Client list showing hundreds of extra clients.

[northumberland]

Bit of a strange one I noticed this morning.

At one point 196 clients connected, though I have less than 40.

Looking in the client map they appear to come from one device - my phone - a pixel 9, unmodified and all trusted apps that I've used for years. Firing up my old phone with same apps didn't increase the client count.

Didn't seem to affect performance, though I did have one device that didn't seem to route traffic, I didn't try but likely a reboot of that device would have fixed its connectivity issue.

Using Aimesh with an AX88U running latest Merlin release firmware, the Aimesh node showed the correct client count.

Rebooted phone and froze/paused the apps that do have background permission. Client list continued to grow. Disabled WiFi on the phone and router slowly lowered the client count.

A reboot of the router seems to have resolved everything.

All very weird, could point to an issue, so I'm detailing it here in case!

3006.102.5 on a BE88U

 

[bbunge]

I had the same issue with my AX86U pro. Dumped Merlin and went back to Asus firmware. The Asus firmware works for my needs!

 

[dave14305]

Similar reports have been related to users with link aggregation and Synology devices. Anything special about your setup?

Bug: Clients count on Network Map

Upgraded to 3006.102.5. Everything working fine since the day it was released. Then today, strange behavior. I clicked the "View List" button on the Network Map, looking to see if a device was connecting on the right network. (It was.) Clicked "Show by" / Network, to sort it by network to...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Twiglets]

A thought has occurred to me, on the basis that the multiple clients were coming from a phone, in particular, in this report.
Phones often have the option of selecting the type of MAC Address that is generated for the phone.

Option 1 === known as the 'Phone MAC' on Samsung Phones is a unique BUT unchanging MAC Address that persists for the phone.

Option 2 === known as 'Randomised MAC' on Samsung Phones is a unique MAC that is changed in particular instances.

'Randomised MAC' can be of 2 types:

Persistent randomization​

Android uses the persistent randomization type by default when the MAC randomization feature is enabled. Android generates a persistent randomized MAC address based on the parameters of the network profile including SSID, securitytype, or FQDN (for Passpoint networks). This MAC address remains the same until factory reset. The MAC address does not get re-randomized if the user forgets and re-adds the Wi-Fi network since the MAC addressed depends on the parameters of the network profile.


Persistent MAC addresses are necessary in cases where networks rely on the persistence of the MAC address to provide useful functionality to the user, for example, to remember a device and let users bypass the login screen as expected, or to enable parental controls.

For Android 10 and 11, the framework uses persistent randomization for all networks when MAC randomization is enabled.

Non-persistent randomization​

Under the non-persistent randomization type, which is used for some networks in Android 12 or higher, the Wi-Fi module re-randomizes the MAC address at the start of every connection or the framework uses the existing randomized MAC address to connect to the network. The Wi-Fi module re-randomizes the MAC address in the following situations:

• The DHCP lease duration has expired and more than 4 hours have elapsed since the device last disconnected from this network.
• The current randomized MAC for the network profile was generated more than 24 hours ago. MAC address re-randomization only happens at the start of anew connection. Wi-Fi won't actively disconnect for the purpose of re-randomizing a MAC address.

If none of these situations apply, the framework uses the previously randomized MAC address to connect to the network.

My thought is that 'Non-persistent randomization' is taking place and each new connection is generating a new MAC Address.
These New MAC Addresses are being seen as new clients in the client list.

N.B. For Full Details See MAC Randomisation Behaviour