For the mom who gives us everything - Mother's Day gifts that connects us.
F

New Member

 • 

3 Messages

Saturday, November 26th, 2022 5:36 PM

New gateway set up and identifying many devices I don’t recognize

Our new gateway identified 24 devices on the network.  I don’t recognize many of them and ones I should see are not listed.  How can I know which devices on the network are legit and which ones are potentially dangerous?   I also don’t see my iPhone 12 or my iPad listed but both seem to be connected to the WiFi network.   

ACE - Guru

 • 

9.9K Messages

1 year ago

It's unlikely that there are devices listed that are dangerous, well, unless you've given the wifi credentials to some Bad Guys who are camping outside your house.  It's not easy to determine the device but generally I use the MAC address given and check it against a database like THIS one. 

But that only gets you a manufacturer's name and often times it's still not enough to ID the device.  For instance, I have a DirecTV Stream Osprey box.  But its MAC address shows it as Wistron Neweb Corp, probably because Wistron makes the networking chip for it.  I have an Ambient Weather weather station but the MAC address comes back to Espressif.  This issue affects a lot of IoT devices.

Then there's the issue of devices like many phones and tablets that use "randomized" MAC addresses for security.  The address for your phone might change every time you leave the wifi area and return.  None of the randomized address will return any manufacturer.  That may be what is happening with your Apple devices, they're connected but the gateway can't ID them properly.

And finally, these lovely AT&T gateways have shown a propensity to just make up devices. 

New Member

 • 

3 Messages

1 year ago

Thank you, Tonydi…..that’s about what I expected to hear.  It definitely makes sense to me and I appreciate the info!

Not finding what you're looking for?
New to AT&T Community?
New to the AT&T Community? Start by visiting the Community How-To.
New to the AT&T Community?
Visit the Community How-To.