Devices
A device is a name a client puts in its encrypted DNS address. There is nothing to register: the first query that carries a new name creates the device, and logs and analytics group by it.
| Transport | Where the name goes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| DNS-over-HTTPS | second path segment | https://dns.opdns.net/<profile-id>/kitchen-ipad |
| DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-QUIC | before the last hyphen of the server name | kitchen-ipad-<profile-id>.dns.opdns.net |
| Plain DNS (IPv4 or IPv6) | nowhere: plain DNS cannot name devices |
Names are sanitised the same way everywhere: letters lowercased; spaces, dots, underscores and hyphens become one hyphen; other characters dropped; 32 characters at most. The Setup page builds a device’s addresses for you. See Identification.
The Devices page
Section titled “The Devices page”The Devices page lists every device seen on the profile, most recently seen first, and refreshes every 30 seconds while it is open.
| Column | Shows |
|---|---|
| Device | its display name if you set one, else the name it sent, else its id; under it, sent as … or its id, and the links Logs, Analytics, Notes and Forget |
| Kind | Not set, Phone, Laptop, TV, Router or Other; change it in place |
| Identified by | DoH path or DoT/DoQ host, the last transport, and the naming part of its address (/kitchen-ipad, or kitchen-ipad-…) |
| Seen | when it was last seen, and since when |
| Queries 24 h, Blocked 24 h | queries in the last 24 hours, and how many (and what share) were blocked; – when not available (below) |
Logs opens the log search filtered to the device; Analytics opens the top devices.
Rename
Section titled “Rename”Click Rename next to a device and type a display name (up to 64 characters, any text, for example Léa’s phone). Enter saves, Escape cancels; an empty name goes back to the name the device sends.
The display name replaces the client’s name wherever the device is shown: log entries, the live tail and Analytics’ top devices, including results relayed from your self-hosted node, and old entries too. Renaming does not change the device’s id, so filters and groupings keep working.
Notes opens the device’s details (id, the name it sends, its full address, first and last seen) with a notes field of up to 1,000 characters, visible only to you.
Forget
Section titled “Forget”Forget removes the device with its display name, kind and notes. Its log entries stay, under the name the device sends. If it queries again, it comes back as a new device.
When a device does not appear
Section titled “When a device does not appear”Devices are learnt by the cloud from query logs, so:
- Logs off, or log destination Nowhere: queries are only counted and no device is recorded. The page says This profile keeps no logs, so it records no devices.
- Queries sent to your self-hosted node never reach the cloud; devices that only use the node are not listed. Queries sent to the cloud addresses of a profile whose logs go to the node are learnt as usual.
- Plain DNS carries no device name; those queries count for the profile but for no device.
- A new device appears within about a minute of its first named query, and last seen lags by as much: each device is written at most every 30 seconds.
- The 24-hour counts come from the cloud’s log database, so they show only when the log destination is opdns cloud or Both. With My self-hosted node, see each device’s queries under top devices in Analytics instead.
GET /v1/profiles/{id}/devices lists them, PATCH /v1/profiles/{id}/devices/{deviceId} sets display_name, kind and
notes (null or "" clears one), and DELETE forgets a device. Changes
are recorded in the account’s audit log. See the
API reference. Your devices and their names are
also in the account export.