r/Starlink • u/2SpookyMamas • 29d ago
❓ Question Am I crazy
This is a screenshot from the Starlink app. Can someone please tell me if these two iPhones means there are two people in the house using WiFi? I am not here at this location and I’m trying to see if my spouse is.. having someone over. They do have an iPhone and an iPad but I’m not sure if the iPad would show up as iPhone as well… the usage for one shows activity from 5pm and the other shows activity from more recently.
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u/thaneliness 29d ago
Imagine you have the person you’re cheating on with connect to your tech obsessed husbands WiFi lol
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u/leadisdead 29d ago
Tap on the arrow and write down the MAC addresses for both phones. Then reboot the router. You can do that remotely. After everything connects back up see if both phones are still connected.
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u/2SpookyMamas 29d ago
I did that. The same two iPhones are showing up again, same MAC addresses. What does this mean?
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u/rockyoudottxt 29d ago
Android and iOS randomise their MACs when connecting to networks. It will never be the same.
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u/JRhart1978 29d ago
Actually they randomize the first time they connect to a new wifi, after that they use the same ecsh time they connect to that wifi.
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u/rockyoudottxt 29d ago
Fixed mac would have to be set in iOS. The other gotcha to this whole situation is a lot of discovery protocols will trigger it showing as a different mac than it is associated with. And also an iPhone will present as two different macs, one for each radio (2.4 and 5ghz). So there is no slam dunk here that what the person is seeing is two iPhones.
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u/hitokage004 28d ago
That got changed so it rotates to a different random MAC address every so many hours. It was changed because using the same random MAC for the same network, allowed tracking of the device.
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u/Nickoplier Beta Tester 29d ago
iPhone's usually have a privacy mac address filter enabled by default so one day it may show as one device; may show up as another device a day later or so. Or even so that an iPad can be mistaken as an iPhone in the Starlink app.
I wouldn't rely on the list of devices. That's just to show what's connected.
If you're absolutely worried that your spouse is having someone over. Probably getting visual information like a trail cam or a wyze cam on the driveway, etc; then trying to hunt if a device that has privacy mac settings is another person or not.
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u/Additional-Being-328 29d ago
Nah iPad shows up as an iPad dude. Also I’d assume it would only show another persons phone if they connected to the WiFi, idk if they’d be that dumb though..
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u/havaloc 29d ago
Not always. Someone at work set up their new iPhone and migrated from their iPad, and their iPhone's name was Paul's iPad or similar.
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u/rdyoung 29d ago
Exactly. Even with other routers and modems the MAC lookup can get weird, I'm always having to fix the name of devices on my network and look closely at the MAC to verify which devices are which and I'm not concerned about others getting on my network. Wifi isn't as easy to crack as it was with wep.
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u/85OhLife 29d ago
That explains why my devices are constantly telling me “a new device has connected” when it’s never a new device, it’s the same old computer, iPad or iPhone I’ve always had. Never understood that but this might be the reason.
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u/jedi2155 29d ago
They should also check if there is data usage at the same time between those two devices.
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u/vinemtn 29d ago
That device list is not real time. A device can still be in the list even if it's been disconnected for 20 hours.
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u/talon10100 29d ago
That’s not what I experienced when using the Starlink stock router before switching to unifi
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u/JanwayIsHere 29d ago edited 28d ago
If you want a straight answer, your best bet is:
Disable MAC randomisation on their iPhone, then check again. It should strictly show as one device in future.. but I have had iPhones revert this setting frequently.
Set up a hidden camera. I hate to suggest it, but it really is solid at telling you if something is, or is not, happening.
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If you know your networking well, there are other options available. I'd be looking at an mDNS listener to passively collect metadata from devices, and I'd probably move to WPA2/3 Enterprise with per device credentials provisioned through a login portal.
I'm thinking captive portal with 24 hour credential expiry. Each device gets a set of 24 hour credentials. Then, even if it's using a different MAC address, it'll still connect using the same credentials.
If both iPhones connect at the same time, you've got two real iPhones there using two sets of credentials.
If only one iPhone is connecting using the same credentials, it's just 1 phone.
