If you're not wearing your tin-foil hat, now would be a good time to start.

Of course I'm wearing my tinfoil hat, how else would I be getting wifi reception?

Why would it say "Manufacturer's website unavailable" for someone the size of Sony? :/

I'd double-check you've got decent and up-to-date anti-malware running.

What 8.1 screen is it appearing on? It isn't just an entry in File Explorer under the Network Heading is it?

Your screenprint shows an unknown device in the table on the broadband setup page. Can you account for that entry? Not sure whether you were indicating that it did or it didn't relate to the Sony entry.

Windows may have tried to install some phone, or even some other device, at some point in the past via upnp and just be showing you what it identified as a network device.

Just block its MAC address in your router and wait for the complaints.

It's been cropping up since day one of the install so doubtful it's malware in that sense.

All the router entries are valid. The 'unknown' is my phone. Sometimes it shows up as unknown, somtimes as kosPhone. My network setup is /awful/ and leads to some annoying problems like that.

Good idea! I'll do that now. Only issue is that I have a Sky broadband booster thing, and anything connected to that is presented to the router under the booster's MAC address (which is /really/ annoying, as I want to reserve an IP for my rasperby pi but it connects via the booster (as it's about 6 inches away from it) so I can't :@ )

You don't have some dodgy DHCP/DNS setup, do you?

Probably, it's all Sky gear running the show :S

It's been cropping up since the moment your computer was at its most vulnerable...?

It's probably not malicious, but it's also sufficiently odd that it makes sense to do a check up and make sure, no?

I ran a full scan a few weeks ago and it found nothing. And took many, many hours.

Then you're probably fine. (So long as it's decent software with updated definitions.)

p.s. Most people have this condition called "sleeping" - it's a rather annoying occurrence, but it does at least provide a useful period during which non-interactive tasks that take many hours can be scheduled.

Yeah, it took me three nights to run a full scan. The first two nights the laptop decided it'd had enough and shut down :C

That sucks. :/ Next time don't bother running it the first two nights and just wait until the third one. :>

As long as they bring donut!

Weren't they quite recently hacked?

Several times, but that's not a factor in whether Windows 8 links to sony.com

A couple of weeks ago I was messing around with the wireless router settings, and discovered a page called "Wireless Station Access List". This seems to be an an 'approved' list of devices that are always allowed to connect.

The /only/ entry in this page was the Sony phone mentioned in the first post - same name, same MAC. So obviously I deleted the entry.

Tonight I randomly wondered if there was anything showing up on the network (haven't checked since changing that setting). There's no Sony phone showing up. There's an Alcatel 5038X showing up instead.

What. The. Fuck.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j4tzj7fdjzae6tr/da-faq.png?dl=0

Changed your wireless key since?