Rogue devices showing up on windows 8 network in file exporer.

OK, for the people who are scared for no reason, please read this.

All wired and wireless devices have MAC Addresses.

Any wireless device has to be able to touch any wireless router, that's how things work. However, that does not mean they are given access into your network. The only way they are given access into your network is after authenticating your SSID with the correct passphrase and only then will they be given an IP address.

Your Windows computer can sense these devices 'touching' your wireless router by their MAC address. That's about where it all ends. Your computer see's devices out there that are close enough to touch the wireless signal your router is putting out in the world. That in no way means they have been authenticated onto your network.

What could Microsoft do about this? Well perhaps they could install an option in networking to "Not Display Wireless Devices until authenticated through the router".

Just know that for Wi-Fi to work, every wireless device has the ability to ATTEMPT to connect to every other wireless device. That does not mean they are authenticated on that Wireless Network connection. Windows is so smart that it see's these devices and puts that information in the "Network" devices page.

I see a neighbors Vizio TV and HTC phone randomly in my "Network Devices" and when I right click and choose properties only the devices "Brand Name and/or Model" and "MAC address" are listed. This is perfectly normal. It is my PC seeing wireless devices out there through my router, NOT wireless devices out there seeing into my network.

Even if you block that MAC address from connecting to your network in your router settings, that device still has to "Touch" your router, once that happens it will be blocked from obtaining an IP address even if it has the right credentials to connect. Windows will always be able to see devices touching your router.

Just remember to never leave your Wi-Fi "OPEN" without passphrase protection and you're going to be ok.

There is no evidence anywhere that wireless or WiFi is relevant here. Any explanation that uses wireless or WiFi is not relevant. Hackers get in when they can be smarter than the rest of us.

Ok.... So then how come i only see phones... I never see another PC doing the exact same thing. Or why does windows say possible devices to connect instead of the random devices saying just a MAC address? Why is there not a easily accessible setting to change this? I mean only Android devices pop up, even with our Windows phones (Windows 10 and 8.1) never show up. I also never see anyone's devices that they own show up. I mean yes your phone finds available Wi-Fi but they should bus find the radio signal and not have to try connecting. Now Wi-Fi sense is a thing where it connects to popular wifi but it never connects to ones that require a password unless you have successful signed in. (sorry for the bad grammar, any Microsoft browser on mobile and PC have a pain trying to delete in these boxes... Fix it Microsoft) all I'm saying is that it seems really dumb for this "feature" (windows connect now) makes phones try to connect when they might not be owned by me.

First, phones, especially Android Devices, are the devices that continously send out packets.  Second, computers with WiFi, that are already connected, are generally stationary, so they have no regular need to be doing continuous scans.  Third, Android devices are defaulted to do this, while Windows and I believe iOS phones are defaulted not to do this.  Fourth, generic, or non-major brand Android Phones/Devices often times show up by the countries Manufacturer names when check by MAC address, rather than the Phone ID, example, many BLU devices come up by their CHIP ID, which often times is from China, Japan, Australia, and other places over America, even though device itself is in fact an American one.

Finally no one is fixing this, because it is not an issue for everyone;  many of us like the fact it shows up this way, so we can have a double way of checking to ensure which devices are AND are not on our network, but COULD be.  If Microsoft has not made any changes in this since 2013, in Windows 8, and we are not in 2016 in Windows 10 and I might add the last Windows, and this FEATURE still exists, then don't hold your breath on them changing it now for the few who do not like it.  Six pages of posts since 2013 certainly does not constitute a mass request for the disabling of this feature.

Um, I don't know why we should be not worried about random devices trying to connect to the router, because that means that someone daily is trying to get into my router. According to Mr Dave

If it's showing up in a network discovery scan, it had an IP address at one time.  A device cannot connect to a network without an IP address.

You can also ping by name as well if you don't know the IP address.

Sounds like to me what you are seeing is someone's mobile phone that has connected to your wireless network.  Since these devices are mobile yiou won't see them there all the time.

If they are listed and the device isn't present, they should disappear as soon as the IP lease expires.

In my personal opinion, as long as you have security enabled on your wireless network, this is a non-issue.  If a mobile phone has WIFI enabled they will scan for local WIFI networks they can attach to.

If you want to extra secure, disable DHCP on your wireless network and then set up your machines with staic IPs.  This way no other device will be able to connect to your network and get issued an IP unless you specifically set it up.  But for the average person this is overkill.

Hi Phil,

When you click on Network in File Explorer it goes out and does a Network Discovery scan of the local subnet and reports and machines occupying an IP address within the same subnet.

I can't explain why you are not seeing them in your router though, unless the Network Discovery results aren't accurate.  They couldn't get an IP address unless they were able to authenticate at some point.

Try to ping one of the IP's from a command prompt:

1. Press [Win key] + [X] then select Command Prompt.
2. Type ping xxx where xxx is the IP address.
3. Hit [enter].

Do you get request timed out or replies?

If you get request timed out then that device is no longer connected to the network.  If you get replies then it is still connected to your network.

Let me know if this helps.