Who is the list of Mercury Tenda router devices with a bunch of garbled names? There is a solution to the problem of not being able to change my name. I went through the whole process of recognizing a relative.

Last month, my mother’s broadband was renewed and upgraded, so I used my old habit to open it. 192.168.0.1 Want to see how many devices are hanging. The list of connected devices on the home page of D191G counts 15 lines. I clicked through them one by one, but few of them could be understood.: Two have phone models written on them, one has "android-7f" written on it, and the remaining seven or eight are just a string of hexadecimal MAC addresses. It's hard to tell which one is the camera and which one is the TV. When I reported to my mother, "There is a device at home that I don't recognize," she panicked before me.: 「Have you been scammed? 」

Later, I spent a whole night going through the whole thing, and I’ll give you the conclusion first.: Just because the list is messy doesn't mean you've been hacked, and if you can't recognize your name, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with the router. . But there's a real cost to not recognizing the device - last time I wanted to put a speed limit on her TV, and when I looked through the list I couldn't find the line for TV ； The last time I wanted to put the sweeper into parental control, I placed the wrong tablet. So this article will explain the matter of "recognizing relatives" from beginning to end.: How did the name come about, why the name cannot be changed in the Mercury app, and what finishing touches should be done after recognizing it. Both Mercury and Tengda are covered, and I have actually used both machines at home.

Find out first: Whose name is on the list?

Many people think that the router "knows" the connected device, but in fact it does not. The router keeps accounts for each device and recognizes the MAC address - a series of numbers burned into the network card at the factory, which is unique in the world. The device name column is the "host name" reported by the device itself. What is the name of the machine in your mobile phone settings? What does it report when connected to the Internet? Android reported "android-xxxx", Apple reported "iPhone" plus a person's name, TV and camera each reported their own models. Some smart homes reported nothing at all or reported a series of production numbers, so the list became a hodgepodge.

There is a counter-intuitive point here that you need to stand up for.: The name is self-reported by the device, and the router just relays it. . On the same TV, even Mercury displays one name, and even the neighbor's router may display another name. It's not that the router is blind, but that the two sides have different reporting rules. The new firmware of Mercury and Tenda will "translate" the self-registration to be relatively readable, but if it cannot be translated (the device does not register its name properly at all), only the MAC is stuck there.

Therefore, the correct way to check for online abuse is not to focus on names, but to focus on Is the number of rows correct? . How many permanent devices do you have at home? Mentally count them. The extra rows in the list are the suspects. In this step, how do you measure the online time, how do you check the manufacturer with the top six MAC numbers, and how do you deal with blacklisting? I’m here The article on Mercury Cha Ceng.com and The article on Tenda Cha Ceng.com The complete process has been written here and will not be repeated in this article. Today we have to solve another problem: It’s not about catching a thief; Register for your family .

Mercury: Why can’t I find the entry to change my name in the app?

I checked back and forth three times in the Mercury Routing App at my mother's house and on her own phone. The device details page allows for disabling and speed limiting, but there is no box to change the name. At first I thought it was because the app version was out of date, so I upgraded to the latest version and tried again, but it still didn’t work. I later gave up after reading the official Mercury App function description.: It is written in black and white on the official paper, The name of device management in the App cannot be customized . It’s not that the entrance is deeply hidden, it’s that there really isn’t one. If you use a web backend on your home desktop, you can melogin.cn After logging in, I tried my luck in device management. I clicked on a single device in the web interface of my D191G. The pop-up layers for speed limit and disable were similar to those of the App, and the names were the same as read-only. There will be differences in the menus between old and new machine models, specifically the location of the "Device Management" page in the interface of each generation. Comparison of the new interface and old interface menus There is a table inside.

I have to mention something that is easily confused here.: The App of Mercury overseas version (MERCUSYS) can change the name of the device. The official FAQ describes the steps for changing the name. Just click on the device, change the Device Name, and save. But the same FAQ is followed by a key sentence: Changed name Only displayed on the App of your own account , the default name is still displayed on other people’s phones. So even if you are using the overseas version, the income from name change will only fall on "your own mobile phone". The mainland version of the Mercury App omits even this step and does not modify it.

So what hope do Mercury users have in identifying their devices? I'll tell you all about my family's practices.: Identify the device by matching the password, not by changing the name . It’s clumsy to do it one by one, but you can manage it for years at a time - for the suspicious device in the list, first look at the frequency band it is connected to (2.4G or 5G or wired), then look at its current IP, then go to the suspected machine and power off it. Whichever row in the list turns gray from online is that row. Sweepers and cameras with “physical switches” are best recognized. ； Use the remote control to disconnect the TV and set-top box from the Internet or directly unplug the network cable. ； The easiest way to use a mobile phone is to turn off WiFi and then turn it on again. Recognize a line, take a memo and write down a line: Who are the last four + digits of MAC. Don’t be too rude, my memo with 15 devices in mind was easier to use than any other backend when troubleshooting problems later.

Tengda: You can change your name, but there are conditions

Tenda has a wider path here. My colleague’s AX12, tendawifi.com Log in to the web backend, click on a device in the device management, there is a place to directly change the name, and the list will be updated immediately after the change. Tenda's official help document also has an operation guide specifically talking about "modifying device name and location description", which is about this entrance - Tenda is made by Mercury and Tenda, which treats "custom device name" as a serious function. On the App side, the Tenda WiFi App also has device management. New models follow the rules of the web backend. For machines that can be changed, there is a rename entry in the device details.

