How to Tell if Someone Is Stealing Your Wifi

Member

By AminTaheri
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating:

(6 Ratings)

Having a slow internet connection is the pits. Having one slower then normal is just agonizing. There are lots of reasons why your internet connection could be slow, but here is how to tell if some one is stealing your wifi - and if they use it for something bad, your the one who could get into trouble!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Check your router
Often times you can check your routers logs - for example if you have FIOS Service or an actionTek router. If you have a linksys there is additional software (firmware) that you can install to give you more functionality.

Aside from that look at the lights on the router itself. If all of your PCs are turned off, and the light is solid your probably ok.
Step 2

If that light is flashing, and your computers are off, turn on your computer. Once it has booted up and your logged in, open up your browser and go to the routers administration page - typically at 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 depending on which router you have.
Step 3

Find the tab that says "Attached Devices" or something similar. It will bring up all the computers attached to your router and ones that have recently been attached to your router.
Step 4

go to a command window (start -> run - type CMD and hit enter) and type in ipconfig /all and hit enter

Compare the IP address, computer name and MAC address (often called the Physical Address or Hardware Address) to what is listed in the routers attached devices. If any of those are not matching to any of your computers, then some one is attached to your WiFi!!!!
Step 5

If some one is connected, its time to set a password. Go to the Wireless Security or w/e its called on your router. Setup a WEP key - WRITE IT DOWN BEFORE CONTINUING.

Once your ready click on "Apply" or "Save" and your router will reboot. Once it reboots the intruder will be disconnected, but so will all of your PCs.
Step 6

Find your wireless connection in your computers network and then enter in the key you created in step 5. You should now have internet, but your intruder will not!

Comments

xbootx904x said

Flag This Comment

on 2/5/2009 Great article. Get those intruders off your LAN!

annolson said

on 2/5/2009 Also, if there a creepy guy outside your house with a laptop, chances are he might be stealing your wifi ;)

AminTaheri said

on 8/31/2008 Yes, you can access their computer, and they can access all of yours as well. There are several admin shares on all windows machines that are created by default and it wont take long to sniff passwords and ip scan a network to find all machines there. They can easily compromise your network faster then you could do to them as you wont know they are there as quickly.