Friday, October 02, 2009

Hon Hai = Foxconn

In wireless scanning, you often see "Hon Hair Precision Industry Co., Ltd." show up as the name for the manufacturer of the wireless devices. I've always wondered who the heck they were. I finally got around to Googling the company name and found the easy answer: Foxconn.

All WiFi (and Ethernet) adapters contain a 24-bit manufacturer ID. These are registered with the IEEE. You can look up any ID to find out the manufacturer at the site http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/.

Most of the names are obvious, such as Apple or IBM. However, some are more obscure, such as Hon Hai Precision. While Hon Hai seems to be a popular manufacturer of WiFi equipped computers, I have never heard of them.

As this Wikipedia article explains, Hon Hai is the company better known as "Foxconn", which by a recent estimate is the #132 largest company in the world. It is big contract manufacturer of computer equipment. Some is sold under their own names, such as Foxconn motherboards or Leadtek graphics cards, but they mostly manufacture stuff for other companies. Currently, they build the MacBook, iPhone, Palm Pre, and the Amazon Kindle. They make the PlayStation 3, Wii, and XBox 360. They are one of the largest notebook manufacturers that are sold under brand names of other companies like HP. (This blog post was written on a MacBook Air, made by Foxconn, and posted while tethered through an iPhone, made by Foxconn).

Many of the notebooks made by Foxconn will contain the "Hon Hai" manufacturer ID. However, a company such as Apple has tighter control over it's branding: all the MacBooks and iPods Foxconn makes contain the Apple manufacturer ID.

So, in summary, when you see in your wireless scanner "Hon Hai Precision", think "Foxconn", or more specifically "a Windows notebook manufactured by Foxconn for a different brand company like HP".

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Your Research is maybe simple but ,its really usefull...thanks alot for the info..

Wolf395a said...

Turns out my Hon Hai device was my Sony Blu Ray player. Even when the unit is turned off, it's constantly sending packets. I had to unplug the player to preserve bandwidth.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
fararsand said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Marlago said...

Your explanation is the only useful info I have found, thank you! It appeared on my WiFi using data throughout the day, but peaking from 5am - 8am when no other devices were connected or being used. I changed name and password and it still appears using data. I also disconnected router overnight, and still appears. Is this device mine (printer, phone, laptop) identifying as HonHaiPr or a scanning device of security issue I should continue to troubleshoot? I only have Apple devices and an HP printer, and no cable or satellite tv. Thank you!

Kristofer Farrell said...

It ended up being my PS4 on the network. Thanks

Unknown said...

i also have hon hai on my network and was really confused but now i know.......thanks