But the words "conditionally" are the truth. The first thing is, don't expect it from old machines - in the firmware of my old AC10, the device list is only available and cannot be changed. It's not that you didn't find it, it's because it's not in the menu. The firmware version also has an impact. Tenda’s interface has changed several generations in the past few years, and the menus of different batches of the same AX series are inconsistent. How to identify the machine and the firmware is Firmware upgrade article mentioned in: The firmware on the official website should be aligned with the hardware version first. Another thing is the effective scope of the name change: The name changed in the background of the web page will follow the router and can be seen by anyone who logs in. This is different from the Mercury overseas version app, which is "only displayed in your own account". The latter's name actually exists in the cloud account rather than on the router.

The order for Tenda users to recognize their relatives is straightened out.: Change the name first, then check the number. For those with readable names such as "OPPO-A3" in the list, directly change them to human names. For those with "android-7f", first follow the power-off method in the previous section to verify the identity, and then change the name after checking one. My colleague cleared all 15 devices in one night. After that, he turned on the speed limit, turned on parental controls, and just clicked on the name. There was no need to memorize the MAC address. How to fill in the specific entrance and number of the speed limit? The article about Tenda speed limit There are ready-made reference values.

Random MAC: The biggest pitfall on the road to recognizing a relative

I could have ended it at this point, but there was a pitfall that I didn’t write about, so all the previous chapters were in vain. The second month after I recognized the device, my mother made a video call and said, "The memo you memorized last time is not correct. There are two more Androids in the list." My heart skipped a beat, and I connected remotely to take a look - it wasn't that I was cheated on the Internet, it was that Random MAC .

Today’s iPhone (starting from iOS 14) and Android (starting from Android 10) have a privacy feature turned on by default: Even each WiFi uses a randomly generated fake MAC address to prevent it from being tracked by the network. The idea is good, but the router uses the MAC as an ID card to recognize the device. Once the ID card is changed, the router will treat it as a new device - all previous accounting will be invalidated. I saw a special question in Mercury's official FAQ "Why do multiple devices with the same name appear in the client list?" The official answer is this mechanism, and it is clearly stated.: Functions such as parental control, speed limit, and blacklist are all implemented based on MAC , the device has changed its MAC, and the rules circled before can no longer control it. So when my colleague’s child’s tablet was put under parental control, the “rules suddenly became invalid” after a certain system update. Most probably it wasn’t Tenda having a seizure, but the tablet had changed its ID card and slipped out of the list.

There are two solutions, depending on the situation of your machine. For devices that need to be controlled for a long time (children's tablets, elderly people's mobile phones), go to the device's own WiFi settings and turn off the "random MAC/private address" of the WiFi and use "device MAC" instead, once and for all. ； For iOS, it is in (i) of the WiFi details page, and for Android, it is in the privacy option of the network details. If you have circled the rules on the router but it has failed, just circle the "new and unfamiliar device" in the list again - it is an old acquaintance who has changed his vest. How do Xiaomi users deal with this matter? The article about Xiaomi device recognizing relatives There is also a path on the Mijia side, and the mechanism is the same.

After recognizing: Three finishing things, done at once

Acknowledging relatives is not the goal. Only after the acknowledgment is completed will the network become really easy to manage. Three closing things, in order.

The first thing, The device to be managed is bound to a fixed IP . Printers, NAS, and TVs that are online for a long time will not change after tying the IP and MAC in the router and restarting and changing networks. The benefits are twofold: The address assigned to you by DHCP is fixed, and the speed limit and control rules are also stable according to the IP. Mercury Tengda fixed IP article There are backends that follow the steps. Mercury calls it IP and MAC binding, and Tenda's old firmware calls it static allocation. The pitfalls of both companies are listed.

The second thing, The defensive line of blocking the net has been changed from "kick afterward" to "block beforehand".」 . After the device is recognized, the permanent list at home is fixed. Once the white list is opened, devices outside the list will not be able to enter even if they enter the correct password, which is much more worry-free than counting people every time they enter the backend. The whitelist setting article I have written down the positions and rules, and there is a reminder of the order.: Make sure all your family members are on the list before opening the application. Don't lock yourself out. Remember to turn off the random MAC before opening the whitelist on the machine with a random MAC. Otherwise, if you are blocked from connecting to the Internet next time, you will think that the router is broken.

The third item, As soon as there are too many devices, they will be divided into separate houses. . Eight of the 15 devices in my mother's house are smart homes. The cameras, sweepers, thermometers and humidity meters are all squeezed into the main network. If anyone gets stuck, the whole family will be shaken. Later, I separated the smart devices into a separate WiFi, leaving only mobile phones, computers, and TVs on the main network, so that they would not interfere with each other. If you have more than a dozen smart devices at home, it is strongly recommended to take this step. I have specific ideas here The article about smart device network It has been unfolded here, and there are corresponding entrances to the backstage of Mercury Tengda.

ending: A table sets the rules

That night I helped my mother clear the accounts for 15 devices, and I also went through the lists of the two routers at home. The benefits of this are chronic: You can’t see anything on the day you identify the device. But three months later, when there is a network problem, speed limit, or circle control, you can open the list and know who is who at a glance, and you can complete the location in ten minutes, instead of staring at a mess of garbled codes. The rules are summarized in a table:

Nine out of ten households have not organized the equipment list. Spending one night and saving ten minutes every time for troubleshooting will be worth it no matter how you calculate it.