twixt wrote:
car825 wrote:I posted about the mystery devices in the Network Map a number of times since the NIS11 days. The discussions pointed to unconfigured routers with Wifi Protected Setup (WPS) turned on. I did a test at the time. I powered up an unconfigured router with WPS and it immediately appeared on the NIS Network Map as a new offline device with no IP address. My computer was NOT connected to the router, but there it was on the Network Map. The details are in the links in my first post in this thread.
Hi, car825. This would tend to indicate your Router was allowing these items to be passed through to your LAN - in other words WAP Repeater access is turned on - with no security required for WAP Repeater access to be granted. Normally, a properly secured router should not permit this - as it is an extreme security risk both for you (connecting to their potentially-malware-ridden network) and to them (connecting to your potentially-malware-ridden network) - not to mention the privacy issues.
It's still "the perils of poorly configured routers" - just in a different way.
For example - as a continuation of my previous post in this thread - see the following:
Notice that if you do this properly, you only have to maintain the DHCP reservation list on the "Master" router (the one with the active DHCP server). Doing it any other way multiplies complexity by the number of DHCP servers available on your network. I recommend avoiding the highly-complex option...
Note: Firmware updates for Routers are supposed to have closed those WPS security holes. So, a firmware update for the affected router(s) may be just the "magic bullet" needed to solve both your and the original poster's problems.
Hope this helps.
I have a different router now than I had in 2010 when I originally posted about the mystery devices. My router (then and now) is configured correctly. I use WPA2/AES and the Wireless Repeating Function is not enabled. In any case, I don't think the issue was related to my router. I think it's a Windows 7 thing. There are several posts about it in the Microsoft forums. Here's a link to one of them:
For some reason Windows 7 sees unconfigured routers with WPS as network infrastructure devices. At the time (2010) I could see the device in the Windows 7 Network Explorer listed as a Network Infrastructure Device. The Network Location column was blank unlike my other devices that had my network name. So it was not connected to my network. For some reason NIS incorrectly thinks these types of devices are connected to the network and shows them on the NIS Network Map. Try the test yourself. Power up a new, unconfigured router with WPS near your laptop and see if appears on the map.