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

Hi all same problem

ghost mobile phones and tablet appearing in my network screen windows 8

and only mac address available, no ip and NO TRACE OF THE DEVICE ON THE ROUTER LOG!! of such a device. moreover i have 7 devices connected to my router, 5 by cable and 2 by wifi and my router is set to only assign from x01 to x08 ip address therefore there is no way a device can connect (plus normal security stuff). So it must be a direct connection to the laptop

someone metioned a bug of HomeGroup Provider service. Any info on that?

It is cary see unknown machine connected to your laptop.....

I have just seen this issue and the only thing that seems to have stopped it happening is hiding the SSID on my router.  So, I guess that would suggest it is phones reading the broadcast SSID. How and why that gets translated into a visible device in Windows 8.1 (just upgraded) I don't understand, because my own phone, which is connected with an IP address, does NOT show up in the network panel...

I have the same problem.  I originally noticed this when unknown devices started showing up in Norton Internet Securities, network security map, on a HP laptop running Windows 8.1. Discovered that they were cell phones showing up as network devices when I clicked on network in explorer. I have three other Windows 7 computers that never show the devices. My router also never shows these devices in the log.

Yes, it appears that devices only do a partial handshake to the network as you receive Manufacturer, Model, Model Number, MAC address. 

IP Address is not performed as the handshake is not completed, so it fails to acquire network status.

I think this may have to do with Microsoft Challenge Handshake Protocol (I have not been in IT for over 5 years) as I remember something similar being a hassle when packet sniffing networks to make them more secure.

If anything, to increase the level of paranoia, set a MAC address filter table on your routers to secure authorised devices on your network.

Another thing to do is to is to make your network invisible, but it's not truly hidden but will knock off script kiddies and casual leaches, and maybe attract serious hackers.

Oh, happy Holidays too.

I have just seen this issue and the only thing that seems to have stopped it happening is hiding the SSID on my router.  So, I guess that would suggest it is phones reading the broadcast SSID. How and why that gets translated into a visible device in Windows 8.1 (just upgraded) I don't understand, because my own phone, which is connected with an IP address, does NOT show up in the network panel...

My SSID has always been hidden and I still see these strange devices pop up (2 so far). They appear then disappear. I'm sooo glad I found this forum as I was going crazy trying to determine how the heck phones made it on my network (or the appearance thereof). The phone I see is "zte_nex". I also saw an LG phone a couple days back. Same conditions...no ip is assigned, not on router list, but has a MAC address listed in device properties.

My router has WPA2 with a very strong password, mac address filtering, no SSID broadcasting, block connection by default, guest network isolation, etc...so the whole 9 yards. I was so freaked out by this that i ended up reformatting my computer yesterday only to see the phone show up again. As you could imagine I was heated!

Anyway, good to know I'm not the only person with this issue. Took some time after hours of Google searching to land here.