Mac Address Wrong in Client List

[Paliv]

I just noticed that one of my devices in my client list on an RT-AC68P (with the latest ASUSWRT) had a slightly different Mac Address listed in the client list than it actually has. It is a Ring Chime extender (not a big fan, but it's the only thing that made the stupid doorbell work) and the last digit of the Mac Address had been one alphabetical character off from that the actual Mac Address of the device. Yesterday it added again to the client list now with the correct Mac Address, and the incorrect address shows as disconnected. At first I thought someone might be spoofing an address, but in the traffic analyzer it was showing the traffic going through the device (listed with the wrong address) and when it listed the new address all traffic for the camera is now shown going through that device. Is this a bug in the device list? I know just enough about networking to confuse myself sometimes, but is there a reason the last character in the Mac Address would change one letter and then change back? I have had someone be able to gain access to my network (which has a 20+ character passphrase key) already last month. I did multiple resets and re set up the network with a new SSID, pass key, and IP address just to clear everything up. I am not sure what is going on with this thing.

 

[cvilledave]

I had this same issue, but I think it may have to do with how the Ring Chime works rather than being an issue with the ASUS router. I am not positive on this, but I think the Chime actually has two MAC addresses, one is for connecting to your wifi network and the other is used in connecting to the Ring devices. The two addresses differ in the last character. I'm not sure why, but I've noticed that on occasion they flip ... and the one that previously connected to the router swaps with the one that connected to the Ring devices.

 

[Paliv]

I had this same issue, but I think it may have to do with how the Ring Chime works rather than being an issue with the ASUS router. I am not positive on this, but I think the Chime actually has two MAC addresses, one is for connecting to your wifi network and the other is used in connecting to the Ring devices. The two addresses differ in the last character. I'm not sure why, but I've noticed that on occasion they flip ... and the one that previously connected to the router swaps with the one that connected to the Ring devices.

Good to know, I found it a bit odd. Normally I would have just wondered why the name changed back to Texas Instruments from the identifier I gave it, but now I noticed I can see disconnected devices in the static ip assignment drop down I looked for it there. I did look at the logs and that was the first MAC address it used and then flipped after a large download. Maybe an update and a reset?

 

[cvilledave]

I haven't monitored/analyzed the traffic like you have, but I did wonder if the flip has something to do with firmware updates for the Ring Chime. Unfortunately, the Ring app doesn't provide much information on the firmware that runs in the devices, it only states whether they are Up to Date (I actually can't recall if I've ever seen anything other than that status displayed). It might be easier to figure out if they listed a firmware version or date updated, but I guess with a mass market audience that might cause confusion (and thus more contacts and costs to Ring support) by providing more information than most people really need to know.

On a slightly different but related topic ... I have found the Ring Chime to be somewhat flaky in maintaining wifi connectivity via AIMesh, with the interface frequently going offline. I played around with the router settings, including setting the "Disconnect clients with RSSI lower than" at -70dBm and that seemed to help a bit. But eventually, I just reconfigured my Ring devices to bypass the chime and connect directly to the router and/or nodes, and those connections have been much more solid. I contacted Ring on this to see if they could shed some light on what was happening. I guess they can access some type of logs in their troubleshooting, but they indicated the wifi network was dropping and that was what was causing the problem. Given the early state of AIMesh I'm not ruling out potential issues with the router/nodes, but if you run into this issue and are using the Chime as an extender you can search back through the forums to see what others have recommended to improve their 2.4 Ghz connections.

 

[Paliv]

I have the same gripe with their firmware message. Seems like something that could easily be buggy and you’d never know because it would say it’s up to date when it isn’t. I only have a router alone with no aimesh nodes, though I’m considering it. I had no end of connectivity issues with the ring doorbell, so I tried a non-ring range extender, which worked well and then started dropping the ring a lot, even though nothing else had problems. So in a last ditch effort I got the chime pro to save the sunk cost. Even 5 ft away through a wall the thing has an rssi to the chime of 60 half the time, but I can set my phone next to it and get a decent signal from the router that’s in the middle of the house. So far despite the ring having a worse signal than what the router reported it is working better with the chime. The chime has a good connection. Motion alerts always work well, but over never once been able to answer the door when someone rings it (always just sits and spins when that happens). Overall I’m disappointed, my dad’s doorbell pro works so well with the AC1900P and our doorbell 2 has been a big flop. Their networking is almost so dummed down that it’s useless for troubleshooting. At least I always know when a package is there or some creeper came by.