Device ID: By Manufacturer
Identifying Devices in your Device List
Often it is possible to uniquely identify a device based on the manufacturer in the MAC address. If you see a device made by Amazon, for example, and you know you have only one Amazon device in your network (perhaps an Amazon Echo), you’ll know the device is your Echo.
In such cases, you will probably want to assign a more meaningful name than “amazon-c0cfd7809” to the device and perhaps give it a detailed description to make it easy to find the device later.
As mentioned earlier, sometimes the manufacturer does not provide an obvious clue to the identity of the device. That happens when the device manufacturer uses someone else’s network interface card and does not put their own manufacturer ID in the MAC address. This is common with older personal computers and many IoT devices.
| Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co.,Ltd. | Personal computers (PCs), game consoles, printers |
| Hui Zhou Gaoshengda Technology Co.,LTD | Smart TVs, media players |
| Intel Corporate | PCs |
| LCFC(HeFei) Electronics Technology co., ltd | PCs |
| Microchip Technology Inc. | IoT devices |
| Micro-Star INT'L CO., LTD | PCs |
| Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | Cell phones, TVs, IOT devices |
| PC Engines GmbH | PCs |
| PCS Systemtechnik GmbH | PCs |
| Phoebe Micro Inc. | Network speakers, IOT devices |
| Qolsys Inc. | Alarm panels |
| Shenzhen Bilian electronic CO.,LTD | Network equipment, IOT devices |
| Tercel technology co.,ltd | IOT devices |
| Texas Instruments | IOT devices |
| Universal Global Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd | PCs, IOT devices |
Note that these are only a small sample of the various manufacturers you may encounter on your network. If you see an unrecognized manufacturer, a web search may help determine the type of devices that is using that vendor’s network interface.
In addition to the manufacturer, Island attempts to identify some basic properties of each device by looking at various networking “fingerprints” unique to each type of device. Sometimes the network fingerprint will provide a clue to the identity of the device. [Example needed]
If all other methods fail, another way to positively identify a device is to remove it from the network by powering it off, turn off its Wi-Fi feature, or disconnecting its network cable, and looking to see which device in Island’s device list goes “offline.” Offline devices are identified by a grey device icon in the device list. [Example needed] [Also, have asked Rick if he can provide an “offline” filter in the device list, similar to the other filters, that would make this very easy]