Anyone with a ton of smart home devices in their house will tell you that WiFi networks can get congested rather easily, and it can be difficult to track every device on the network simply by their hostname.
A major reason why this happens is that a lot of these smart home devices are named after the chips or microprocessors they use. In this article, we’re talking about a HonHaipr device on your WiFi network, what it does and whether or not it’s safe.
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HonHaipr devices explained
HonHaiPr is simply short for Hon Hai Precision Industry Inc, more popularly known as the Foxconn Technology Group. If you’re seeing this name on your network list, chances are one of the Foxconn devices on your network has been misidentified as HonHaiPr instead of their actual hostname.
This can also happen with some cheaper products that don’t get enough attention or care during the manufacturing process to get their hostnames changed from anything other than the manufacturer’s name.
Finally, your WiFi router might also be at fault here. Some WiFi routers tend to use the manufacturer ID as the hostname instead of the actual device hostname.
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Are they safe?
Since the bug only affects devices from Foxconn, you’re not really at risk here. It might be an inconvenience not to be able to tell what device it actually is, especially if you have a lot of devices on your network, but it’s not exactly a security risk.
Foxconn makes electronic components and boards for a lot of devices, including iPhones, gaming consoles and processors, among other things. This also includes a lot of network or WiFi cards, where the issue is likely to happen.
While your device might be of some other brand if Foxconn makes the WiFi card, chances are your router will read it with the manufacturer ID of the WiFi card, not the entire device itself.
So if you’re seeing HonHaiPr devices on your network, it’s nothing to worry about. This is a simple identification issue and not a security risk. Although it still is a good idea to keep an eye on the devices connected to your network as an active security measure.
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