Unknown device showing up on home network - please advise

[JR_99]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and want to first thank you folks in advance for providing feedback to my concern. It's appreciated. My concern is if someone is hacking into our network through our iPad (believe it's called a "virtual handshake"). We currently have Telus Internet and use their Arcadyan modem (tall white box) with our guest wifi network turned on. MAC Address filter is also on and set to accept only our devices. We recently set up a brand new iPad (not refurbished) a few days ago and connected it to our guest network.

I logged into the GUI/admin for our Arcadyan modem (192.168...) a day later. When logged into the GUI, on the main page (called "State") with the globe, modem and different connection icons (wifi, ethernet, coax, moca), when I hovered my mouse cursor over the wifi icon it indicated 2 devices connected to our guest network but we only had the iPad connected (I triple checked that). I took the iPad off the network and hovered over the wifi icon the number went from 2 to 1 device and then about 10 seconds later to 0 devices.

I factory reset the modem twice in the last few days, each time changing the admin and wifi passwords and re-added the iPad. Each time when logged into the GUI, the "State" page indicated 1 device on the guest network initially, then a few hours later it indicated 2 devices. So my concern is if maybe someone is hacking into my network through the iPad ("virtual handshake") and perhaps the modem is kind of picking that up via the "State" page. Or is this simply some kind of "glitch" in the GUI itself?

Throughout this time, the "Connected Devices" page on the GUI/admin for the modem indicates only our devices on the network, as does the Telus My-Wifi app, even if the "State" page shows otherwise. I know this is a very unique issue, but I'm hoping someone can provide a bit of feedback as I'm a bit concerned. Many thanks for your feedback!

[xray]

What's the IP address and MAC address of the unknown device?

There really isn't a good reason to use MAC address filtering. It doesn't provide any additional security. MAC addresses are easily sniffed and spoofed. I'm not even sure MAC filtering works on the guest WiFi because it's kind of contradictory goals. Why would you want to query all your guest's MAC addresses and fiddle with the filter setup every time you have a guest?

[JR_99]

Thank you for your feedback. I've got the guest network turned on for our work/school computers. We keep our personal devices on the main network since I was told devices on the guest network are not able to access the admin GUI. We have not had any guests this year due to Covid, so it's more or less worked out with the MAC filtering. 

Sorry if I wasn't clear regarding the unknown device. The issue only shows up when I'm logged into the main (home) page of modem's GUI, there are icons on that page (wifi, ethernet, coax, etc.) that indicate how many devices are connected when you mouse hover on each icon. When I hover over the wifi icon it indicates I have 2 devices connected on the guest network and we only have the iPad connected. When I disconnect the iPad and hover over the wifi icon it indicates 0 devices connected on the guest network. If I add the iPad back to the network and check the main (home) page, the icon indicates 1 connected device at first and then later on when I check it shows 2 devices connected again.

When I check the Connected Devices page of the modem's GUI, or the Telus My-Wifi app it does not indicate an extra device is connected, so there is no IP address and MAC address indicated. I've factory reset the modem and updated the passwords multiple times, and the issue seems to keep popping up. I've not had this occur before with another device so I'm worried someone is trying to hack our home network through the iPad and maybe the modem is partially catching the issue by indicating the extra device via the main (home) page of the GUI but nothing is showing up in elsewhere. 

[xray · Accepted solution]

I wouldn't worry about the extra device on the status page. It's probably a glitch in the UI. Use a strong password and you should be good to go. If you are not sure if the work and school devices are safe then continue to use the guest WiFi but I wouldn't bother with the MAC filtering.

[JR_99]

Thanks for taking the time to reply back, it's appreciated. Have a Happy New Year!