Deleting legacy names for connected devices in Hub1

[#1]

Just checking: Is it still impossible to delete the name of a connected device so it can be re-used again by a different device:

For example: If I have a smart switch called "lamp" which goes wrong and goes offline, I cannot see it in the connected devices view, so I cannot delete it before adding a replacement smart switch. But I cannot call this new smart switch "lamp" as my Hub1 still remembers the old "lamp".

It will let me call it "lamp" but if the device disconnects for any reason the when it reconnects it will revert back to its default name. To make the new name permanent I have to call it something unique like "lamptwo" or something.
Would be good to have a fix for this, if there isn't one already.

I am running firmware 4.7.5.1.83.8.289.1.3 which I believe is the latest, even though it hasn't been updated since 2021(!)

[#2]

@Digsy 

From memory you need to go to the Network page in the Advanced settings and change it there.

[#3]

Each connecting device has a unique MAC Address so what you are seeing is a second device with the same name.

Also from memory you should be able to delete devices from the DHCP table found in advanced settings.

I doubt any further firmware updates will be issued for this device.

[#4]

The both the "home network>devices" view and the "home network>DHCP Table" view under Advanced Settings only show devices which are currently connected. Therefore as soon as "lamp" goes wrong and drops offline, it will never appear in either view again. But the Hub1 remembers that there is a device called "lamp" and prevents you from allocating that name to another device unless you delete it.

....but the "delete device" option is only available for devices that you can see in the "devices" view or "DHCP table" view - i.e. devices which are currently connected.

See the problem?   

What is needed is a "view disconnected devices" option. But as far as I can see there isn't one.

[#5]

I see what you are saying, but from memory I do not remember it working that way. A  refresh when viewing devices may remove disconnected ones

What if you increase the DHCP lease time to the maximum?

It should be the device having the same name not the Hub remembering the name as the hardware MAC address would be different when using a different lamp.

The Hub Two offers the option to view disconnected devices.

[#6]

@Digsy 

I have connected my Hub One to a PPPoE server so it has a live WAN connection

The Home page only shows connected devices.

>Advanced settings >Home network >Devices shows this

These devices are also show in the DHCP table.

I used the Refresh button, with this result.

The DHCP Table now only shows one device.

I have four TAPO P100 smart plugs who all have the same hostname on my live network. 

Hope this helps.

EDIT: reconnecting devices will receive the same IP Address previously allocated to them last time they connected.

[#7]

Just to be clear, my problem is not that I have more that one device appearing with the same name, not do I want to have two devices with the same name. I want to replace a broken device with a new device and give it the same name. The broken and new devices will not be connected at the same time.

In your first picture, you don't really have two devices simultaneously connected with the same name, as "Desktop-NTRB53R" is upper case for one and lower case for the other. 

I can see that you have devices showing as "not connected", at least until you hit refresh. I must admit I dob't recall seeing this on my router, and as it typically does an automatic refresh as soon as I display the home network>Devices screen, I am not sure how you managed to get this screen capture. Are you running the same firmware as  I am?

But - now that you have disconnected devices that are no longer visible in the home network>Devices screen, would your Hub1 now allow you to connect a new device and call it (for example) opihr-II?

Regarding your TAPO smart plugs, unless I am mistaken they do not appear in the screenshots. Are you able to show me how these appear either in the DHCP table of on home network>devices, with the same network hostname? 

[#8]

Sorry I've been somewhat distracted today just returning from a holiday.

I do recall having the same issue as you, I am digging up the instructions on deleting devices from the invisible DHCP list.

You Hub is the same firmware version as mine.

[#9]

@Digsy 

We've seem to be have been here before?

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/How-do-I-delete-a-device-from-my-hub/m-p/1863372 

[#10]

I know I have asked this question before (hence the "is it still impossible" in my post this time around.)

Its odd that I didn't reply in the other thread, though. If it had worked I certainly would have marked it as such and said thanks. It's possible that I simply didn't see your reply.

Unfortunately I am still unable to get any joy using the steps you describe, for several reasons:

1) I don't see a popup when I hover over the device (although I can still bookmark it by dragging the link to the bookmark bar).

2) When I create the bookmark, if I then try to open it I just get a blank page - even for a device which is connected. I get the same result in both Chrome and Firefox. If I paste the text of the shortcut directly into the address bar then my browser deletes the left-most "javascript:" part. Even if I manually type that back in, the I just get the blank page again.

3) I did think I was on to something when I noticed that if you open the connected device page and examine the URL, it ends "...request_id=1246462913&button_value=br0%2f18" and the very last characters match the device number in the "javascript:mimic_button('device: br0%2F18..', 1)" This is also a lot easier to change as you can do it just by editing the address.

So I stepped through all 99 values and while I did see all my connected devices, I did not see any of the "remembered" devices with the names I want to re-use. I have had a couple more power outages today (one for almost an hour) so I did wonder if by coincidence my Hub1 had renumerated everything from scratch and self-deleted the legacy names. But no luck. I still cannot rename a new device to a name that I have previously used.

So, thanks for the pointer, but unless there is a different way to access the config pages for those "remembered" devices, I am sadly no further forwards.

[#11]

I no longer use the Hub One, did use the Hub Two but now I use a TP-Link router product.

The only other option would be a factory reset.

Perhaps consider a third party alternative to the Hub One as plusnet are happy for you to do so.

Is there any reason why you do not rename the second device to a different name?

[#12]

"Is there any reason why you do not rename the second device to a different name?"

No reason at all, in fact that is exactly what I have to end up doing every time this happens. But it just means that if a device goes wrong several times (which seems to be pretty common for IOT gadgets) then soon there are no options left for renaming while keeping any kind of consistency.

So right now I think you are right, there is no way around this (at least not an easy one which would not involve a factory reset).

I would like to say that with a small modification I did get your instructions from the other thread to work:

1) Open the DHCP table or the home network>devices page.

2) Select any wired or wifi device and bookmark the link

3) Edit the bookmark to change the digits representing the device: 
i.e. javascript:mimic_button('device: br0%2F17..', 1) becomes javascript:mimic_button('device: br0%2F18..', 1)

4) Save the edited bookmark.

5) From the DHCP table or the home network>devices page, click the bookmark. Do not "open in new window".

I stepped through all my devices using this method and got the same results as before. I did notice that all my devices are bunched together in numbers 1-26, but numbers a few of the numbers were "empty". I suspect that this is where the "remembered" devices are. As an experiment I created a shortcut to the "delete device" button from a connected device and edited it to point at the empty number in a similar way to above, but this still didn't seem to free up the name I wanted to use.

Thanks for all your help on this. It is appreciated even if it didn't work.

Is it possible to merge the two threads for future reference?

[#13]

Thanks for the feedback.

In fairness the Hub One is probably past its "use by date" even though it wasn't that bad a modem/router in its time, it would be still the best plusnet Hub to use with a ADSL connection compared to a Hub two.

This issue doesn't get reported very often. I have asked a moderator to see if they can link the two threads.