Wireless Network Question?

Question

How do i tell who is using my wireless network. Can i tell what websites they have visisted? But how can i tell who is using it?

i use linksys

Answer 1

There are ways like those mentioned in the first post. However, I would be more concerned with protecting it from here on out. Enable WEP (64-bit is fine) and learn how to use the MAC Address filtering feature.

Your wireless card has what they call a "MAC address". It is like a unique serial number. In your router's settings, there should be an option to enter the MAC address of every card you want to give the option to connect. You might have to select an IP address (such as 192.168.1.100), but just be sure the one you select isn't in use and falls within the range on the DHCP page. Once you have an IP entered for each device, change the range on the DHCP page to match the amount of IP addreses you've used. For example if you used two addresses (192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101), then you would only allow 2 IP assignments starting at .100 on the DHCP page.

And finally, turn off the SSID broadcast feature on the router. Right now, the SSID is probably set to "Default". Change it to something else that isn't easy to figure out, like your mother's maiden name or whatever.


It may sound complex, but it really isn't. If you get stuck, send me an email. I check the account once a week, so it may be some time before I reply, but I'll get to it!

Answer 2

There are many utilities you can use...
I designed this help tutorial for Windows XP SP2, if you don't have it...sorry...
First of all, your wireless router has an ip address, and you need to find it, it is called your default gateway. Go to a computer connected to the network and open up Network Connections. Double-click 'Wireless Network Connections' and click on the 'Support' tab. Type the default gateway number listed into Internet Explorer (or Firefox or anything).
There might be a place to input a password now. If you have never edited this password, then it would be possibly nothing at all and just click login. If that is invalid try 'admin'. Go to your router's website for details. After you get in, click around a little (DON'T MESS WITH THE SETTINGS WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!) and you should see people on your network, also go to network places, view workgroup computers, and microsoft windows network, chances are, your network computers are under MSHOME, if anything else is there, someone unregistered is on your network. You should see your network computers under MSHOME.

Answer 3

It depends on your equipment. My Netgear router has logging capabilities and will show websites visited through the router. It can also show the mac address of devices connected to it. These logs are viewed by connecting to the router via web browser. Check out the manuals on your router.

Even if you detect some device connecting to your network, it's hard to determine "who" is using it. The most detailed information you could get is the vendor of the wireless network adaptor which can be determined by the mac address. You could look up the vendor from the link below.

I suggest setting up security such as WPA and mac address filtering so no unauthorized persons can access it in the first place.

Answer 4

After I log into my router settings (netgear) on the left there is a link called "Logs". It shows me the domain requested and the LAN IP that requested it. Also, I have another link called "Attached Devices" that shows me everyone who is on the router at the current time, the name of that PC, and its LAN IP (so you can see which PC accessed the pages.) Hope that helps.