Rohan MathawanMany people have strangers connected to their WiFi network and they don’t even know that. If your WiFi network is not secure enough then chances are that your neighbors and other strangers nearby can leech onto your WiFi network, using a service for which they are not even paying a penny, not to mention that they can also access the shared folders and resources on the network.
To find out if there are unauthorized connected on the network and stealing your WiFi, we have compiled a list of some ways that will help you:
Check Your Wi-Fi Router’s Lights
The easiest way to find out if someone is using your WiFi without authorization is to look at the LED lights of your router. This is an easy way but for this to work, you will have to take down all of your wireless devices. If there are many wireless devices in your home then it might not be the right thing to do.
However, if you can do this and take down all the devices on your WiFi network then you can find out. The WiFi or WLAN LED lights on your WiFi router should be not blinking and completely turned off. If there are any devices connected other than your devices then the lights would be blinking/turned on.
Use A WiFi Detector App
You can use a WiFi detector app that can help you to scan and find all the lists of connected devices to the network. These apps can search your network and find all the connected devices on the network and then give you a list of those devices.
Most of the devices that will be identified on the network will have their names such as ‘Someone’s Laptop’ or ‘Someone’s iPhone’ but some devices can be listed as unknown which can be hard to determine which devices are yours and which are not.
Use The Router App
If you have bought a relatively modern WiFi router then it will also have its own mobile app available. Examples of such routers include ASUS routers, TP-Link Routers, NETGEAR routers, etc. In fact, if you configured and set up your router using a mobile app then it won’t be difficult to use that app to find all the connected devices.
Just open the app, log into your network and find all the devices that are connected to the network. Since every router app is built differently, this option of all the connected devices will be available in different places but will eventually be available.
Log Into The Admin Interface Of Router
Another way by which you can find out all the connected devices to your network is by logging into the admin control panel. If you find none of the other options to be useful in finding unauthorized users connected to the network then you can log into your router’s admin interface and find out all the connected devices in no time.
Logging into the admin interface of your router is easy and you can do it through any web browser, whether it is from your mobile phone or laptop. Logging into the admin interface of the router requires visiting the login page through the default gateway address, which for some routers is 192.168.1.254.
In some cases, it can be 192.168.10.1 or any other one. Once you find the default gateway address, type that address in the address bar of the web browser, log in using the default login credentials. Once you have logged in, visit the summary page to find out all the connected devices. As every router manufacturer is different, this option can be available with different names such as network map, user log, or client list.
These are some of the ways by which you can easily find out all the connected devices on your network without breaking a sweat. If you find out that there is an unauthorized device on the network then you can simply remove those devices from the network and then tighten the security of your network that involves changing the WiFi password, putting MAC filter on, and taking other precautionary measures such as not sharing your WiFi login details with anyone else to make sure that they cannot join your WiFi network again.