Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis

Internet of Things

  • Home
  • Analysis
  • Startups
  • How-To
  • News
  • Podcast
  • Events
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Speaking
    • Facebook
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Don’t audit your smart home devices with a router. Use this instead.

March 27, 2021 by Kevin C. Tofel 1 Comment

On our most recent IoT Podcast episode, Sam called in with a question about managing the networked devices in his smart home. Specifically, he wants to get a list of the IP and MAC addresses in his smart home from his Nest mesh Wi-Fi router. Ideally, he wants to capture that information in one step for a single document for auditing and managing the device connections.

This can be done but it’s not an automatic process as Sam alluded to in his message. He knows that in the Nest Wi-Fi app, he can see the IP and MAC addresses of the connected devices on his network one by one. I can do the same in my Eero app and I’m sure most mesh networking apps have the same information.

But few, if any, actually provide you a way to export the device information. That’s OK though: I don’t think that’s the best approach anyway.

While MAC addresses never change, IP addresses can. Keeping a document of the addresses and devices is probably more of a hassle than its worth.

Additionally, it would only tell you what devices are connected to your home network at a given point in time. And it tells you next to nothing about the data being sent from those devices other than how much of it is going into the cloud.

So I actually recommend looking at the Firewalla line of devices, two of which I’ve previously reviewed: The Blue and the Gold models. Either the $179 Firewalla Blue or the $418 Firewalla Gold is what I’d recommend, depending on the network’s speed.

Firewalla alarm

The Firewalla Blue is best suited for home connections up to 500 Mbps, while the more expensive Gold model handles 1 Gbps network speeds. It also has many more features, such as being a standalone router, which is why it’s so much more expensive.

Both monitor the devices on your network and actually tell you where your data is going by server and/or country. This is far more useful information in my opinion as you can see which devices are more “chatty” than others by sending lots of data beyond what you’d expect. Both devices offer a no monthly fee VPN server so you can browse the web more securely when away from home.

For most people, these devices are overkill. Many are happy just to see a notification from their router’s mobile app that tells them a new device joined the network. For Sam and others that want a deeper dive into connected devices on their home network, I’d say look at Firewalla.

To hear Sam’s question in full, as well as our discussion on the topic, tune in below to the IoT Podcast below.

 

Want the latest IoT news and analysis? Get my newsletter in your inbox every Friday.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Featured, How-To Tagged With: connected devices, Firewalla, google, mesh network, Nest Wifi, network monitoring, network security, smart home, WiFi

Sponsors



Become a sponsor

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email.

Comments

  1. Peter Vernam says

    April 2, 2021 at 7:29 am

    I have a rather large eero network (12 eeros, 160+ devices) in a large 120-year-old home (its lath-and-plaster walls do not pass radio signals very well, so I have an eero in nearly every room). I keep track of all of my devices with a Fingbox and the Fing app, which lists the IP and MAC addresses of all of my devices, even ones that are not currently connected (they appear greyed-out). My IP addresses never change because I have configured an address reservation for each device within the router’s DHCP server (easily done via the eero app). And, by going to app.fing.com, I can export a complete list of all my devices, in either CSV, XML, or HTML format.

    Also, it’s not true that “MAC addresses never change”. Apple added MAC address randomization with iOS 14 (and iPadOS and watchOS 7), Android has had it since version 10, and it even be enabled in Windows 10 (google “mac address randomization” for details, or for instructions on how to disable it).

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

IoT Podcast

Listen to the latest episode of the Internet of Things Podcast. Just press play!

Sponsors

Become a sponsor







Get Stacey’s free weekly Internet of Things newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Recent Comments

  • Brian Brown on Can’t hear that phone ring? Smart home to the rescue!
  • NateS on Need a smart switch without a neutral wire? Here are some options.
  • Chris Wood on Need a smart switch without a neutral wire? Here are some options.
  • Jack on Podcast: Making meaning from Matter product delays

Stacey on Twitter

Tweets by gigastacey
Copyright © 2023 SKT Labs, LLC · Privacy Policy