The fact that there are people who use the WiFi signal emitted by others in order to connect to the Internet is something that unfortunately happens more often than desirable.
When this character is constantly downloading large files, it can cause the connection to slow down and make it much more difficult to have a smooth connection.
If we already use the WiFi network for many devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets, televisions and other smart devices, adding another user who will make the same types of connections in their own home, but fraudulently, the speeds of our router will be significantly affected.
That is why it is so important and interesting to be able to identify whether the lack of Internet fluidity is due to an intruder taking advantage of what we pay for. If we can corroborate this, we will have no choice but to get to work and kick out the profiteer.
How to know if an intruder is using our WiFi?
If we have the problem that our connection speeds have been affected downwards for several days or weeks, the first thing we should do is make sure that there is no type of fault and contact our internet providerto give us an explanation of why this happens.
If there is no explanation from those places and everything is correct, then the possibility of have an intruder using our WiFi.
So, when we suspect that someone is taking advantage of our Internet, it is best to first verify this fact and then proceed to expel this individual.
The easiest way to know if we have unwanted users on our WiFi is identify and turn off all devices that we have authorized to use the network. That is, it is best to cut off the Internet on all the devices we have at home.
If after performing this task, we look at the router and the online activity light keeps blinking, that will mean that another user is on our network, using devices that we don’t know about.
This method is not infallibleas the router may be communicating with your ISP regarding firmware updates or just regular maintenance issues.
There is another way in which we can identify if someone is using our WiFi without permission.
What we are going to do is enter the router and see for ourselves.
- The normal way to access the router is to use the browser and go to the configuration page of the router. This website is usually found on the sticker on the back of the router.
- This website is usually https://192.168.0.1 or https://192.168.1.1 in the vast majority of cases.
- Before we can enter the router it will ask us for the username and passwordsomething that we should know (it may be in the router instructions) or force us to call our Internet provider to tell us.
- The most commonly used default usernames and passwords are: admin/admin, 1234/1234, admin/1234, password/password or admin/password.
- Once inside the configuration we look for the device list that are using the network (might come as Network Map or Connected Devices).
- Now we just have to count the number of devices that appear on the list, comparing them with those we have at home connected to that network.
- Obviously, if the number is greater than the devices that we have connected to the network in our house, that means we have an unwanted guest.
- If we want to be more specific, we can always analyze the MAC address of each device (this is something we can see in the configuration of any device), to know for sure which one each one is.
How to kick an intruder out of our WiFi network?
To ensure that this person no longer takes advantage of our WiFi networkwe will be able to carry out a series of actions, which we are going to talk about right now.
There are several possibilities for you to execute.
Change password
The simplest and easiest way to prevent your router from being exploited using the WiFi network that we pay for is to change the router password.
For that we must enter the router configuration again and once inside look for the place where it refers to the types of connections (today 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz).
In that place we will see the network name and current passwordbeing able to change it for one that is more complicatedsince there is now they managed to find out.
Filter by MAC addresses
As we have already mentioned before, each device that connects to our WiFi network has a MAC address.
All routers can be configured to get verified mac from a device and start or reject the session, depending on whether or not we have it on our list.
We can configure our router to reject all devices except those that are on a predetermined list of known and welcome devices. This whole process is known as MAC address filtering.
It is not a foolproof solution, as an attacker can bypass the blacklist simply by joining our network using a different device. Additionally, the whitelist can be bypassed by using a virtual private network (VPN).
Still, it is a very effective way to protect your router from intruders. If you want to know how you can find out the MAC address of your devices and how to configure it on the router, we explain it in the video at the top of this article.
Restore router
If we are unlucky enough that the person using our WiFi is an expert, they may even know how to create a backdoor in their router, so changing the password or MAC filtering will not help.
In this case the only thing left is reset the router to factory settingswhich will remove any changes to the software that the intruder has made, returning everything to the way it was when it was first launched.
To achieve this we must look at the router’s instructions, since each brand does it in a different way.
With everything we have told you, you will already know how to find out if someone is using your WiFi and the most effective ways to get rid of them.
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Tags: WiFi
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