Mysterious devices appearing in Network Explorer

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O/S Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 (Build 17134.407)
Processor Intel i7 8700K
Memory 32GB DDR4 2400 Dual
Motherboard Gygabytes AORUS Z370 Gaming K3 Revision # Rev 1.0
Graphics card ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 Turbo 8GB From aria pc 02/06/2018


Hi everyone,
Having recently up graded several household gizmos and gadgets along with building a new desktop PC and getting a new Laptop, all requiring WI-FI, I also up graded my BT Home Hub 4, to BT’s all singing and dance super doopa Smart Hub 6. As my wife also has a laptop, notebook and phone; all items we have are linked on a small network, run from my Den. it was through clicking on the Windows ‘Network’ explorer icon (installed along with desktop icons for: this PC, Control Panel and the Recycle Bin, when configuring Windows 10 desktop) one day, monitoring my network, that I discovered what appeared to be somebody piggybacking on my WI-FI? The offender only appeared briefly, but was on long enough for me to right click on the device and get a few details; model, manufacturer and MAC address. However, nothing that would help in tracking down the device? Shortly after this I found a hoard of other forign devices appearing in Network Explorer, which, being security conscious, scared the pants off of me! I spent several days contacting BT over the issue and, bottom line, they suggested, as there’s no way of barring others from piggybacking, I opted out of their WI-FI, program: which for me, running my wireless intranet, defeated the object. Long story short, though, I went out and bought a very expensive, Netgear Nighthawk, relegating the Smart Hub to Modem only status, and using the Nighthawk to control who has access to my WI-FI. But cut off my legs and call me shorty, I still get devices showing up when I open Network Explorer, on my desktop? This is not just confined to the one machine, either. I have two other Windows 10 pro machines (an 1803 version, build 17134.471 and an 1809 version build 17763.194) and a laptop with Windows 8.1. On occasions all three show up these devices in Network Explorer, though not necessarily at the same time ? I have also employed several different network monitoring software packages; none of which have shown any of theses devices as being part of my system; they only ever appear in Network Explorer? Hopefully, somebody here can help and explain why.

Thanks. And a merry Christmas to one and all.
 

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