Tech Tips: How to Detect if Someone’s Stealing Your WiFi

WiFi technology is used widely these days as virtually every electronic device comes with a wireless network connection feature. Although it is used everywhere, its security has always been a cause of concern to users as security protocols can easily be compromised and misused.

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Setting up your WiFi connection with proper security is one thing but monitoring your network for intruders and illegal connections is another. If you’re not careful with your WiFi, someone might just manipulate your private data or steal all your valuable bandwidth.

So, is your Internet connection acting up and you are feeling like someone is stealing your bandwidth? Here are 3 ways for you to find out.

Check Your Wireless Router Lights

Turn of internet on all connected devices and observe if wifi light is blinking fast. If it's blinking fast that means password is hacked and someone is using your connection.

— Asif Pasha (@Asif_Pasha_) May 6, 2018

Wireless routers come with indicator lights that show Internet connectivity and network connection, so the quickest way to check if someone else is making use of your WiFi is to shut down all WiFi-enabled devices. Once this is done, check your wireless router to see if the connection light is still blinking. If it is, then someone is stealing your data.

This is not very reliable because it’s possible that you may have other devices ( TV, smartphone, or gaming device) connected to your network that you probably forgot to unplug or switch off. However, it is a quick method to confirm your suspicions at that particular time.

Check Your Router Associated Device List

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Your wireless router’s administrative portal can help you detect data theft and also to change your security settings. First, you would have to log in through your router’s IP address in the browser bar. For most routers, it’s either http://192.168.0.1 or http://192.168.0.1, but you can also check and confirm with your router’s manual.

Log in to the portal with your ID and password ( if it’s still the default details, you would find them in the manual), and once you’re logged in, look around for the “device/user list” or “attached devices”, as the case may be. There, you would find the list of all the IP addresses attached to your router. Compare the list to your own devices to find any unwanted user.

Use a Network Monitoring Tool

What are your favorite open source network monitoring tools (and on which platforms)? Looking to put together a toolkit for newbies. TIA!

— rm -rf ~/2020 📡 (@woolypixel) September 12, 2017

Network monitoring tools or Router checkers are free tools that can be used to check your network’s connection settings. Most are web-based and could be made use of without the need for download, while some others are software you would need to install.

Some examples of these Router checkers are; Wireless network watcher, SoftPerfect WiFi Guard, Advanced IP scanner, Angry IP scanner, MoocherHunter and so many others. Through these tools, you will be able to check if your router’s being compromised or not.

What Do You Do After Confirming Your Suspicion?

After discovering that someone is stealing your WiFi, do you just ignore it? No, you beef up your WiFi security. Every router comes with a default user ID and password, and the details are usually meant for factory records. Therefore, it’s advisable to change these details immediately a network infiltration is noticed.

You can also encrypt your network to make your connection more secure – turn on WPA2-PSK (sometimes WPA Personal), and set your encryption type to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard).

That’s it! Hope these tips come in handy for you in securing your WiFi network from outside threats.