@Demopan I've found a solution, got a Ruckus R300 off eBay for next to nothing (they're EOL'd so lots of places are replacing them), tossed the TP-Link, and dropped in the Ruckus in its place.  All the clients that the TP-Link is unaware of/unable to display showed up immediately.  The good news is that the power plug and ethernet cable from the TP-Link are compatible with the Ruckus, so it's just a case of unplugging one and plugging in the other to upgrade to an AP that works properly.

Wish I knew this before I bought this very very ordinary gear, my old WiFi gear that was 5 years old was better.

Thanks TP Junk.

  @Carl Look how long ago this thread was started. How has this not been fixed yet? This is the most basic network requirement of Wi-Fi AP. 
 

What has been going on in the dev side? Has everyone quit? 

  @alien-link 3 years?  What's your rush??

  @Carl Your response is stunning.  Users for years complain that the product doesn't provide a feature that is basic, essential and found in any comparable product.  Users post that the product is junk and they're returning it, or wish they had.  I returned multiple TP-Link APs for this reason. So, to chime in that after 3 years, "it's not a bug. . . " is laughable.  Oh, the engineering department said it's not a bug? Case closed.  Isn't the company in the business of satisfying customers' expectations rather than coming back with some mumbo jumbo about "the Client's NIC is comunicating with the AP"?  You don't need the hardware & software info.  What's that going to do?  There's no debate that the TP-Link routers don't provide this function.  Period.  Nobody cares to get into a debate with your engineering team over the definition of a bug.  The products do not provide the basic functionality that one would expect from an AP.  Don't buy them.  Period.  I look forward to your reply in late 2026.

  @Carl Stop being defensive!  You keep trying to explain that your software doesn't have a "Bug" when it is clear that it has a deficiency that this community has called out for years. You are simply arguing a matter of semantics rather than providing an actual solution.  You blame hardware and their deficiencies rather than TP-Link's own ability to solve this issue. There are a number of third party apps that can survey a network and deliver the IP, MAC address, Host Name et at yet as the "middle man", as you describe it, you are unable to capture a simple Client IP Table. I say BS.  This is why I buy things like this at Costco - $400 return it will be. 

@PHGNYC: Yup.  And I'd pointed out the most likely cause for the problem in this post, if it's that then it's not like there's a lot of debugging required to figure out what the issue is.

I've never before encountered an AP that can't even tell you what's connected to it, and nor have I run into an organisation that denies that this significant bug in their devices isn't actually a bug, it's really a small arthropod animal that has six legs and generally one or two pairs of wings and therefore doesn't need to be fixed.

  @Carl  Thanks, Carl. Clearly neither you nor your company get it.  The product doesn't do what customers expect.  There are competitors that do fulfill our needs.  We won't use Tp-Link products going forward. And at least I won't waste time providing needless information to a well identified problem ("no, it's not a bug)!

Would you confirm that TP-Link products are not installed in any automobiles or aircraft.  I wouldn't want any "non-bug" issue to kill me while we contact engineering with our firmware details. "But it's not supposed to keep the plane in the air.  See my post from 12 years ago about the NIC..."

Take a step back, put yourself in the consumer's shoes and think about how much antipathy your statements have created. I'm out.  You guys don't have a monopoly, despite your behavior.