Can a user be tracked on Windows or identified online by the Wifi
Adapter Name and Description? How?

Can it be changed without messing up the OS or wifi connection
capability?

Direct answers to the question most appreciated. Thanks.

On Sun, 6 Nov 2022 01:10:07 -0000 (UTC), iwannabastartsomeday wrote:
> Can a user be tracked on Windows

By default, no.

> or identified online by the Wifi
> Adapter Name and Description? How?

No. WiFi devices themselves do not expose any name or description to the
network. If any is exposed, it would be another device behind the WiFi
device such as computer, phone, router, MIDI keyboard, etc. which is exposed
by those other devices' firmware, or the computer's/phone's OS. Not the WiFi
device itself.

> Can it be changed without messing up the OS or wifi connection
> capability?

WiFi device (hardware) name is provided by its firmware. Changing a device
firmware requires requires reflashing the firmware, and assuming that the
firmware is stored in a reprogrammable hardware chip (EEPROM). It won't be
possible if it's stored in a ROM chip (non reprogrammable). Also, reflashing
a firmware requires that, the device be disabled or not used.

OSes do keep a separate device (software) name as a setting. That can be
safely changed, as long as one is familiar with OS settings. That level of
device name is only visible in local computer; or local network as long the
remote user has administrator rights, and it's not blocked by firewall.

On 06/11/2022 01:10, iwannabastartsomeday wrote:
>
> Can a user be tracked on Windows or identified online by the Wifi
> Adapter Name and Description? How?

Online tracking is very sophisticated. On this site ...

https://panopticlick.eff.org/

.... for me clicking 'Test your browser' results in:

Blocking tracking ads? No
Blocking invisible trackers? No
Protecting you from fingerprinting? Your browser has a unique fingerprint

Note particularly that last result. It means that I am easy to track as
an individual.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

Thanks JJ, so even with javascript network admins cannot read the wifi
device name and description, that is what you are saying? I know that
they do often block users on the network via their firewall and the
users MAC address. This is what I have read, so I was assuming they
could also identify the adapter name and description.

Since I have put in a script blocking addon I am amazed at the amount
and scope of what they are collecting in terms of uniquely identifying a
machine on the net. Thanks for your reply.

JJ <jj4public@outlook.com> wrote in
news:7sa2oc1bc5vy.3ivqej5vxf05.dlg@40tude.net:

> On Sun, 6 Nov 2022 01:10:07 -0000 (UTC), iwannabastartsomeday wrote:
>> Can a user be tracked on Windows
>
> By default, no.
>
>> or identified online by the Wifi
>> Adapter Name and Description? How?
>
> No. WiFi devices themselves do not expose any name or description to
> the network. If any is exposed, it would be another device behind the
> WiFi device such as computer, phone, router, MIDI keyboard, etc. which
> is exposed by those other devices' firmware, or the computer's/phone's
> OS. Not the WiFi device itself.
>
>> Can it be changed without messing up the OS or wifi connection
>> capability?
>
> WiFi device (hardware) name is provided by its firmware. Changing a
> device firmware requires requires reflashing the firmware, and
> assuming that the firmware is stored in a reprogrammable hardware chip
> (EEPROM). It won't be possible if it's stored in a ROM chip (non
> reprogrammable). Also, reflashing a firmware requires that, the device
> be disabled or not used.
>
> OSes do keep a separate device (software) name as a setting. That can
> be safely changed, as long as one is familiar with OS settings. That
> level of device name is only visible in local computer; or local
> network as long the remote user has administrator rights, and it's not
> blocked by firewall.

On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 07:34:50 -0000 (UTC), iwannabastartsomeday wrote:
> Thanks JJ, so even with javascript network admins cannot read the wifi
> device name and description, that is what you are saying?

By JavaScript, if you meant the one from websites viewed within web
browsers, then no. Web browsers do not expose the name of any network
adapter (which include WiFi). Regarding network information, only these are
exposed.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NetworkInformation

But network admins don't usually use web browser based JavaScript to do
admin tasks, since they're limited in capabilities. They mostly or at least
use command line tools via terminal.

> I know that
> they do often block users on the network via their firewall and the
> users MAC address. This is what I have read, so I was assuming they
> could also identify the adapter name and description.

MAC address is the network adapters' unique hardware address. A lower level
kind of netword address then IP address. They're just numbers. Not a name
and don't represent the network adapter's name. Network adapters' name can
be duplicate between one and another, so it's not applicable as a unique
identifier.

> Since I have put in a script blocking addon I am amazed at the amount
> and scope of what they are collecting in terms of uniquely identifying a
> machine on the net. Thanks for your reply.

Blocker browser addons can only block/spoof the information provided by
higher protocols. e.g. HTTP, web API. Then can not block the information
retrieval at IP level, such as the IP address. Sure, so called "VPN" addons
which are nothing more than a web browser proxy setting changer, can change
the IP address which is seen by the destination site. But the addons can't
block the destination site from retrieving the IP address of the proxy
itself.

JJ <jj4public@outlook.com> wrote in
news:1vtffaj3uxhhe$.f2olivznetbg.dlg@40tude.net:

> On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 07:34:50 -0000 (UTC), iwannabastartsomeday wrote:
>> Thanks JJ, so even with javascript network admins cannot read the
>> wifi device name and description, that is what you are saying?
>
> By JavaScript, if you meant the one from websites viewed within web
> browsers, then no. Web browsers do not expose the name of any network
> adapter (which include WiFi). Regarding network information, only
> these are exposed.
>
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NetworkInformation
>
> But network admins don't usually use web browser based JavaScript to
> do admin tasks, since they're limited in capabilities. They mostly or
> at least use command line tools via terminal.
>
>> I know that
>> they do often block users on the network via their firewall and the
>> users MAC address. This is what I have read, so I was assuming they
>> could also identify the adapter name and description.
>
> MAC address is the network adapters' unique hardware address. A lower
> level kind of netword address then IP address. They're just numbers.
> Not a name and don't represent the network adapter's name. Network
> adapters' name can be duplicate between one and another, so it's not
> applicable as a unique identifier.
>
>> Since I have put in a script blocking addon I am amazed at the amount
>> and scope of what they are collecting in terms of uniquely
>> identifying a machine on the net. Thanks for your reply.
>
> Blocker browser addons can only block/spoof the information provided
> by higher protocols. e.g. HTTP, web API. Then can not block the
> information retrieval at IP level, such as the IP address. Sure, so
> called "VPN" addons which are nothing more than a web browser proxy
> setting changer, can change the IP address which is seen by the
> destination site. But the addons can't block the destination site from
> retrieving the IP address of the proxy itself.
>

Thanks much for your good explainations. Been a long time since I read
about the various network levels and forgot most of it.