Typical number of networked devices in your home?

How many devices do you have on your network?

I started to run into minor issues when the modem rebooted due to DHCP allocation of IP addresses. Setting fixed IP’s used to be a reasonable solution but as the number of devices increased it became a PITA.
So I moved to DHCP tables that provided IP’s based on MAC Addresses. Brilliant! Having a Gargoyle router made this nice and easy and allowed me to track where the bandwidth gets used (as well as limit the kids after hours when they are supposed to be in bed :P).
I checked the list today and I have 58 devices in the table… and that’s after I cleaned out some redundant ones and I know there is a couple I haven’t bothered adding to the list since they are rarely used!

So iPads, iPods, iPhones and computers are expected… but then there is gaming consoles (And hand held gaming consoles), TV’s, HTPCs, bluray players, surround sound, media players, airplay speakers, kindles, airports, VOIP boxes and until recently I also had lightglobes! Am I special or is this becoming the norm for people?

I’ve got 13 and I thought that was a lot! Not a smack on 58!

I think it is becoming the new norm. I ended up setting up a router and switch behind my TV so all the AV paraphanlia can connect via ethernet, and I ran ethernet cables under the house so I can have a strong connection on the computers. iPads and iPhones are wireless.

I’m using DDWRT. I found I get a better connection as well using custom router firmware.

I should of added we are a family of five, although 3 are kids under 10 but with iPods and iPads they have 6 devices and there is a couple of older Nintendo DSi’s although they aren’t used very much anymore (but are still on the list).

Everything that can be cabled is. A single gigabit ethernet runs to each TV (one in the lounge and one in the kids rumpus), both have gigabit switches to share that between any consoles, HTPC, speakers at each location (conveniently they are either end of house so I have AP’s at both ends, although I’m thinking of upgrading to a ubiquity AP that covers everything instead).

I can think of 16 offhand. 58 is nuts!

I have quite few, including two Samsung wifi smart aircons, and 5 wifi electric plugs that allow remote switching and timing - haven’t counted, but if you add computers, idevices, printers, we are probably looking at 20. Nowhere close to 58!

We have edit 22 devices plus any devices that regular visitors bring with them (mostly they’d already have the wifi password for our guest network). I’d forgotten about some (listed below).

27 inch iMac
Mac Mini
Windows 10 Desktop PC
Windows 7 Desktop PC
MacBook Pro
MacBook Air
Windows 10 Laptop
Windows 7 Laptop
Chrome Book
iPad Air
iPad Mini 3
iPad Mini 2
Nexus 7
Apple TV 3
Xbox 360
Wii
iPhone 6 (x 2)
iPhone 5C
LG Phone
Kindle Fire
Kindle Paper White
HP Printer

I don’t have 58, but after going through my list I am at 46. There may be a few I have not thought about though.

I think the short answer is that we all have way too many connected devices :wink:

1 Like

I just cleaned up my summary again:

There are a few duplicates (like I have both the WiFi and Ethernet listed for the Mac Mini’s because I have switched at different times) and there are a few devices that aren’t actively in use (like the DSi and the Android Media Players). But day to day there are 42 devices that connect, the rest if and when I pull them out for something and there are plenty of transient devices that aren’t listed (friends and family).

Gargoyle tells me that 48 devices connected to the network at some point last month.

About 30, at last count. :hushed: Including wireless printer, chromecasts, speakers, etc.

Goodness. And I thought I was overdone with 5

1 Like

Time Capsule (used as router)
MacBook Pro
iPhone
iPad
HP Printer
Apple TV (Living Room)
Apple TV (Bed Room)
Canon G1X mk 2 (to geotag from iPhone)
Canon G3X (to geotag from iPhone)
Withings scale
Apple Watch (sometimes)

Not bad for a single bloke.

I had to figure out an issue a while back and couldn’t get over how many networked devices we had. They just kept creeping in I guess. I have network cabling run a few years back as well with some getting their own direct cable.

A scale! There is one of those in there too! The O2 sensor and blood pressure monitor are bluetooth :stuck_out_tongue:

Are we counting bluetooth devices too? I only included ethernet and wifi ones.

Sorry no, I wasn’t counting bluetooth anywhere, just in that post that reminded me of the WiFi scales I got a little carried away about the other [bluetooth] connected health devices.

Do people use MAC address filtering as a security measure for your wifi?

I do this, and it’s a hassle when I add devices such as wifi-electric plugs that do not have a MAC address printed anywhere, requiring me to add them manually to the network to find out their MAC address.

I have between 30-40 depending on what I’m working on. Half of those would be virtual guests, the other physical host/devices.

Hm ,if you include lightbulbs, then about 43 wireless devices on the homenetwork.

No, but given I do go to the trouble of allocated IP’s (based on MAC) I keep thinking I should put a rule in place that limits anything getting it’s IP outside my known group. I can cut out internet access, but local access would still be there unless I used the routers built in AP (which I don’t at the moment since I use the Apple AirPorts).