Under “Clients” in the GUI, there is a list of devices that are online and offline. How does the router get the device name? Sometimes I see the actual device name, and sometimes it's “unknown”. Why? Is there a way to rename the device to make it easier to identify the devices on the network?
The traffic seems to reset after rebooting the router. Is there any way to prevent that from happening?
Since I'm using policy-based routing with VPNs, I find that not reserving an IP can cause problems as the device being rebooted will have a new IP and then won't connect to the right VPN. In terms of privacy and security, are there any consequences from reserving an IP? In which instance should reserving an IP be disabled?
Is it recommended to enable "DPI Engine"?
Policy based routing should be using the MAC instead of IP (as this does change). Can you describe how you are setting up your routing?
It’s filled if the connecting device sends its hostname (eg. iPhone)
A device can protect its privacy by hiding its hostname, or if you prefer to disable announcing hostname in certain devices. Many routers simply put “Unknown” or “--”, and if the MAC address is not private, some routers may search the vendor and rename the device to the vendor name.
In the web UI, you can go to the clients, press “…”, and Modify.
If DPI Engine is Enabled, and you view Data statistics, it should remain there. If you’re looking elsewhere, it is usually stored in the RAM, rebooting the router clears it.
It is optional, but if you want to see live traffic, QoS and Content filtering, it is recommended to turn it on.
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Could be that the devices you are using a randomised mac address for privacy, which is why they stop working as the device rotates to a random mac address after a period. perhaps change the device to use the factory MAC.
How do you do that? In the GUI, I can only select the device.
You need to check the wifi connection settings on the devices themselves. So if it’s your phone, make sure the wifi connection settings aren’t set to randomise MAC
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Either turn randomisation off or fixed.
I'm reading that it protects my privacy. Any other way to make it easy to ID my devices?
None, that’s the way it works. If there was a way to id them then it wouldn’t be very private.
For the VPN policy, when Specified Devices is selected in the current VPN Dashboard, the devices are identified by their MAC addresses
A Reserved IP instructs the router’s DHCP server to assign the same local IP address to a particular MAC address. It would not normally create an additional Internet-facing security risk.
It can be useful for devices that need a predictable local address, such as a NAS, server, printer, port-forwarding target, or other locally managed device.
This setting usually needs to be changed on the client device rather than in the router GUI.
For example, on my phone, open the Wi-Fi settings for this network and change the MAC address type from a randomized/private MAC address to the device or factory MAC address.
Could you please clarify what you would like to use the device identification for? Once we understand your intended use, we can check whether there is a suitable way to achieve it.
Without knowing the device name, I'll have to go and find the device myself. Some devices show up as unknown.
