Do you require a new router? Is your wifi being used by someone outside your home without your knowledge? There are many reasons why your internet might be slow, as well as ways to fix the problem. But if you think someone is stealing your wifi, you’ll need to know how to find out for sure and stop it from happening again. We will show you how to do both in this help.
You can tell if someone is stealing your wifi or if your link is just slow if you know your media access control (MAC) address and a couple of apps. How to do it.
Try turning it off and on again.
Do not plug in or turn off all of your wifi devices if you only have a few in your home. Then, watch the wireless signal light on your router. Someone else is using your wifi if the light keeps flickering.
However, this method only works if you are sure that all of your wireless devices are turned off, which may only be possible in some places. So, here are two detailed ways to look for wifi thieves, no matter what kind of setting you have. If you want to learn more about wireless networking, you can read our wifi introduction.
Use an app
There are a number of apps that can automatically look for strange gadgets that are connected to your wifi network. It can be helpful to look at those devices, especially if they’re linking at strange times of the day when no one is around. These apps can help you figure out what’s wrong.
- Wifi Thief Detector: This app is simple to get and intended to work quickly. This app will connect you to your router settings and show you how many devices are on it. This will help you find devices that don’t belong there and make the changes you need to protect your router quickly (see below for more details).
- Paessler PRTG Network Monitor: Paessler’s solution is a complete set of router control tools, such as tools that automatically find strange traffic and look at how the network is being used, among other more profound tools. It might be too much for the average homeowner who is worried, but it’s great for small businesses that are worried about someone getting on their network without permission. You should stick with the free sample for 30 days. That should be enough time to find and fix any issues.
- Wireless Network Watcher: Wireless Network Watcher is a separate piece of software that helps Windows users keep an eye on all of their connected devices.
- Fing: You can download Fing for iOS to protect your phone in a more mobile way. It lets you see right away which devices are linked, what kind of devices they are, how they are connected, their MAC address, and other information.
Check administrator logs
You need to log in to your router’s control page if you think someone is taking your wifi. Most people can type 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1 into the search bar to do this.
Once you’re on the admin page, you need to find the page that lists all of the MAC addresses that are tied to your computer. This page might be in a different place on your router, but it could be in the DHCP Client list, under Wireless Configuration, or under Wireless Status. This list will help you keep track of how many gadgets are web-connected. Any device linked to your network will have its own unique MAC address. If you see six MAC addresses but only have four devices in your home, someone is probably taking your internet.
Note: The MAC address list may include old phones, game consoles, cameras that can connect to wifi, and other devices that are linked. Use a website like macvendors.com to get a better idea of which MAC address goes with which gadget.
Tips for keeping outsiders away
It’s a good idea to increase protection if you think someone is stealing your wifi. Penalties for wifi theft vary, so contact your local police to find out what to do next. Add a password to your network if it doesn’t already have one. It’s time to change your router’s name and password. You can do this from the router’s control page. How to do it.
- Step 1: Go to your security settings and find the pre-shared key. This will let you change your password. If you change your wifi password, all of your devices will be disconnected, including those for which you don’t want to use the network. You’ll have to reconnect your devices again once you have a new password.
- Step 2: Find the Service Set Identifier to change the name of your router. In most cases, you can find this in the Wireless settings menu. If you need to, look up more detailed steps for the router brand you have.
- Step 3: Finally, it’s essential to use the best encryption for wireless networks that you can find. WPA2 may be the most popular, but WPA3 is the best. So, you should start thinking about getting a router with WPA3.
If your router is ancient, you might need more time to get maintenance. Because of this, you might not be able to use these security tools. If this sounds like you, you should buy a new router, especially since so many fantastic new tech items are coming out.
Final tips to remove strangers from your wifi
Making sure that your wifi link is safe is very important because it can keep you safe from hackers and other internet threats. It’s essential to make sure that no one is using your wifi at the same time that you want to protect it, so you’ll need to log them off before you begin. Right away, the easiest thing you can do is change your password to something more complex. This will log you and everyone else off the network.
- Step 1: Use your new password to log back into your devices. This will only allow people to use your connection with your permission. After you change your password, most likely, no one else will be able to use your wifi again. However, you should still check your connection often to make sure you own all the devices that are using it.
- Step 2: Find the strange device that is joining. There is another way to stop someone from using your wifi. Find a setting that says MAC Filtering, Device Filtering, or something similar on the control page of your router. With this setting, admins can add specific MAC addresses to a list of devices that can’t connect to your wifi network.
- Step 3: To do this, pick out any MAC numbers you don’t know and add them to the list. You can also use apps to make this process easier for you. With Google Nest wifi, this is very easy to do. Just pick out a device on your network and stop it in a few easy steps.
You’ll need to keep an eye on the list of devices even if you block one because hackers can use a different MAC address to get back online. However, this can be a great way to stop unauthorized people from getting into your network.
