values on this screen. To update this screen and show the list of currently attached devices, click the Refresh button.

To block or allow one or more devices to access your network, click the Access Control link in the top right corner of this screen to go to the Access Control screen and make changes.

pps: Regarding the App -- Why? With all the privacy a person needs to give up and extra agreements you need to sign, and the fact it really doesn't give you any useful features? Plus the impression it gives that anyone with that app can - if the find any Orbi router system in the hood - can easily reset it remotely without even having to log in to the network... jeesh.