Strange device name in client list

[Johno]

My Cisco SG300 switch is the last item listed in the client list on my Asus RT-AC68U router but for some reason the client name has come up as VSN Systemem BV I've googled the name but nothing conclusive comes up. I'm at a loss as to why my router is reporting the switch as above.

Any ideas anyone?

 

[Joshuajackson]

Try looking up the mac address and find out with vendor it is. That will give you more info.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Try looking up the mac address and find out with vendor it is. That will give you more info.

That's effectively what he's done which is why he's asking the question.

 

[appleseed]

guessing but if it's a used switch purchased from a business, maybe that could be it. I see the release date is 01-AUG-2010

 

[Johno]

guessing but if it's a used switch purchased from a business, maybe that could be it. I see the release date is 01-AUG-2010

That's a very reasonable suggestion but that particular switch was bought new and has always displayed in the router's client list as Cisco Systems but I've noticed recently that it's now displaying what Isis in the screenshot.

Probably not related but I did update the Merlin firmware fairly recently.

 

[Johno]

The latest on this is that I've changed the host name of the switch in it's configuration screen and rebooted the switch (and the router) but it's made no difference. However, if I use the network scanning app I have installed on my iPhone, it reports the switch hostname to be it's default name (i.e. switch1fcd17), so not sure what's going on there. I suspect the odd name of the switch in the Asus router's client list is down to the router mis-reporting something, which leads me to think there may be a bug in the Asus firmware code or in Merlin code.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something here there doesn't seem to be any mystery. The client list is doing what it normally does, i.e if the client (the switch in this case) doesn't register a host name (for the interface at 192.168.1.254) with the router's DNS the router will use the Vendor name derived from the interface's MAC address. So presumably the switch's network interface has a MAC address that begins with 00:09:25.

EDIT: Duplicate thread posted here: https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/multiuser/4637250-strange-device-name.html

 

[Johno]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something here there doesn't seem to be any mystery. The client list is doing what it normally does, i.e if the client (the switch in this case) doesn't register a host name (for the interface at 192.168.1.254) with the router's DNS the router will use the Vendor name derived from the interface's MAC address. So presumably the switch's network interface has a MAC address that begins with 00:09:25.

EDIT: Duplicate thread posted here: https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/multiuser/4637250-strange-device-name.html

It doesn’t - here’s what’s reported by the Asus router app

 

[ColinTaylor]

OK thanks for the clarification.

So what do you have defined for 192.168.1.254 on the router at LAN > DHCP Server > Manually Assigned IP...

And also Network Map > Clients > View List > Clients Name.

 

[Johno]

OK thanks for the clarification.

So what do you have defined for 192.168.1.254 on the router at LAN > DHCP Server > Manually Assigned IP...

And also Network Map > Clients > View List > Clients Name.

When defining the manual IP for the switch, I enter the switch MAC address, specify the static IP and hostname then press the + button to add the static IP entry, then the name appears as VSN Systemen BV

 

[ColinTaylor]

When defining the manual IP for the switch, I enter the switch MAC address, specify the static IP and hostname then press the + button to add the static IP entry, then the name appears as VSN Systemen BV

So are you doing this using a mobile app or using a PC's browser to access the GUI? (I've never used the app so I don't know how it works)

If you're doing this on a PC are you doing this from the DHCP Server settings or the Network Map's Client Status list? (It sounds like the DHCP settings)

 

[Johno]

So are you doing this using a mobile app or using a PC's browser to access the GUI? (I've never used the app so I don't know how it works)

If you're doing this on a PC are you doing this from the DHCP Server settings or the Network Map's Client Status list? (It sounds like the DHCP settings)

I'm using the PC's browser to access the GUI and doing it via the DHCP settings under the section Manually Assigned IP around the DHCP list

You mentioned that the router looks up the MAC address to match the vendor, if I do that using https://uic.win/mac/vendor/search/ it returns Cisco Systems, but the router seems to get it wrong.

 

[ColinTaylor]

You mentioned that the router looks up the MAC address to match the vendor, if I do that using https://uic.win/mac/vendor/search/ it returns Cisco Systems, but the router seems to get it wrong.

Yes it's strange. I can see in your screen shot in post #8 that it has correctly picked up Cisco Systems, Inc as the vendor for 00:56:2B.

There are two "names" the router uses. There is the host name which if I understand you correctly it is overwriting when you enter it on the LAN>DHCP page.

Then there is the "client name" seen in the image in post #1.

Are both the "client name" and the "host name" set to VSN Systemem BV?

Even though you don't appear to be able to change the "host name" can you change the "client name" to something else.

 

[a5m]

Not sure if this sheds any light on the issue but I recently updated the firmware on an RT-AC66U and connected it as a Repeater to an RT-AC86U. I used a wired connection with my laptop which has the Device name Samsung-PC.

After taking the Repeater to the basement and turning it on it shows up in the RT-AC86U Client List as 'Samsung-PC'. It seems to have "inherited" the name of the laptop I used to set it up.

Is it possible the same thing happened with a device with the name VSN Systemem BV that was once connected to that switch?

 

[Johno]

Yes it's strange. I can see in your screen shot in post #8 that it has correctly picked up Cisco Systems, Inc as the vendor for 00:56:2B.

There are two "names" the router uses. There is the host name which if I understand you correctly it is overwriting when you enter it on the LAN>DHCP page.

Then there is the "client name" seen in the image in post #1.

Are both the "client name" and the "host name" set to VSN Systemem BV?

Even though you don't appear to be able to change the "host name" can you change the "client name" to something else.

Thanks for all your help so far.

I can specify the host name in the DHCP page but the “client name” cannot be changed. However, in the client list page I can change the “client name” and the new name is reflected back in the DHCP confit page.

 

[Johno]

Not sure if this sheds any light on the issue but I recently updated the firmware on an RT-AC66U and connected it as a Repeater to an RT-AC86U. I used a wired connection with my laptop which has the Device name Samsung-PC.

After taking the Repeater to the basement and turning it on it shows up in the RT-AC86U Client List as 'Samsung-PC'. It seems to have "inherited" the name of the laptop I used to set it up.

Is it possible the same thing happened with a device with the name VSN Systemem BV that was once connected to that switch?

It’s possible, but I know for a fact that the switch was brand new in sealed box and that prior to me updating the AC68’s firmware to the latest Merlin build from an old build from 18 months ago, the client list showed the switch as Cisco Systems Inc and not VSN Systemen BV.

One thing I did was run a script in a router SSH session to save the current NVRAM settings before updating the firmware, but I subsequently learned that the script was out of date and it’s use not advised, so didn’t run the restore script after the firmware update.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I can specify the host name in the DHCP page but the “client name” cannot be changed. However, in the client list page I can change the “client name” and the new name is reflected back in the DHCP confit page.

So if I understand you correctly you have now fixed the name by re-entering it in the client list?

 

[Johno]

So if I understand you correctly you have now fixed the name by re-entering it in the client list?

Yes, but still none the wiser as to how it became VSN Systemem BV in the first place.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Yes, but still none the wiser as to how it became VSN Systemem BV in the first place.

Indeed. Unless other people start reporting similar strange names appearing by themselves I guess we'll never know. I suspect it was just a one-off caused by "000925" contained within a corrupted nvram variable.

 

[DnLS]

Yes, but still none the wiser as to how it became VSN Systemem BV in the first place.

Hey. Did you find any explanations? Had similar thing recently