Merge multiple MAC-addresses to one device

mozarella

Hi,

I'm asking, if it'll be possible in the future, to merge multiple MAC-addresses to one device. Lots of devices could connect to network through different network-cards (e. g. LAN, WLAN, portreplicator or USB2LAN). They are shown as seperated devices within the fing.app-list. Ofcoz a device will be offline (LAN) when it's connected over WLAN. It'll be helpful to merge this kind of devices to one device.

regards,

mozarella

VioletChepil

You can merge access points on your network:
- just connect to the access point and run a Fing scan and it will tell Fing App it's part of your network. 
Though, I'm guessing you would like to do something more with the MAC addresses. 
I guess you are wanting to know about manually entering MAC address and merging them? We currently don't support this feature but it's something to keep in mind. I'm adding the tag FeatureRequest to this post. Any more details you can share on this would be great. 

mozarella

Hi Violet,

when a computer enters a fingbox watched network, the new computer will be anounced and listed in the fing.app list. For example this computer was connected over LAN, it's LAN-MAC is showing in the fing.app-list. If the computer is now connected over WLAN, a 2nd MAC for the same machine is showing in the list. And maybe you have a USB2LAN or portreplicator, the same machine has 3 entries in the list.

I mean, if it'll be possible to merge all this three "machines" to just one? Another example, sometimes i saw one entry either AVM Fritzbox or some android smartphones, there's written the IP-address and a small 2, means that there's another IP-address for the same device. So it's merged already, maybe the 2nd IP is connected to the same NIC.

regards,

mozarella

KenD

Would be great if something like this could be done, or perhaps have the ability to manually merge the devices. We have several PC's at home that are both connected via LAN and sometimes Wifi for the laptops. As mentioned above LAN and WIFI has their own MAC addresses.

gfondeur

I would like to see that too

VioletChepil

Ah yes. I'm moving this one over to Fing App feature requests! 
New sub-category here: https://community.fing.com/categories/feature-requests

Purplex

I just created a community account to make this same very request.
It is rather annoying that many devices on my network use different MAC addresses where it is the same device.
Usually we are talking abaout a laptop that has wired lan,  wifi 2.4G and wifi 5G but I even have a laptop that swithes between 2 different MACs for 5G, no clue why but I suppose higher and lower channels.
The result is that my fingbox lists 52 devices where I only have about 30 network devices in my home which makes it less comprehensive so a merge devices would be a great feature.

mozarella

Hi purplex,

i also noticed that one device has two MAC-Addresses for just one connection. You mentioned that one of your laptops also has that problem for 5G Wifi. I think, that device in my network has the same issue, 2 MAC for one connection. I didn't think of your idea before, but i agree, sounds logical, higer and lower channels with different MAC-addresses.

mozarella

SJMarty

I am an initial backer and have had my Fingbox for almost two years now.  I have multiple Synology NAS units (DS1517+) on my network.  The NAS units have four NICs which can be bonded within the Synology DSM and seen as a single interface.  Each network interface obviously has its own MAC address and the bonded interface also has its own MAC.  Needless to say, with the Fing app's inability to merge multiple MACs into a single device, my list of network devices is a mess.  Since my NAS units contain all of my data, the Fing app has had diminishing returns for me.

In October, 2017, I opened a support request (#19623) regarding this issue on shortly after getting my Fingbox.  Here is what I was told by "Brent" at Fing...

"I apologize for the delay in responding. Unfortunately we have received quite a few questions since the Fingboxes went live and we are still trying to catch up. In any case, regarding your issue. At the moment there isn't a solution in place to manage the device with 4 separate network interfaces. We have plans to allow you to merge these devices into a single entry but it will be a few months before something like this is ready. At the moment we only have the options to either discover the full network by MAC or by IP address."

About a year later, in August of 2018, I opened another support request (#64517) on the same issue since the functionality had not been added.  Here is what I was told at that time by "Ron" at Fing...

"I have spoken to all parties, and It has been put on the development schedule.  I do not know where it is on the schedule).  Just like you, I have more devices that have multiple interfaces.  Just keeping looking at our Facebook, website, for updates, I know it is coming I just don't know when"

Interesting that now - another year later - someone asks for the same thing and it gets moved to a "feature request" thread as if it's the first time it's been requested.  That's pretty disappointing considering that I've been told twice through the official support channel that this is (or at least was) on the development schedule.

OrangeBucket

Just to add to the mix...

I have a device that only has a wired connection. It is plugged into a port on a Wi-Fi Extender box. If the extender capability isn't enabled the physical MAC address appears on the router side. If it is enabled a virtual address is used instead. This wasn't a big deal until I needed to switch to the latter.

