Strange device name

My Cisco SG300 switch is the last item listed in the list of clients on my Asus RT-AC68U router but for some reason the client name has come up as VSN Systemem BV

I've googled the name but nothing conclusive comes up. I'm at a loss as to why my router is reporting the switch as above.

Here we go : developers of telephony systems and other work. https://www.vsnsystemen.nl/

In reply to a post by joconnell:

I'm at a loss as to why my router is reporting the switch as above.

Name on the front (Cisco) is not necessarily the company that made it. Cisco could have designed it, and outsourced manufacture. Very common in the I.T. industry.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 23-Feb-20 13:14:17)

In reply to a post by clyde123:

Here we go : developers of telephony systems and other work. https://www.vsnsystemen.nl/

Thanks, I did come across a page but it was all in Dutch and so couldn't understand it, but looked at it on my phone which offered to translate it. Guess I coulda used Google translate...

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by joconnell:

I'm at a loss as to why my router is reporting the switch as above.

Name on the front (Cisco) is not necessarily the company that made it. Cisco could have designed it, and outsourced manufacture. Very common in the I.T. industry.

I should've mentioned that it was previously listed as Cisco Systems in the router client listing but only recently was listed as per my OP

The only recent change to the router was to upgrade from quite an old version of Merlin to the then latest version and the firmware was downloaded from the official Merlin DL site.

Edited by joconnell (Sun 23-Feb-20 17:29:43)

Yeah I use the Small Business series extensively, and for the SG300/350/500/550 their hostname only ever reports as either a factory default switchblaaah or a hostname set in the administrative interface.

You might want to check on the router whether the MAC address of the listed device actually matches the Cisco MAC and look it up on a HWADDRESS type site too. The router might be reporting old information some other client that historically had either the same lease or else the same factory default IP and is mixing them up.

The only reason I would think to see an unexpected hostname is if sold pre-owned (or opened and returned) without being factory reset.

Edited by prlzx (Mon 24-Feb-20 00:43:03)

In reply to a post by prlzx:

Yeah I use the Small Business series extensively, and for the SG300/350/500/550 their hostname only ever reports as either a factory default switchblaaah or a hostname set in the administrative interface.

You might want to check on the router whether the MAC address of the listed device actually matches the Cisco MAC and look it up on a HWADDRESS type site too. The router might be reporting old information some other client that historically had either the same lease or else the same factory default IP and is mixing them up.

The only reason I would think to see an unexpected hostname is if sold pre-owned (or opened and returned) without being factory reset.

The client list on the router only ever showed the default switch name that you've described (and I haven't bothered changing it) until recently. The only change to the router was when I updated the Merlin firmware.

There is probably a way to adjust the name in the switch and so that's what that is--not different than the name on a computer. I bet if you factory defaulted the switch it would say something else.

In reply to a post by SamirD:

There is probably a way to adjust the name in the switch and so that's what that is--not different than the name on a computer. I bet if you factory defaulted the switch it would say something else.

I've changed the name of the switch but it's made no difference. However, if I use the network scanning I have installed on my iPhone, it reports the switch hostname to be it's default name (i.e. switch1234ABF or whatever), so not sure what's going on there. I suspect the odd name of the switch in the Asus router's client list is down to the router mis-reporting something.

In reply to a post by joconnell:

I suspect the odd name of the switch in the Asus router's client list is down to the router mis-reporting something.

Either with Merlin's version or the Asus original, youll find a lot of Asus knowledgeable people on SNBforums.

I seem to recall that the client list in Asus routers is a bit, err, naff. I think I've seen 3 sources for the client name in the list:
a) the clients name set in the client
b) hostname given in the DHCP address reservation
c) MAC address lookup

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Either with Merlin's version or the Asus original, youll find a lot of Asus knowledgeable people on SNBforums.

I've posted there too, no definitive replies yet though...

Purely a guess, but - perhaps VSM Systems wrote the new firmware and it's coming from that ?

"The only recent change to the router was to upgrade from quite an old version of Merlin to the then latest version and the firmware was downloaded from the official Merlin DL site."

The identification is often based on MAC addresses (the hardware address of an Ethernet network adapter). VM's will naturally generate their own random MAC. The same is true of Android phones with Android 9 or 10, as they introduced MAC randomisation. If you have one of these on the network, then that's your answer.