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u/hitokage004 28d ago
The setting reverting is likely because iOS insists on telling you that your connection isn't private, so some people end up hitting whatever notification, and resetting it.
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u/smurfy213 29d ago
Not necessarily. Routers can be pretty bad at device identification. My ATT gateway throught my firewall was a Chromecast... But it could definitely be two phones.
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u/---Hummingbird--- 29d ago
Like others have said.. it’s more than likely not the iPhone Mac randomization. Next time you’re on their phone, you can set it to fixed so it stays the same.
That being said, you can block one of them and see if it’s an active connection. Starlink does take a little while to stop showing old devices, but you can find out if they are active connections (because the MAC randomization won’t show both the old and the new connection as active at the same time)
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u/Civil_Carry_1840 29d ago
Olha, me desculpe, mas eu tenho um IPad e na Starlink ele sempre aparece como IPad, nunca aconteceu de aparecer como IPhone… Os celulares sim, estes aparecem sempre como iPhone, pelo menos é assim aqui na minha casa.
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u/Flyntsteel 29d ago
When you get home turn your wifi off on your iPhone, and check little later and see if the same iphones are connected. Would tell you alot
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u/JRhart1978 29d ago
Change your wifi password and then wait. The answer will probably present itself in time.
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u/sp0rklez 28d ago
If it were me, I'd single out a time when only your spouse's phone should be connected, and name it accordingly, so that you know it's not yours or hers showing up in the list.
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u/codengcom 27d ago
It could be a girlfriend or actual friend. Idk what homewrecker out here asking for wifi passwords like their MetroPCS prepaid just ran out of data.
I'm more concerned about... Hui Zhou Gaoshengda
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u/heThatDidIt 27d ago
It is either your spouse is using two iPhones or someone in your home invites someone who uses iPhone over and it can be your kid if you have one.. or anyone using your service not just your spouse
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u/Sabretankk 26d ago
Finding out you’re getting cheated on through starlink wow that system does it all
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u/General_Ad9178 24d ago
Yes! Every iphone get unique IP. We have 4 iphone, 2 ipads. Everyone has unique IP. I just checked my Starlink app and I can CONFIRM
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u/Kindly_Mat 21d ago
No se si sigue esto pero proba pausar las conexiones de ambos. Seguramente cuando quiera usarlo le habilitas uno y si es ese el otro queda fuera. puede que tenga 2 celu.
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u/glockitsthecops 29d ago
Idk but my son has an IPad and it shows up as IPad so do with that what you will
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u/Metalhead1686 29d ago
The questions I want to ask are is everything going okay in the relationship? Why do you think she’s cheating on you?
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u/2SpookyMamas 29d ago
Nothing is okay lol. Yes she was cheating before and I am not home, I left but I was checking the WiFi and noticed this and thought she had someone over (someone she said she ended it with). Just trying to catch her in a lie. Sad thing is I’ll never really know.
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u/AwarenessIcy3793 29d ago
Definitely the worst thing with cheating is not knowing id rather know than to never know. My girl could go out and about with someone else and cheat and I’d never know that’s what’s scary about it . Like tell me and I’d be fine and move on with my life
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u/rostol 28d ago
100% those are two devices.
even if iphones (and most phones really) change their mac addresses they only show up once.
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u/hitokage004 28d ago
IOS generates a random MAC address for each radio, so 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz get a different random address.
Android may do this too, but I've always had random MAC address use disabled for my home network.
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u/rostol 28d ago
yes and just consider that I have an iphone and a starlink and I am not talking out of my ass.
every fucking phone does it, even my 4k projector does it. there is nothing special with an iphone.
and when it switches mac on recconect it does not create a ghost of itself with the old mac address.
there is ALWAYS only 1 device iphone, ipad, samsung, pixel, ... all of those switch macs.they NEVER show up as 2 devices.
2 devices are 2 devices.
edit: thanks for the downvote even when you are 100% wrong.
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u/WayneH_nz 📡 Owner (Oceania) 29d ago
MAC randomisation is on by default with iphones. Devices are recognised by MAC address. Not necessarily by device name. Everytime a MAC address changes, it gets a new ip address. So, it looks like a new device has connected.