It’s long been assumed that every fingerprint, like every snowflake is absolutely unique and no two are alike. While for all practical or statistical purposes this statement is 100% true in human biology or snowflakes, in the world of digital technology and endpoint devices – it is NOT the case. In fact, while every device connecting to your network has a unique identifier (MAC Address), they also have a DHCP signature or fingerprint that actually identifies the device type. But these fingerprints (unlike human fingerprints) are finite and can be classified. What’s even better is that when a device tries to get on a wireless network, it offers this signature (as a numerical combination) to the DHCP server. This hand-shake and signature sharing between the device and the network is unique and very few networking technology companies have thought to take advantage it – until now.
Infoblox has built technology to capture device fingerprinting information and provide this in a very readable, useful, and actionable way to the network administrator. The technology is called DHCP Fingerprinting (think endpoint fingerprinting) and it provides network administrators with the unique device type associated with an end-point seeking access to your wireless network. With DHCP Fingerprinting, network administrators can for the first time have device type information (iOS, Android, Xbox, Linksys router etc.) for all of the devices on their wireless network. They can automatically group these, see connection history, and do trend analysis. And perhaps more importantly, they can take action or create policies based on device type.
Have you been asked to do things like this on your network yet?
- Don’t like video game consoles on your network? DONE, you can now identify them and keep them off the network.
- You issue your contractors iPads and they are only device allowed on your network? No problem, you can set policies that only allow iPads.
- Want to track connection history of devices on your network over time – check.
- Want to keep android devices off the network for fear of Malware – check.
- Want to correlate device type with IP address in your IPAM database? DONE, automatically…
Now controlling your network has never been easier. With Infoblox's DHCP fingerprinting, you can. No Mobile Device Manager required; no agents on the device, no software licensing – if you are a DDI customer, just turn it on and you’re on your way…
Like human fingerprints, the possibilities are limitless……
Infoblox DHCP Fingerprinting technology is unique, and it’s available as a no-charge feature in Infoblox DDI 6.7 – a family of appliances that provide network control technologies (DNS, DHCP, IP Address Management).