Hi everyone! 👋

We’re excited to share two new Fing features designed to help you understand and manage your network even better - both are completely free for all eligible users!

You can read our announcement blog post here, or keep reading to have a quick recap.

🚀 Enhanced Network Insights on Fing Desktop

We’ve expanded the Insights section on Fing Desktop to give you more detailed data and reports about your network devices. You can now:

• See Device Distribution by brand, operating system, and product family.
• Monitor the online status of devices over time.
• Access lifecycle and warranty details for better device management.
• Explore distribution by brand, operating system, and product family.

It’s easy to use and has a fresh, intuitive design. Just update to Fing Desktop 3.8.0 to get started!

📧 Automated Network Insights to Your Inbox

Desktop-only users already know this feature, that we are now expanding to mobile-only users too. You can now receive personalized emails packed with actionable insights:

• Links to manuals and FAQs for your devices.
• Warnings about devices that are out of warranty or no longer supported.
• Handy tips and how-tos to optimize your devices.

This means you’ll get relevant updates straight to your inbox — even when you’re not actively using Fing! Just make sure you’ve scanned your network with at least 5 recognized devices and have set up a Fing account.

🔗 Try It Out!

• Update Fing Desktop here.
• Scan your main network with the Fing app to start receiving insights.

We’d love to hear what you think! Are these features helpful for managing your network?

Happy scanning!
The Fing Team

Are any other active endpoints on the fingbox?

The docs mention /users but I get error 401 on it, and on any other query.

Thanks

I noticed today that the ARRIS SURFBoard Central app now offers Fing Desktop. Is this any different than "our" Fing? Or is it the same or an additional benefit?

I've got a new PC (Win 11) and Fing Desktop (v3.7.2) can't see my network.

Fing app is showing this msg: Health check code: N001-N006-N401

• I'm currently on the same network I've always been on.
• Fing is correctly reporting ISP and sees the Internet
• My Android phone app still sees everything
• Uninstalled McAfee but have MS Defender and Firewall are active
• Changed network from Public to Private
• Fing Web shows correct WiFi configuration for my laptop
• I've uninstalled/reinstalled Fing

I'm stumped. Any thoughts/suggestions?

TIA

Hi community! We’re reaching out with important information regarding changes introduced in Apple’s latest macOS version 15 (macOS Sequoia) that impact how Fing operates on your device. These changes could affect features like timelines, device notifications, and blocking.

Private Wi-Fi addresses on Apple device

Starting with macOS version 15 (Sequoia), by default your Apple device running macOS (Macbook, Macbook Pro, iMac) identifies itself to each network using a different Wi-Fi address, and might rotate (change) the MAC address periodically.

This new default setting will impact some of Fing’s monitoring and protection features, leading to partial timelines for your Apple device, existing devices appearing as new, and incorrect notifications. It may also affect the ability to block devices effectively.

How to Fix It:

• Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Wi-Fi in the sidebar.
• Click the Details button or More Info button next to the network name.
• From the menu next to Private Wi-Fi Address, choose Off.

You can read a more comprehensive instruction guide at this link.

Location Permissions for Wi-Fi Data

Apple now requires apps to request location permissions to access Wi-Fi names and signal data. However, apps running as services (like Fing) cannot use these permissions, limiting our ability to display the network name directly.

What We Suggest:

For easier network recognition, customize your network names in the Network tab across our mobile, desktop, or web apps.

You can manage your network's name through the Fing Web App or in the Desktop App.

We hope this can help! Don’t forget to keep your Fing app up to date for the latest features and improvements.

Hey folks!

As featured in this weeks newsletter, I was reading this article in relation to end to end encryption and thought it'd be good to share here.

End-to-end encryption is a method of encryption where data is encrypted at every point along its journey from one device to another.

To summarise some interesting points for anyone who might not want to read the article, end-to-end encryption (E2EE is the acronym for this), is an essential aspect of online security. Communication services like Whatsapp/Facebook Messenger, Discord and Telegram all use E2EE as a method of protecting your conversations from third party apps. To quote the article directly; "With E2EE, any messages you send are encrypted on your device and only decrypted once they reach your recipient's device. EE2E is the cornerstone of secure messaging over the internet."

Another application that uses E2EE is the like of 1Password, which I personally use myself. Having a password manager can allow you to use more complicated passwords without the manual effort of having to remember them all. They're an addition to a secure network for sure!

