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

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.

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.

 

 

Hi Steve,

Thank you for the quick reply. The funny thing is that these devices are not issued an IP, it just shows the device and then the MAC id.  So, I would have nothing to ping.  I took a screen shot that I could post, but not sure how to do it.  The correct computers and router show up correctly, but then there is a third section called phone and this is were the device shows up.  Now it doesn't stay there all the time, it will just show up sporadically.  And then sometimes a different phone/device shows up.  This usually will happen when the computer is shut down and then turned back on later.  It might be easier if I could figure out how to post a screenshot. 

Phil

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

Hey Steve,

Thank you for the information.  It bugs me even though it may not be a threat.  Just high anxiety.  lol.  FYI...the only phones that have connected to my network are apple devices.  The two devices that have popped up are a Samsung galaxy and a  Samsung SPH-L710.  So...just not sure how they are getting popping up all day long.  I also just bought this computer yesterday.  Just frustrating.  I did ping the device names and nothing came back.  So they must not be there. 

Thank you again for the responses!

Phil

I don't blame you at all.  I'd be curious as well.

Sounds like the Network Discovery functionality returns stale results.

Probably a more accurate list of machines on the same machine's subnet could be displayed this way:

1. Press [Win key]+[X].
2. Select Command Prompt.
3. At the command prompt type net view and press [enter].

This will display a list of machines on the same subnet as the machine you are on.

In other works, if your machine is 192.168.2.10. it will scan all IP's between 192.168.2.0 and 192.168.2.255 to determine if it can find any machines.

Hope that helps.