Arris Products
Arris or Arris International Limited is an American company that designs and manufactures telecommunications and networking equipment such as cable modems, routers, and cable TV set-top boxes. The company’s telephony equipment delivers voice, video, and data services through broadband connections. The company takes pride in its DOCSIS-certified cable modems. Arris also keeps up with the changing times by incorporating current technologies into its products. Recently, the company ventured into producing WiFi Mesh networking equipment with the latest WiFi 6 technology.
Arris has been around for decades, and its products are trusted and used by mainstream cable system operators and broadband service operators around the globe. Their products are also available for consumer use. With that said, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) might just be one of those that use Arris products for their services. That also may be the reason why you see an Arris device or devices on your network.
Arris Devices on Your Network
Now that you have an overview of what Arris is, the mysterious Arris device that pops up on your network list might just be one of your own devices. If you’re using multiple routers, it could be your own router or cable modem or another Arris device on your network. At times, you may even see an Arris group of devices if your network components are all Arris-made. Yet, it’s still better to make sure whether the Arris device is indeed a legit device on your network.
Check for the ‘Arris’ Brand
First, you need to check whether your devices carry the Arris (ARRIS) brand. Your service provider may not tell you upfront what the router brand is during installation, so do your own investigation if you don’t know the equipment’s brand. Also, it may not necessarily be that all your routers or devices are from Arris. Your service provider may be using equipment from different manufacturers, which means you have to check your devices. You would normally see Arris’ label on their devices, so it would only take a minute to check this out.
If none of your devices is from Arris, then it’s safe to ban the device from your network. However, if the opposite is the case, further investigation is needed to identify whether the devices belong to your network or not.
Check the MAC Address
Knowing that you use Arris devices on your network does not fully guarantee that the Arris device you see on the list of connected devices is your own. It could also be that your Arris router has detected another nearby Arris device. It could be as harmless as your neighbor’s router or TV box, or it could pose security issues if it’s another device hiding behind Arris’s name to penetrate your network.
To further verify, log in to your router’s interface. If your service provider did not provide you with the credentials, try the default user name and password found on the label of the router or modem. If the default credentials do not work, give your service provider a call if they. They may have set the user name and password during installation. Once you have successfully logged in, scrutinize the devices connected to your network. List down the MAC addresses of your Arris devices or any of your devices and see if these match the MAC addresses of the connected devices on your network.
Once manufactured, each network adapter is assigned its own Media Access Control (MAC) Address. No two devices will share the same MAC address, so checking the MAC Address is a sure way of verifying the devices in your network. However, note that Arris combo devices like their cable modem router device will show two or three MAC addresses. If you see that the MAC addresses only differ in the last one or two digits, this should not cause worry, as there might just be more than one interface on the Arris device. As an example, Arris may embed two network interfaces in the same device so that you will see MAC addresses like these:
MAC (Router) – 27:87:0A:1E:45:44
MAC (RF) – 27:87:0A:1E:45:45
If any of the connected devices do not match the MAC addresses of your devices, then you can remove these devices from the list.
Tighten Your Network’s Security
If a device has penetrated your network, that means your network’s security is easy to crack. After you’ve removed the suspicious devices from your network, make your network more secure by changing your SSID and password. It is best to use the WPA3 type of security to increase the network’s level of security.
Conclusion
Arris is a leading manufacturer of telephony and networking equipment. The firm has been trusted by many service providers and consumers alike. Seeing an Arris device on your network may or may not be a cause of concern with plenty of Arris devices around. If you know that you’re using Arris devices on your network, the chances are slim that your network is being hacked. Conversely, if you don’t have any Arris device on your network but constantly see an Arris device connected to it, this would call for some investigation, removing the device from your network, and leveling up your network’s security.
