In order to prevent strangers from accessing a network, the router is set to accept only specific MAC addresses. One of the applications of MAC addresses is in the filtering process on wireless networks. Some firms may have more than one MAC address. Some manufacturers, such as Dell, place a unique identifier in the MAC address, which is called the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI), and identifies the manufacturer. An example of a MAC address is 30-65-EC-6F-C4-58. The format is six sets of two digits or characters, separated by hyphens. The MAC address is formed in accordance to the rules of the three numbering name spaces, which are managed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). During network communication the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) for the Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) or the Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) for IPv6 translates the IP into a NIC. The NIC is a computer circuit card that allows a computer to connect to a network. The MAC address is usually assigned by the manufacturer of a Network Interface Controller (NIC), and it is stored in the hardware. Among its applications are the Ethernet, 802.11 wireless networks and Bluetooth. Sometimes it is known as the burned-in address (BIA) or the Ethernet hardware address (EHA). It is used as a network address for most IEEE 802 network technologies. It is a unique identifier for network interfaces. One more recommendation: try running a scan with to see if any IoT devices on your network could be vulnerable.MAC stands for Media Access Control.
I’ll be sure to update the list as new devices are added going forward.
One device was named “NP-” and so I searched “ network device starts with np-” and the first result for me led to a forum post on Roku’s website that confirmed this was my Roku.Īs I identified devices, I updated their names in the Tether app so I don’t have to remember them in the future. If the MAC address didn’t provide good information, I tried searching the device name itself. That led me to this article that confirmed what it was. For example, the Fitbit Aria scale’s MAC address came up with “GainSpan” as the vendor. If the vendor name didn’t make it obvious, a brief Google search found the answer.
I was able to type in the MAC address for each device on the website and see who the vendor was (the Tether app helpfully displays the IP and MAC addresses for each device). I started looking for a way to identify the devices I didn’t recognize, and that led me to. The TP-Link Tether app allows you to manage your TP-Link router and view connected devices. I recognized many right away, but there were several that I didn’t recognize with names like “Unknown” or “NP-.” In my head I couldn’t reconcile the number of devices on my network with the number of devices that I thought should be connected, so I decided to dig deeper. Once I logged into my router via the app it showed a list of connected devices. My router’s web interface was pretty good, but for fun I installed TP-Link’s Tether app on my iPhone to try it out. With IoT device vulnerabilities becoming more commonplace I wanted to make sure nothing looked fishy on my Wi-Fi network. It has literally been years since I had to do any kind of inventory on what devices we had on our Wi-Fi network.
When I upgraded our router a while back I used the same SSID and password so I didn’t have to reconfigure any Wi-Fi connected devices (although I did set up a separate 5Ghz network for video streaming for a few devices). Our network had gradually become highly populated with devices, and I didn’t even notice. Like many tech-savvy thirty-somethings my household has acquired quite a few Wi-Fi-connected devices over the past few years: