Broadband App & MAC Addresses

[Randomfifty4]

Hello, I have recently joined Vodafone and was excited to download the Broadband App to control connected devices. As I connected each device to broadband, I made a note of the MAC address displayed on the app and edited the name of that device. After doing this I found a couple of devices connected with unknown MAC addresses. I then checked a couple of devices (iPhones) only to find that the MAC address displayed on the app is not the same as the MAC address on the device although it is the same device. (I know this because blocking them on the app disconnects them from WiFi). Why is the app recording a different MAC address to the device MAC address?              

[Ripshod]

It's quite coomon these days for a lot of devices (phones, tablets, PCs) to use a random mac address. You can disable this so the devices use their native mac addresses in the WiFi settings of each device. 

[Randomfifty4]

Ah I see..... So the blocking functionality on the app is pretty much useless except for devices which use/have a static MAC address?    

[Ripshod]

I just keep using mac filtering and force the default mac for my devices. The random mac function can be disabled for certain WiFi connections like your home, but will still be random on other WiFi networks.

Security is a good thing, so long as you understand what's happening and why.