Why do I have mystery devices on my network?

[k72]

mystery devices on network

I usually keep network discovery off, but turned it on this week for printing. I have seen two different devices under "network" (file explorer) that do not belong to anyone here. When I click on them I can get the device name (both are phones) and the MAC address. MAC filtering is turned on in the router setup, and the MACs on these devices are not on the list. They also don't show up under "attached devices." I can't get into the router as much as I would like, since it's not my personal network, so I can't check everything, but any ideas for how/why these devices showed up?

 

[Laura Knotek]

What version of Windows are you running?

If this isn't your network, whose is it?

Shouldn't it be the responsible of the network's owner to manage the network?

 

[k72]

What version of Windows are you running?

If this isn't your network, whose is it?

Shouldn't it be the responsible of the network's owner to manage the network?

It's my parents' network. They want help, but are also picky about anyone "messing things up" so there's only so much I can look at in the settings. Our network has Windows 7 and 8 computers.

 

[jmshub]

If you are using MAC filtering, the device could still show up on the network, but network traffic would not route to it since the MAC address isn't permitted.

To be honest, MAC address filtering is not a particularly good way to secure your network. Wireless clients connecting to your network broadcast their MAC address, so a would-be attacker could capture some traffic and clone a MAC address. Ditch MAC address filtering and make sure you are using a long AES WPA2 wifi key.

 

[k72]

Thanks. I appreciate the info. They are using WPA2/AES, but I will suggest that they change the key to a longer one.