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

oh so random devices just try to get on because all they need is a button pushed to let them in?

so does that mean that someone is trying to get onto my router?

I also had a texas instruments device and a some kind of random phone try to connect as well.

if you double click on it, the device has a ip address it goes to in a browser. (I clicked out before it did anything.)

I had this issue today and opened thisthread on superuser.

Solution: I disabled WPS (also called WCN in Windows) on the router.

If you have many PCs on the network, disabling the Windows service "Windows Connect Now" is not the best option. So, modifying the router setting for WPS stops this for all PCs.

Hi,

my PC is running Windows 10, and I added the network short cut to the start menu. Like said above there is under phone some kind of device with only model and the MAC address.

What scares me is the fact that it's name is peer device. So I know my windows phone is not it due to the different Mac address. But nothing makes sense about it because of the fact that why would the computer be saying there is a device with a MAC address. I fought that ment there was a that was real. If you can please give us a actual reason why this is going on that would be great. Because my Wi-Fi only goes do far and the people that live near me don't have much in technology.

I must have missed that explanation (Windows Connect Now, right?) in the thread. I know that the phone disappeared when I turned off the wireless and had only ethernet running, which is still the case, so you saying that the phone(s) will still show, whether connected by wireless or not, isn't accurate at least in my case.

I know this is an old thread, but I had this happen today---a phone showing up in my network. My network is passworded, but it still worried me, so I turned off my wireless and just plugged in the ethernet for all my computers which connect to my router.

My wife, who usually isn't at all tech-savvy, blew my mind when she suggested "Honey, maybe it's your TextNow app". You know, the app from the Windows Store? I have it and use it often. I thought her suggestion was pretty darned cool, especially for someone who is usually not into tech at all.

I still don't know whether-or-not the TextNow app is responsible for the rogue phone showing up with only a MAC address in my wireless, but it doesn't show up in the network when I'm ethernet-only, so I'm actually doubtful that it's the TextNow app. But not 100%. I mean, with TextNow you are assigned a phone number....so it could be the culprit. I'm curious if the OP had that app installed when he noticed the phone in his network....

Anyone have any thoughts?

^ Nonsense.

This phenomenon is explained already on the previous pages.

Modern apps have no low level control over the computer, they are very limited. They can't touch the network devices list.

Whether you are connected via a wire or without one, as long as your router itself has a Wireless component (most of them do nowadays) you will see the phones in your network.