Weird connected computer showing up in Finder

By WigglesTheFish
in Apple (macOS)

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WigglesTheFish

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Okay, I've noticed an unknown computer showing up in my Finder on my and my girlfriend's Macbooks.

I've determined that I can hide it by deselecting bonjour computers from finder's advanced preferences. I have used "Get Info" on the computer and determined that its a "PC server" according to that. I have double and triple checked the MAC address of every single device on my router, only my devices are showing up under the DHCP Table on my WRT54G2 router (two Macbooks, one iPod Touch, and one Xbox 360). I have always had a secure network, and recently even redid the security to make sure (WPA2 security, non-broadcasted SSID). I am running completely up to date Snow Leopard on my Macbook and my girlfriend is running up to date Leopard on hers.

Here's a screenshot of my default Finder window showing the mystery computer:

screenshot20100217at124.png

Here is a screenshot of the "Get Info" dialogue window from the mystery computer:

screenshot20100217at101.png

What in the world is this computer, and aside from just hiding "Bonjour computers" from Finder, how can I kick this thing out of here?

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WigglesTheFish

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  On 17/02/2010 at 15:55, Shaun_ said:

Someone on your network, Is it a shared connection?

Well I my network has always been secured. And I've recently changed my wireless security settings: I turned off broadcast of my SSID, I made a much more complicated passkey, and I enabled MAC Address Filtering (I've always had WPA 2 Personal turned on).

If I connect my Macbook directly to the router via cables & disable Airport on my Mac, I won't see that mystery computer. I'm fairly certain that its not someone on my network, as I drastically changed my security settings and I never see this mystery computer on my router's DHCP Table. Here's a screenshot of that right now, the three computers listed are my Macbook, my girlfriend's Macbook, and my iPod Touch:

screenshot20100217at123.png

  On 17/02/2010 at 17:40, Rcp said:

I've noticed that on my Mac. If I don't setup the workgroup it would pick up any surrounding PC's. Maybe try that and see how it goes?

I'll freely admit I am a newb at Macs (only been a full time Mac user for a year), but I thought Workgroups were a PC only thing and I don't have any PC computers on my secure network. If that is the case, how do I change the Workgroup on my Mac?

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WigglesTheFish

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  On 17/02/2010 at 22:18, BudMan said:

Well not sure where you got "pc server" info from? From that mac address its a apple branded device

http://www.coffer.co.../?string=0017f2

That's actually really cool that you can look that up. I got that "PC Server" thing from using "Get Info" off the right click context menu on that device from Finder (I screenie'd it in my first post).

As an update, though, I called Apple and they stated that it was probably a Windows 7 PC located on the same subnet from my ISP. They stated it was Windows 7 because they said it simply has a stronger online presence and it was nothing to worry about.

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rob.derosa

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  On 17/02/2010 at 23:58, Juski814 said:

As an update, though, I called Apple and they stated that it was probably a Windows 7 PC located on the same subnet from my ISP. They stated it was Windows 7 because they said it simply has a stronger online presence and it was nothing to worry about.

Sounds like he knows alot!!

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+BudMan MVC

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yeah a windows 7 PC with mac of apple interface? Does that sound right to you?

Stronger online presence? Um your behind a NAT router - so why would you being seeing machines that are connected to the same ISP as you? None of that makes any sense. If that was the case -- why are you not see MORE of them? If your seeing machines connected to your ISP, you would be seeing a lot more than 1 ;)

Grand Master

Quillz

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I get this sometimes. I've noticed that my iMac turns into a "PC" icon when the machine itself is on and connected to the network (its connected printers and hard drives are available over the network), but it's in a sleep/low power mode. But once I actually power it back up, the icon changes back to the familiar iMac icon.

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WigglesTheFish

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  On 18/02/2010 at 15:31, BudMan said:

yeah a windows 7 PC with mac of apple interface? Does that sound right to you?

Stronger online presence? Um your behind a NAT router - so why would you being seeing machines that are connected to the same ISP as you? None of that makes any sense. If that was the case -- why are you not see MORE of them? If your seeing machines connected to your ISP, you would be seeing a lot more than 1 ;)

Oh I agree, it sounds absolutely retarded. It honestly sounded like he couldn't care less about my issue despite my giving him as much information as possible.

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WigglesTheFish

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Well thanks for all the help guys, but I seem to have figured this out myself. My girlfriend had Printer Sharing enabled on her computer (which was supposed to be on) and for whatever reason that also creates that "mac0017f22b93a7" computer to show up as well... since +BudMan pointed out that the address was from Apple Computer, Inc. I assume that its just something her Mac is creating.

Which makes me wonder why the guy I called from Apple was so far off on this one... :huh: anyways, thanks for all the input guys, much appreciated.

  On 18/02/2010 at 21:37, Creamy said:

Hihi! Nice CRT! :cool:

Also, I found that icon quite humorous as well.

Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

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Yeah those so called "geniuses" at the genius bar -- yeah not so much ;)

I don't even own a mac, and get a fair share of side jobs from people that the geniuses couldn't help.. hehehe

Grand Master

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  On 18/02/2010 at 15:31, BudMan said:

yeah a windows 7 PC with mac of apple interface? Does that sound right to you?

Maybe an Intel Mac running Windows 7? The easy way to figure out what computer (or device) is causing it would be to find out the MAC addresses of all of the devices on your network and see which one matches the name that is showing up. Also, remember that your ethernet and Airport connections will have different MAC addresses, so look at both of them on each of your computers.

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