james94123's profile

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3 Messages

Saturday, October 9th, 2021 12:20 AM

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same device listed many times

I have one PC that shows up as "new" on the network every day. If I check the list of recently connected devices it shows up dozens of times - one or two times for each day - as if it does not realize that the whole long list is just the same device. I assign this device to my son and use the app function to set limits on his use. Every day I need to assign a "new" (not really new) PC to him. If I look in the app for the device details, sometimes it has the same IP address as earlier, sometimes a new one. It always seems to have a new MAC address. I have dozens of devices on the network and none but this one PC have this issue. I found previous people posting with this or similar issue and NONE of them had answers: 

- https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/xfinity-app/devices-listed-multiple-times/602db022c5375f08cd23a85b

- https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/xfinity-app/same-device-listed-twice-on-xfinity-app/602db052c5375f08cd29ec65 

- https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/xfinity-app/same-device-listed-multiple-times-in-xfi-app/602dafd3c5375f08cd187ad9 

New Poster

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3 Messages

4 years ago

I have learned since I posted this that every device normally has a static MAC address, and it is that address that the network/router uses to identify the device. Normally a device's MAC address is static. You can, on a PC at least, change the MAC address manually. You can also set it to change itself on a regular basis. I checked my son's PC and, in fact, that advanced setting was in place. Here's the solution on a PC: 

> In your taskbar, right-click on the Wi-Fi icon and then Properties. Under the Random Hardware Addresses section, change the setting to Off.

I will let you know if this works in a few days. 

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