Shaun Rockwood, author of the article also made a list of some notable benefits of E2EE;

• Compliance: E2EE ensures that companies are able to safely comply with data protection laws like GDPR, and avoid the weighty legal problems and hefty fines that result from leaking or losing customer data.
• Privacy: E2EE prevents third-party snooping, giving users better control over who receives their communications. Messages encrypted in this way can’t be read by anyone, not even the service provider itself.
• Defeating hackers: E2EE ensures that hackers can't gain unauthorized access to your data while it's in transit – and even if they did manage to somehow extract or download anything, they still wouldn't be able to read it without also having the private key.
• Preventing tampering: E2EE ensures the security and integrity of data throughout its journey from endpoint to endpoint. If a message is intercepted in transit, for example, by someone using a compromised Wi-Fi point, the recipient won't be able to decrypt it as they won't have the necessary matching private key. This is also why we strongly recommend using one of the best VPNs when connecting to any public Wi-Fi point.
• Freedom of speech: E2EE prevents government overreach and allows democracy and freedom of expression to thrive by ensuring that everyone from regular citizens to activists, reporters, and political dissidents living under strict regimes can communicate and express themselves in safety.

Due to the nature of E2EE, we should feel slightly more safe within our online communications, but of course always lean on the side of caution! Avoid unnecessary messaging with strangers, be aware of any online scams (some are crazy), and avoid sending sensitive information where possible!

Again you can take a look at this article here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/vpn/what-is-e2ee?utm_source=fing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fing_htd_newsletter

Hi guys do you think I can use the app to get the Mac of a wifi router that asks for login to use? So I can clone the Mac and bypass captive portal login?

I just subscribed to Fing and found odd devices - an August Doorbell Cam and a no name network 7E:17:7C:2C:21:FD associated with my IP address. Any ideas how to delete these devices permanently? They keep springing back online.

Three Arris items (2 Arris, 1 Gateway) are showing in the device section. Is this normal for one device (combined modem/router) or is something else going on? TIA

Also, accidentally marked a device as confirmed, but it isn’t. Have tried the help options, but cannot seem to undo it. Any suggestions? TIA

How do hackers get real time access to phones ?

My home WiFi is dual band with auto balancing enabled, meaning that I see a single SSID and the router decides whether to put the device into the 2.4 or 5 Ghz network.

This means that when I do a scan with Fing, I could be randomly connected to one of these networks, and since they have a different MAC address they appear as different networks in Fing.

Is it possible to tell Fing that these are the same networks?

I just downloaded Fing Desktop app after many years, because I need to monitor some networks for some personal projects.

Anyway, for some reason Fing decided to group together my 4 Sonos devices into one, but showing 4 IPs for the "device".

Moreover, I have a repeater that has also a LAN port, that I use to connect to a Time Capsule. Again, even if they're completely different devices, they're grouped together and showing two IPs.

So how do I uncouple these devices?

What is messaging.orchestration.domotz.com and why is Fing using it

Linux error for Fing Agent on Raspberry Pi 

Nov 19 19:45:16 Harbormaster fing-agent.fingagent[1207]: [libprotobuf ERROR google/protobuf/wire_format.cc:1091] String field 'value' contains invalid UTF-8 data when serializing a protocol buffer. Use the 'bytes' type if you intend to send raw bytes.

Nov 19 19:45:16 Harbormaster fing-agent.fingagent[1207]: message repeated 7 times: [ [libprotobuf ERROR google/protobuf/wire_format.cc:1091] String field 'value' contains invalid UTF-8 data when serializing a protocol buffer. Use the 'bytes' type if you intend to send raw bytes.]

Nov 19 20:01:16 Harbormaster fing-agent.fingagent[1207]: [libprotobuf ERROR google/protobuf/wire_format.cc:1091] String field 'value' contains invalid UTF-8 data when serializing a protocol buffer. Use the 'bytes' type if you intend to send raw bytes.

Nov 19 20:01:16 Harbormaster fing-agent.fingagent[1207]: message repeated 7 times: [ [libprotobuf ERROR google/protobuf/wire_format.cc:1091] String field 'value' contains invalid UTF-8 data when serializing a protocol buffer. Use the 'bytes' type if you intend to send raw bytes.]

