How do I find out if someone is using my home wireless network; and if so , how do I stop them?

Answer 1

exact instructions depend on brand and model of router.

Ty[ically you connect to the router (192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 or something similar, depending on router) and look for "status" and attached devices or wireless client or something similar. Once you are on the router interface and browse around, you'll see something. If you can't get to the router or don't know the router passowrd, look in the manual or on the bottom of the router.

To stop freeloaders, set a security key (WAP or WPA), filter by MAC address, hide SSID -- the usual wireless security tasks.

Answer 2

If your router shows users, you can see who is on and what LAN IP they have. Not all routers show this but most do. Log onto your router and see.

If you notice substantial slow down, that suggests you have free loaders.

To remove free loaders from your wireless, get your router manual out and implement all the security measures it can provide. These include:

1. Encryption - with WPA if you have that ability. Create a preshare key that is not clearly identified and is a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. The letters should not spell out any word.
2. Alter the ssid to something that is not recognizeable. Smithresidence is not a good ssid any more than address numbers or other give aways. I usually use an ssid that makes no sense like 9rt3h9qz or some other meaningless id.
3. Turn off the ssid if you can after you configure all downstream devices.
4. Implement MAC address validation. This requires the MAC address of all wireless ports you wish to permit access loaded in the MAC list of the router so you must retrieve the MACs of all such devices.
5. Change the subnet from the common defaults. Often they are 192.168.0.0/24 or 192.168.1.0/24 (means router default gateway is 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 with subnet 255.255.255.0). I suggest something odd like 192.168.104.0/24 (give the router the ip 192.168.104.1, subnet mask 255.255.255.0). Remove the LAN DHCP assignment capability. Assign static LAN IP to all devices. If you use the subnet 192.168.104.0/24, assign each device with default gateway 102.168.104.1, subnet 255.255.255.0 and each device its own IP address starting with 192.168.104.2 for the first one, 192.168.104.3 for the second, etc. Do not assign any 2 devices with the same static ip - keep a log of what you assign.

You now have done a great job of blocking freeloaders. This will take you about 3 hours to do.

You can also use a higher order subnet mask - but that is beyond the scope of this reply.

Answer 3

Not sure what you have, but let me answer from my own set-up.

If your laptop is turned off, and your Activity light on your DSL modem is constantly blinking, that prolly means someone is using your router.

I would place a WPA password on there, and also go to your router page, and make that secured too. If I was in your area, all I have to do is type in the routers IP address and change things around, so in order to prevent that, make that secured.

Answer 4

One way you can tell is if your connection speed is slow. Most importartly take security measures. Lock your wireless down so that it requires a password to log on your network. If they dont have password no connection!!!!!1

Answer 5

free down load a site called www.airsnare.com