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The Device List menu displays an overall view of the devices connected to your LAN. This information is gathered from a number of different sources including DHCP leases, ARP tables, and WiFi clients.
Interface reports details of the interface on which the router sees the device. Since release 2021.3, this includes physical and logical interface name, and wireless 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 wireless radio interface. For WiFi-connected devices, the SSID to which they are connected will appear under the interface name.
In FreshTomato, device names start at “0”. The first WiFi adapter might be named “wl0”. The second Ethernet adapter might be “eth1”. Additional instances are created when virtual interfaces are created (secondary SSIDs).
Media: In this column, an icon represents the interface on which the device is connected and its connection status.
Interface types include:
WAN interfaces are represented with black and white inverted
A greyed-out power icon represents a device that is disconnected or off.
MAC Address is the physical (hardware) address associated with the interface.
IP Address displays the IP address linked to the MAC address of the client device. If no address is shown, one is not assigned/known yet. This can happen briefly during authentication of wireless devices, even if the wireless password is correct.
Name shows the DHCP Hostname of the client device. If no name is shown, it is usually because the device got its lease on the network from a different router, or this router was rebooted after the lease was given. You can work around this by adding 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 menu.
RSSI indicates Relative Signal Strength. This 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 considers other parameters, like noise floor, and interference. Quality is a more accurate assessment of the signal.
TX/RX Rate is the current transmit/receive link speeds between router and wireless client device. It is normal for these numbers fluctuate based on the activity level of the client device and the quality/distance of the signal.
Lease displays the time remaining before a DHCP lease expires. The lease time is also a hyperlink. Clicking on it lets you delete the current DHCP lease from the database, and deauthorize the device (if it's WiFi-connected). This is useful when creating static IP reservations, to make connected devices refresh their previously automatically-assigned IP to the 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, the WiFi is likely to be unusable. In such situations, the main issue is usually other routers or Access Points transmitting on the same channel. Use the Wireless Survey function to get more information.
On the 2.4GHz band, common sources of interference include Bluetooth devices, cordless phones, wireless headphones, low-quality power supplies, microwave ovens, etcetera. On the 5GHz band, there are typically fewer sources of interference. One source of interference is DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection) but for specific channels only. DFS is a WiFi function that enables 5GHz WiFi to use frequencies that are generally reserved for radar. Ironically, DFS was designed to reduce interference, not increase it. DFS interference varies, depending on the country/physical location of the equipment. If you suspect your interference is due to DFS, please see Wikipedia's List of WLAN Channels for details.
Measure: On certain (mostly MIPS-based) devices, there is an extra button to trigger the measurement of Noise Floor (interference). For more information on the noise floor, see the Wireless Survey menu.
Network Discovery: Since release 2021.4, a network discovery function was added. By default, it is disabled. If enabled, it will remain set for the length of the web interface session, although scanning/discovery will stop if you leave the Device List menu. Network Discovery can be set to use the Linux arping command or the traceroute command. Basically, this function scans all the IP addresses in a range to accurately populate the Device List table. Arping is the preferred setting, as it's faster and lighter on resources. However, sometimes, such as with Apple devices, traceroute may perform network discovery more precisely.
To the right of the Network Discovery mode is a non-adjustable countdown timer which represents how often the script is run. Essentially, the countdown is the ARP cache aging time. Remember that modern WiFi devices might stay connected to the router while in sleep mode. Network Discovery will likely detect those devices, but the Hostname information may not appear until they awaken.