Odd windows 10 issue

[Martin_172]

cant seem to get to the bottom of this!
When I go to file explorer then network, the machines on my network show up as expected but under the phones tab so does random phones, and by random I mean sometimes handsets you cant even buy in this country when I google them!

when I check my router it has no record of them being connected to the network

the names change almost daily and then maby return a few days later. it does it on more than one computer and does so even after a fresh install.

google brings up nothing, no one else complaining about it

 

[Darren S]

Do you have unprotected wireless powerline adapters in your house?

 

[Gareth]

Are you connected over Wi-Fi? Make sure Wi-Fi sense is disabled.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...word-with-facebook-outlook-and-skype-contacts

 

[Martin_172]

Do you have unprotected wireless powerline adapters in your house?

I do have powerline adaptors in house!! this the cause?

 

[Darren S]

I do have powerline adaptors in house!! this the cause?

If they are wireless - it could be the cause. Do you know what make & model they are? If purely wired, it would be highly unlikely that a phone would be able to connect.

It's worth the effort to setup your powerline adapters properly - even just the pure wired ones. Give them easy-to-identify names like 'hallway', 'lounge' etc and encrypt them with password - so that the 2, 3 or 4 adapters only communicate with each other and ignore any other traffic.

 

[Martin_172]

They are purely wired, I'll check the make when I'm home, I just plugged them in and away they went no setup so I'll have a look. It's very odd

 

[Darren S]

They are purely wired, I'll check the make when I'm home, I just plugged them in and away they went no setup so I'll have a look. It's very odd

Definitely just wired? The recent trend is to remove any signs of antennae and have the aerials hidden inside the unit themselves - much like they do with laptops. I'd certainly be checking the make and model number first.

 

[Martin_172]

I'll check but they were cheapest of the cheap so I doubt it

 

[Martin_172]

ZyXEL PLA4201 v2 500Mbps Mini Powerline Adaptor - Twin Pack
https://www.zyxel.com/se/sv/products_services/pla4201_v2.shtml?t=p

 

[Gareth]

Yeah they are just regular powerlines, you need to make sure its encrypted. But also, as I said previously, if you have computers / laptops using Wi-Fi connections you need to make sure Wi-Fi sense is disabled also.

 

[Martin_172]

another one today! wifi sence now turned off on both

 

[Darren S]

Just so we're not barking up the wrong tree - is your Windows 10 machine connected directly to the router and not through a powerline adapter?

If so, can you still 'see' that Sony or Vodafone device when you unplug the powerline adapters?

Do you live in an apartment block or communal living? I had similar issues until I encrypted my own adapters. It would be worth (regardless) - downloading the Windows app from here and running it.

https://www.zyxel.com/se/sv/support...tab=Software&pname=PLA4201 v2&mtname=Software

You did say that you plugged them in and performed no setup. By their very nature, they will be promiscuous and open to anything. From other powerline utilities that I've used in the past -the software will locate any adapters on the local subnet. It should pickup all the ones you know of and from there you can apply encryption passwords to them and give the device a more friendly name as I mentioned before - to make them easier to identify in future.

When setup correctly, powerline adapters are great pieces of kit. They even worked fine in my old house and that dated back to 1863. At times, the electrics seemed as flaky as to have been from that time too!

 

[Martin_172]

cheers for that will check out the software when I'm home, I'm in a semi detached 1950's house
router is connected to a powerline adaptor downstairs then upstairs its a powerline adaptor into a 5 port switch and then into the pc

they are just a temporary solution until my loft conversion is done and I can wire it with cat 6, they work pretty well apart from this issue lol

 

[Darren S]

cheers for that will check out the software when I'm home, I'm in a semi detached 1950's house
router is connected to a powerline adaptor downstairs then upstairs its a powerline adaptor into a 5 port switch and then into the pc

they are just a temporary solution until my loft conversion is done and I can wire it with cat 6, they work pretty well apart from this issue lol

Sounds good!

I would have said going CAT6 in your house is OTT. But given it carries only a reasonable premium over CAT5 and bandwidth use will continue to rise - it makes sense. Who wants to re-wire their home in 5 years time because they saved a few ££ when fitting the cabling initially?

Don't forget to leave some slack on the cable - just in case you decide to move a socket a few feet either way, later down the line.