Naming devices connected to Home Internet

Personally I already had all my devices (86) named and managed on a Asus WiFi router. So I decided to just plug that into the T-Mo gateway and turn off the WiFi on the gateway.
They really did make this like a plug and play and it doesn't have many options for good management.

You did mention those numbers, I am thinking you are talking about the WiFi hardware mac address that is 12 number with colons. On the WiFi devices you have connected you can find this same number on a label, or on TV’s, laptop’s, tablet’s/phone’s you can see this number in the settings probably in the info or about menus. Every device is different so I cant give specific instructions but you can google how to find WiFi MAC address for “insert device” and get instructions for that device.
This is what I had to do originally when I set up the management on my asus router since some of the host names didn't show up on the router. So I used the MAC address to identify what they were. You can usual identify the device with just the last four number and letters of the MAC address. I put this information in a spread sheet, or a text note for future reference.

Unfortunately when a wifi connected device shares a name and it does not always share the host name that you name it or the name you give the device. And now that I am looking at it I guess you can not change the name on the app once you find the device my the MAC like I can do with my Asus router. That means you have to depend on finding that device with the MAC address and doesn't make it easy to manage the network unless you are just setting up a repeating weekly schedule for a device to not have access after 10pm or something like that.

NOTE: I do not have the latest firmware yet, so I don't know if what I sated has changed with a newer firmware on the gateway.

Personally I prefer to have more insight to my network and control my devices. This gateway just doesn't have those options. I think for my monthly cost savings it’s worth buying another router that can give me these options. It will still pay for itself in a few months of what I am saving on the internet cost.
Or if you have one already that worked with your old internet you can plug that in with a network cable to the T-Mo gateway and use it.  Just make the WiFi networks the same name and use the same WiFi key, turn on the router WiFi and turn off the T-Mo gateway WiFi. Just turn off the one you are connected to last using the web interface to the gateway. NOTE: The phone app for the gateway may not work when connected over another router behind the gateway so you will have to use the web interface address so check the signals.

No Tmobile CS never checks these questions. Disclaimer, I am not a computer person, just an impatient user who does not really believe it when “they” tell me something is not possible.

Disclaimer I have the oldest version of the Gateway (the little white box) with the latest updates, I actually had more options with the newest tower, but had compatibility issues so had to send it back. The following might help, but i cannot say for sure since it was almost a year ago and my memory is not so hot but I think the interface is mostly the same.

The Internet App is really only any good for restarting the gateway, checking connection status/quality and all the devices connected (select arrow to right and another window opens up to show the IP & MAC address). SO even if your Roku or Fire-stick are off, they will show up because they technically always run in the back ground when power is provided.

If you are brave enough, someone can give you instructions using the “cmd” codes to reprogram names, I used them to rename my Network connections on my desktop which uses LAN and to make the connections private. It was too much work (aka risky) for me to rename my devices this way as I have an older computer and OS.

Accessing your modem/router through the computer browser using the IP address gives you more options than the App.

Like ScottJD said, you will need to keep a list for reference and luckily just highlight the whole list, copy and paste un-formatted into an Excel file.  To do this -

Open browser

Enter the IP address for your Modem/Router into address bar of your browser

Login as an administrator

Go to Basic

Network

Connected Devices (WiFi)

Highlight content, cut & paste (un-formatted)

It will take a tiny amount of cell moving to make a row, but it is easy enough, I added a row to add the “device (name)” the App gave so I could cross check easy enough

The IP and Mac address are likely to change for a device when they are connected to the 2.4G or 5G WiFi

Roku devices tend to keep the names you give them on the Roku.

Amazon about 50 % of the time, Android and iPhone are hit or miss

If you have a Wifi Extender, I find they take renaming through the computer browser connection and App for the extender. These tend to stay when I look at the connection through the extender App.

How I was able to rename some items  on the Tmobile Modem/Router was to

Open browser

Enter the IP address for your Modem/Router into address bar of your browser

Login as an administrator

Select Expert

Security

IP/MAC Binding

Edit

Rename Device

I don’t know if this will work for everyone, but you can try it once, logout, restart modem and then see what happens. If it doesn’t work, it won’t work and you haven’t lost much time. On the App it won’t change the default name (Device(...)) but when you expand that “Device” name it should show up there.

A weird aside, after the update for my iPhone to OS15 I noticed that whenever my other devices would give me “no internet” notifications or say “full” if I turned off the WiFi to my iPhone then the device that was giving me a problem would “magically” work. I know you didn’t ask that question, but  every-time a connection is established…..

It be nice if we knew how to do this without turning off everything to figure out what device is what.

My cell phone and laptop show up by name but everything else is Device(xxxxx)  

Same. Very frustrating!! C’mon T-Mobile- this is an issue. 

Come on T-Mobile! This is very frustrating.I have no idea what is hooked up to my network. Those stupid numbers are worthless. I was able to identify MY phone but nothing else.

i disconnected & forgot each device then 1 by 1 reconnected them to figure it out. not simple but it worked.