Managing Devices
This topic describes how to view and manage devices in SteelConnect.
Viewing devices
In the SteelConnect system, a device is anything with a MAC address. This differs from a SteelConnect appliance, which can be a gateway, switch, or access point that connects to SCM.
SCM allows management of multiple devices, regardless of physical location. New devices are automatically detected and can be registered by an administrator or the device owner. After a device is registered, it’s recognized throughout the entire organization. Device management provides the foundation for network control, because you can assign access rules to devices.
If the device owner has an SCM login or the device uses a Wi-Fi portal, you can also use abstractions such as users and groups instead of IP networks and zones.
To register a device
1. Choose Devices > New Device.
2. Type the device MAC address. Use this format: AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF
3. Type a device description to facilitate administration.
4. Optionally, assign a user or a device group.
5. By default, devices use DHCP addressing. To use static IP addressing, click On.
6. By default, devices on discovered networks aren’t automatically added to the list of devices. To add a static IP address to a device on a discovered network, select Use Discovered Ip.
7. Click Submit.
To view the devices within an organization
• Choose Devices > Overview.
Use the left menu to search for a device by site or SSID.
Viewing registered devices
To view an inventory of all registered devices on the network
1. Choose Devices.
The Registered Devices overview page displays all registered devices along with their status as reported within the last 5 minutes. For the most accurate device status, select the device and select the Info tab.
2. Click a device to view its user, location, IP address, and so on.
Viewing unregistered devices
Any devices that are detected as unregistered will appear on an unregistered list. Network access rules can be applied to allow only registered devices access to the network resources. This adds an additional layer of access control to the internal networks.
The default rule only allows internet access. You can set up an employee portal to offload the task of registering users and devices. It can be activated instead per broadcast for wireless networks. Unregistered devices will then be redirected to the portal where the users can register their device into their own user account through a loopback email or SMS text authentication mechanism according to the details entered in the user accounts. For details, see
Registering guest devices using social media without XMS-Cloud.
When you use a guest portal, the devices become guest devices instead of registered devices.
To track unregistered devices
• Choose Devices > Unregistered.
Unregistered devices appear on the Unregistered page.
Viewing device details
Click an individual device to view its MAC address, IP address assignment, vendor, zone, traffic information, and Wi-Fi details.
If you have a guest portal, all devices appear under guests.