Who is Stealing WiFi from You?

How to see if someone is stealing WiFi from you. This is a real annoyance. You pay for an awesome connection only to have someone poach your signal. Don’t worry there are ways to determine who is stealing WiFi from you. The reason you are able to do this is because all devices leave a calling card in the form of a IP address or a MAC address. An IP address in a nutshell is address of a computer while the MAC address represents the Network Card address.

Think about why someone is able to log on on to your connection in the first place. The main reason is your security. Your security settings are not properly configured to prevent this. This problem can easily be rectified but before that let’s stick to the issue at hand. This might require some guess work but the procedure is rather straightforward. We are going to see what devices and MACs, and IPs have logged on to your signal. Here is how.

View your Router Logs.

Yes, your router keeps a history of everyone who has gained access to your computer. This includes all the devices that have been logged onto it. Depending on the specific router, the directions may vary. However, generally you can view the log in the security section of the router. First you need to access your router’s settings. Here are the general instruction on how to get to his point.

You can access your router log by typing in your IP address. It is different for each router. You might need to check out to find your router’s address.

  • Load your browser and type 192.168.2.1 (your router’s specific IP). This is the router addresss for Belkin. Also, you can click the router icon in your system tray and choose router settings
  • In your router, choose Security Log, view the list of IPs and MAC addresses

Delete Computer History

How to Stop People from Stealing WiFi.

This is an easy measure that will require you to lock down your connection using the proper protocol. It’s not a mystery why people are able to leach your connection. You have improper security. If you are using the WEP, protocol, tech savvy people may be able to guess your WEP password because its a simple string of number. Hackers can use a program that simply guesses the number combination.

The best thing to do is switch your router’s protocol to WAP which is a stronger protocol. In addition, the password is made up of both letters and numbers.

To Switch the Router Security Protocol.

  • Open the Router Settings Center.
  • Click Security from the options.
  • Change the Security Mode to WPA/WPA2
  • Also make sure you specify that WPA is also your Authentication.
  • Finally, create a password that a collection of letters and numbers for your pre-shared key.

Delete Computer History

Go one step further and disable the option that allows your to broadcast your signal. This advertises that you have a WiFi signal. This makes you an easier target for thieves. It’s like walking around a nasty neighborhood with a platinum gold Rolex. You’re asking to be robbed.

This tutorial may help:

To read about ways to speed up your internet connection, click here!