Unknown device

[ken+lyndon]

Good afternoon everyone,

I have several UKNOWN devices attached to my Sky router. Fortunately I have a list of all my devices, their names and their mac addresses. Nothing here is untoward, as all devices are accounted for, but I would like to know why the device name is displayed one day and changes to UKNOWN the next?

Thanks for any help.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@ken+lyndon 

Is there a mac address associated with unknown

[cookiemonsteruk]

@ken+lyndon 

Are you running devices thru an unmanaged switch where the device will have to go through "learning" before mac and device are displayed

[ken+lyndon]

Hi cookiemonsteruk,

Yep, all is well, I know what the device is as I know the mac address, but why does it show the device name on day 1, but the device name becomes unknown overnight, even though the all the details remain the same?

[ken+lyndon]

no switches are used

[cookiemonsteruk]

@ken+lyndon 

See previous post i slipped whilst you where replying .

[ken+lyndon]

Thanks cookiemonsteruk,

There are no switches used, nearly all the traffic goes through wirless.

It's not a problem as I know what's attached, there are far worse things out there, I was just curious as to why the device name would disappear overnight.

[jamesn123]

@ken+lyndon 

Some devices dont present a proper name to the Sky hub so just show up as unknown. Usually its not fixable.

[lettice · Accepted solution]

This has been the case for Sky routers and other ISP routers for sometime.

Often it is an older mobile phone, tablet or Smart TV.
Do remember older Apple iPhones like the older 3GS 4/5 series (used to use a few of those as part of my home cctv system)  always came through as unknown.

Have seen it often for older smart TVs and tablets.

It is that the Mac adress lookup table is not correctly picking up the associated address.
As long as you can account for the device by Mac address it is not any concern.

[ken+lyndon]

Thanks everyone for replying, it's not a problem I was just curious why the name would show one day disappear the next and be back on the third.

I suppose that's AI for you....

[TrebleTA]

It's the router overworked. I get unknown from my 5th gen echo yet all eariler ones show unless I have more than 5 devices attached then device names go to unknown. I have about 25 devices attached to mine and half my list device names are unknowen

[Shakira]

It's annoying when using Sky B Buddy, I have an iPhone 13 and it's exactly the same - UNKNOWN ???

[Matt9300]

Its because devices like modern iPhones, Laptops have Private MAC Address features.

If you turn this off the device will show its name properly 

[TrebleTA]

That's the sky hub unable to handle to many devices, why a 3ed party device is better