As you all know: when viewing the list of connected LAN clients in Merlin, it's possible to click on the existing name for a particular client and change it to an arbitrary nickname, and Merlin will remember this nickname and associate it with that same client across disconnect-reconnects and across router reboots. However, there is (AFAICT) no way to view the entire table of nicknames that have been stored, to sort and change views thereof, or to edit the nickname strings or the MAC addresses with which each is associated. In fact, there's no straightforward way to see any existing nickname records defined for clients that are not presently online and connected to the router.
I was reminded of this fact today when I opened the "ASUS Router" smartphone app (which is kind of ugly, and which I don't often use) and tapped "Devices" on the row of control buttons across the bottom of the display. This presents a list of presently-connected LAN client devices, which includes their nicknames as stored in the router's memory (though, unlike the Merlin Web UI, there's no way to sort them by different attribute columns, or to subset them by connection type [Ethernet/2.4GHz/5.0GHz]). Beneath the list of connected devices, however, appears a complete list of offline devices — that is, every entry in the router's entire table of saved nicknames which is associated with a device that is not presently connected. AFAIK, this is the only way to even see offline nickname records, much less to edit them, and the UI for doing so is cumbersome.
I would very much appreciate having the ability, in the Merlin Web UI, to view, sort, filter, and edit the entire table of saved device nicknames, regardless of whether any represented device is connected or not. It would be even better if each device record were to include a field containing a "Last Seen" timestamp of when the device was most recently connected to the router. (This could be displayed as an absolute time [when was it?], a relative time [how long ago?], or both, at the user's option.)
As an alternative to building a table-editing UI, an acceptable workaround would be to introduce the ability to export the complete device-nicknames database, either in delimited-text format or as an XML property list, and to import the same. This would allow the user to edit the table offline, using whatever tool they prefer, and then upload the changed table back into the router for use.
Thanks,
~ Justin
I was reminded of this fact today when I opened the "ASUS Router" smartphone app (which is kind of ugly, and which I don't often use) and tapped "Devices" on the row of control buttons across the bottom of the display. This presents a list of presently-connected LAN client devices, which includes their nicknames as stored in the router's memory (though, unlike the Merlin Web UI, there's no way to sort them by different attribute columns, or to subset them by connection type [Ethernet/2.4GHz/5.0GHz]). Beneath the list of connected devices, however, appears a complete list of offline devices — that is, every entry in the router's entire table of saved nicknames which is associated with a device that is not presently connected. AFAIK, this is the only way to even see offline nickname records, much less to edit them, and the UI for doing so is cumbersome.
I would very much appreciate having the ability, in the Merlin Web UI, to view, sort, filter, and edit the entire table of saved device nicknames, regardless of whether any represented device is connected or not. It would be even better if each device record were to include a field containing a "Last Seen" timestamp of when the device was most recently connected to the router. (This could be displayed as an absolute time [when was it?], a relative time [how long ago?], or both, at the user's option.)
As an alternative to building a table-editing UI, an acceptable workaround would be to introduce the ability to export the complete device-nicknames database, either in delimited-text format or as an XML property list, and to import the same. This would allow the user to edit the table offline, using whatever tool they prefer, and then upload the changed table back into the router for use.
Thanks,
~ Justin
