The Device List menu displays an overall view of the devices connected to your LAN. Information is gathered from a number of different sources including DHCP leases, ARP tables, and WiFi clients.
Interface: shows the interface on which the router sees the device. Since release 2021.3,
this includes physical/logical interface name, and WiFi SSID.
brX
is a bridge representing the LAN.ethX
is an Ethernet physical interface. vlanX
is a virtual interface that will always be related to a physical interface. wlX
is a (main) wireless radio interface.
WiFi-connected devices appear under the interface name of the SSID to which they are connected.
Device names start at “0”. The first WiFi adapter might be named “wl0”. The second adapter might be “eth1”.
When virtual interfaces are created (secondary SSIDs), additional instances are created.
Media: An icon here represents the interface on which the device is connected, and its connection status.
Interface types include:
WAN interfaces are shown with black and white inverted.
A greyed-out power icon represents a disconnected device or one that is off.
Clicking on the above icon sends a WoL (Wake-on-LAN) packet to the device to wake it up.
The client device must support Wake-on-LAN for this function to work,. As well, WoL settings in the BIOS, network adapter and Operating System may need changing for it to work properly.
MAC Address: is the hardware address associated with the interface.
IP Address: This displays the address linked to the client MAC address.
If no address is shown, it is unknown. This can happen briefly while authenticating WiFi devices, even if the passkey is correct.
Name: shows the DHCP Hostname of the client device. If no name is shown, usually it's usually the device got its lease from a different router, or this router was rebooted after the lease was given. A workaround is to add your own dhcp-host reference in the dnsmasq Custom configuration.
For example, dhcp-host=70:EE:50:37:E8:46,myhostname
This field is also affected by the “Generate a name for DHCP clients which do not otherwise have one” parameter in the DHCP/DNS/TFTP menu.
RSSI: shows Relative Signal Strength. It applies only to WiFi clients connected to this router.
RSSI is measured in negative numbers, where 0 is the best possible value. Thus, -53 is a stronger signal than -74.
Quality: is similar to RSSI, but also considers parameters like noise floor/interference. Quality is a more accurate signal assessment.
TX/RX Rate: This is the current transmit/receive link speed between router and WiFi client device. It's normal for these to fluctuate based on traffic level of the client device and quality/distance of the signal.
Lease: displays the remaining time in a DHCP lease. Clicking on this hyperlink deletes the current DHCP lease from the database, and (if WiFi connected), deauthorizes the device. This is useful when creating static IP reservations, to make connected devices refresh their previously automatically-assigned IP to a new, manually-reserved one.
Noise floor: indicates the amount of interference affecting each physical radio interface.
Noise, like RSSI, is measured in negative numbers. The best possible value is -100dBm. Any interference will increase the noise value and decrease the Quality.
If you experience a strong RSSI and a strong Noise floor, WiFi may be unusable. In these situations, the main cause is usually other WiFi gear transmitting on the same channel. Use the Wireless Survey tool to get more information.
On the 2.4GHz band, common sources of interference include:
Typically, there is less interference on the 5GHz band. DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection) is a common source of interference for certain channels. DFS is a WiFi function that lets 5GHz WiFi use frequencies usually reserved for radar. Ironically, DFS was designed to reduce interference. DFS interference varies, depending on location of the equipment. If you suspect DFS interference, see Wikipedia's List of WLAN Channels for details.
Measure: is an extra button, on certain (mostly MIPS-based) devices to trigger Noise Floor measurement (interference). For more details about noise floor, see the Wireless Survey menu.
Network Discovery: is available since release 2021.4. This scans all IP addresses in a range to populate the Device List table. (Default: disabled). If enabled, it runs for the entire web interface session. It will stop when you leave the Device List menu.
Network Discovery can be set to use Linux's arping command or the traceroute command. Arping is preferred, as it's faster and uses less resources. However, sometimes traceroute may yield more precise results. This is true with Apple devices.
To the right of Network Discovery mode is a non-adjustable countdown timer representing how often the script is run. Basically, it reflects the ARP cache aging time. Modern WiFi devices may stay connected to the router while in sleep mode. Network Discovery will likely detect those devices, but Hostname information may not appear until they awaken.