I run the Fing app from a phone which may connect to Wi-Fi on the router or the extender. So whether I see the virtual or physical address depends where it is connected to.

Multiple interfaces being seen as multiple devices isn't ideal, but in my case a single interface with a single MAC address is listed twice and that is really annoying. Understandable, but annoying.

Pooh

@SJMarty as a team lead in our company I can say that these things do happen. And they happen frequently. There's many a time an item has hit the backlog, and then got relegated or even accidentally removed.

It's not ideal, but it's also something that can happen. In addition it's entirely possible that two lists are maintained by different teams.

I know that one of the aims for @VioletChepil with this forum was to try and fix some of these communication issues: in fact part of the choice of this forum software was to create a more streamlined approach between the users and the developers. The Fing team is trying hard to mitigate these issues you've had in the past, but sadly when one gets growth, this sort of thing sometimes happens.

VioletChepil

@SJMarty the community allows us to track feature requests in a more cohesive way. I'm in the process of turning all feature requests into ideation threads so members can upvote them. We did not have the community previously and do receive 100s of requests via various channels; social, support email, user reviews etc. So the Community can help us better track which features are in demand - especially with the ideation thread capabilities! As for the previous correspondance from the support agent, I do not see this specific feature in the latest timeline that we shared and its possible this was said in error. I'm requesting more details on this for you! 

mozarella

Maybe this is a good way to add this feature to the timeline for future-release, isn't it?

John

I am not sure if this is a different thing entirely, but would love fing app / fingbox to see the AP's on my mesh as 1 devices, or at least appreciate its a single 'device' with multiple AP's

Basil

I too would like the feature. 

John

@VioletChepil
managed to dupe this in my thread which can be removed: https://community.fing.com/discussion/2130/combine-wired-and-wireless-device-mac-into-a-single-fing-device#latest
but to stress this is definitely something I would be keen to see added!
@mozarella dont forget to upvote your own post!  @OrangeBucket upvote too

Nelson

I use Plume WiFi in the home which is basically a mesh network with access points. Each AP (Plume pod) has 5 MAC addresses. 2 are for Ethernet, 1 is for 2.4 Ghz band, and 2 more for 5 Ghz band. I have 14 of these pods around the house. I would love to be able to add the extra MAC addresses to each device. 

grintoul

Same issue here. Added a wifi extender and now every device on my network is appearing twice, with two different MAC. My Fing list is suddenly a total mess and almost unusable. Manually merging devices would be much appreciated - i.e. if we could manually tell Fing to treat two different MAC addresses as the same device.

briandela

Many devices have multiple network interfaces (e.g. WiFi ANS ethernet, multiple Ethernet connections). These appear today as separate devices.

Would be great to have the option to “merge”/“group” for network connections as a singular device.

Robin

Hi @briandela
Thanks for your post. I will include this suggestion for our developers to review. If other users want this feature to get implemented, please upvote the initial post. Thanks again.

grintoul

See also this post where a lot of people have asked for same:
https://community.fing.com/discussion/comment/12770#Comment_12770

pwmeek

One more upvote. If nothing else, consolidating WiFi and Ethernet connections for a single device would be very helpful.

DocZZZ

Upvote for this feature

SethG

There seems to be a misunderstanding about the nature of this issue. This shouldn't be considered a feature request; this is a bug that needs a fix. There shouldn't need to be any voting on whether this is implemented; this is a logical breakdown in the design of the system between a term (device) and reality.
A device, as the list name implies, should represent a single physical (or virtual) device regardless of the number of MACs, IPs, or interfaces associated with it. There will be always be edge cases, but it would be safe to assume that most devices more sophisticated than a phone can have multiple interfaces exposed to the network. Desktops, Laptops, NASs, and Servers are a great example of this. It would also probably be safe to assume that most users interested in Fing are probably a cut above the average Internet user and are significantly more likely to have at least one device with multiple network interfaces on their network.
It also bears noting that their is a significant volume of users that will never take the time to find the forum, look for a specific issue, create an account, and vote on it.

DocZZZ

Well, that’s certainly one way to look at this. There’s no disputing that a single device can have multiple network interfaces and MAC addresses. I see the way to display this information as a programming choice. If concentrating on the device, it would make sense to incorporate all the interfaces in the device's info display. If however, the displayed info is focusing on device addressing, the various interfaces can be separated or grouped by WiFi, Ethernet, or even Bluetooth, for example. In my view, this is not a “bug”, but a feature - it’s all about how you look at it (IMHO). Cheers!