Phantom devices with locally administered MAC addresses keep appearing

AaronKennedy
Getting noticed

Phantom devices with locally administered MAC addresses keep appearing

I have recently begun to see MANY devices with randomized MAC addresses show up as connecting to the SSIDs that I broadcast on my network, including one whose SSID is kept hidden. The timing of these appearances leads me to believe that it is likely from the mobile phones of workers on a construction site adjacent to our buildings who have set their phone Wi-Fi to rotate MAC address. But that isn't why I am confused.  This is the issue...

 

Those rotating MAC addresses are showing up as randomly connecting to ALL of the MR access points on my network, even the ones where there is no possible way that the device could be in the broadcast range of the MR that registers the connection.

 

And to make things worse, the same MAC address will show up as moving from one MR access point to another in an amount of time that would be impossible to physically travel. 

 

I have even tried to chase down some of these phantom devices. When one appears as connected to an isolated MR, I will run to that location only to find nobody in or around the building with the MR that is reporting the connected device.

 

I could understand if these devices were constantly showing up as connected to the MR access points that are within range of the construction site, but why are these unknown devices showing up as connecting through MR access points that are too far away to be within range of the construction site? Why are devices showing up as connected when there is nothing physically present within range of the access point? And why do the devices seem to move across my campus faster than a human can run?

1 Reply 1
BlakeRichardson
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

@AaronKennedy  That sounds like you need to open a support case, its sounds more like a bug with the dashboard than something that you can fix yourself. 

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