Well - the pattern seems to be that I see the phones in Windows Explorer but they're only there for a while and then disappear. They never as far as I know, appear as attached devices in the router admin page. Neither is there a trace there of the hidden IP's when I have found them with Netscan.

Although I previously used my PC on wifi, it's now connected by ethernet.

It does seem as if things only go awry if I enable wireless. So my answer for now is to keep it disabled.

It could be windows 10 but that�s not explaining why they don�t show when the WiFi is turned off.

It�s also not justifying the open ports including the windows SMB port found when an nmap was run against one of these mystery devices.

If it was the OS playing some weird magic you�d expect nmap to show the host as down and no open ports and services.

I have seen something similar to this issue when people use their laptops on trains and Windows 10 shows devices that aren't connected. The solution to that issue is to make sure network device discovery is turn off and make sure you don't have any Bluetooth enabled on your computer if you aren't using it.

It doesn't cost you any additional money to have a fixed IP with Plusnet (it's a one time payment - £5 comes to mind).

Just wondered, as this seems to be a Windows Explorer thing, if this actually means you have access to them and not the other way around. Are you just picking up the SSID or something similar, maybe bluetooth connected, ready for pairing? I do know that Windows 10 seems to display far more info than my Windows 8.1 machine. SSID's, for instance, the number of networks displayed on my Windows 10 is 11, with Windows 8.1, I only get shown 5. Just a thought.

It's been a nice read though, thanks to ukhardy07, as I never gave it a thought about turning WPS back off after I'd finished using it.

In reply to a post by 69bertie:

It doesn't cost you any additional money to have a fixed IP with Plusnet (it's a one time payment - £5 comes to mind).

I got one years ago when they were free. Just a tick box when signing up. I'm wondering whether to get shut and not whether to get one 8^)

I do have a BT dongle for my PC but I don't keep it connected and rarely use it. SInce my PC has no BT connectivity I think I can rule that one out.

Some confusion about networks as well I think. I think you may be talking about available networks that you see. I'm talking about my own LAN - as the man said "there can be only one" 8^)

Edited by longedge (Mon 01-Jan-18 15:29:53)

As I think I suggested some days ago this appears to be a feature of Windows 10 when Wi-Fi is enabled and AFAIK has nothing to do with the router. I think, and perhaps grasping now at straws, it is something to do with Win 10 allowing users to link directly with other users point to point or be a wireless hot spot. I think it's all down to the virtual Wi-Fi adapter with systems running Win 10 being able to become a software-based wireless access point

Until Windows 8 came out ad-hoc mode was dealt with by the device driver. Windows 10 does not need the driver to use ad-hoc mode anymore and by just disabling a few services this can be disabled very easily.

Indeed and is what I do on my machines that run Win 10 and have Wi-Fi. I'm just a little surprised that this Win 10 feature isn't better known and therefore this thread.

I must admit that I have seen unknown devices connected to my router with Wi-Fi enabled (which is why I currently have it disabled).