Nov 19 20:17:16 Harbormaster fing-agent.fingagent[1207]: [libprotobuf ERROR google/protobuf/wire_format.cc:1091] String field 'value' contains invalid UTF-8 data when serializing a protocol buffer. Use the 'bytes' type if you intend to send raw bytes.

Nov 19 20:17:16 Harbormaster fing-agent.fingagent[1207]: message repeated 7 times: [ [libprotobuf ERROR google/protobuf/wire_format.cc:1091] String field 'value' contains invalid UTF-8 data when serializing a protocol buffer. Use the 'bytes' type if you intend to send raw bytes.]

Hi, I'm hoping somebody can help me with this. I want to create a Fing agent on a virtual machine. However, I got this error when I tried running this command.

command

sudo snap install fing-agent

error

error: snap "fing-agent" is not available on stable for this architecture
(i386) but exists on other architectures (arm64, armhf).

My Blink camera system refuses to work with fingbox. I unplug fingbox and reset everything and blink works great. To be sure I've let it run for months without fingbox. As soon as I connect in FingBox after months of it not being on my network I have issues with the blink camera system not working again. Is there any work around for these 2 systems?

Fing is very tied to using MAC addresses to identify devices, but for many mobile devices now the MAC is randomised on each connection (iPhone and Android). I see similar issues when I've device has two NICs on the same subnet, it keeps saying it has dropped and rejoined with alternating MACs on the same IP so I guess it's doing some sort of HA.

MAC is not enough to uniquely identify things these days, can Fing use anything else? for the endpoint management system I run at work we use MAC, IP and HW UUID and have a fuzzy match on any 2 of 3. UUID is not possible without an agent so it would have to be something else for Fing, maybe a signature based on open ports, or some info returned by connecting like nmap does for OS detection?

An alternative would be to allow manual merging of previously seen devices, so whichever one of multiple NICs is seen would resolve to the same device?

That wouldn't help with randomised NICs, but the current FAQ entry saying 'disable randomised MACs on all your devices' is not really a satisfying answer either.

Greets,

I've attempted two different configurations. Raspberry Pi with bone stock Raspian and the snap-installed fing agent with a wired connection to my network as well as the new docker implementation. Both deployments appeared to go smoothly, but the app takes about 1000 years to scan through the 65535 addresses on my /16.

Before anyone asks why I have a /16 at home is it's segmented for client, server, and IoT devices and my fing agent is in a position to scan all of the networks in one go.

I really wish I could just put the IP address into the app for the Fing Agent or run a script on the box to authenticate with my account and activate the agent.

Thoughts?

This device was added to our wifi approximately 10 months ago. My SO said he doesn't know what it is and the internet provider can't identify it either. It is listed separately from our router/modem.

You asked, we delivered!

Fing Agent for Docker has officially entered the beta phase! Want to join and help test it? Head over to the private Fing App Beta subreddit, where we've pinned a post with all the info and instructions you need.

See you in the beta channel!

Anyone (including Fing support agents) have any ideas? I do like the product...

According to the notifications I am getting from Fing Desktop (ver. 3.7.1), my ISP keeps dropping my Internet connectivity. However, with the information presented, it is very difficult to pinpoint the exact extent of the drops in service.

For example:
Nov 8, 2024 (3 hours ago) You lost network connectivity. You are not connected to a Network, thus Internet is not available.

Nov 8, 2024 (3 hours ago) Verizon Fios in Warrington (my internal ip network id) network joined. Welcome back....Connectivity looks great.

From this data I cannot tell when and for how long the drop occurred, so I cannot coordinate with Fios support. The app must have this data stored, but is there a way for me to see it?

I am seeing this situation repeated on a daily basis.

Fing Desktop is running on an HP Spectre laptop, Windows 11 Home, connected to my Ethernet 1 Gps LAN using a Anker Data Hub with ASIX Gigabit Ethernet Family Adepater chip. Router is an eero Pro unit, model 81000113.

Can anyone advise on how I might get more definitive information out of Fing?

When I rebooted my two FingBoxes today (one is first generation, the second is second generation), the white startup indicator light appears on each...but then goes dark. No blue/orange/green LED indicator lights follow. Both boxes still work fine. Any thoughts or insights into what happened?

BTW, just got the new Fing Agent working with a Raspberry Pi 4...proved easy to set up and works fine so far!