How To See Who’s Stealing Your WI-FI And Block Them
Internet providers are constantly offering higher speeds. And how those speeds have changed since the dawn of the Internet. Rather than having to lose your phone to plug in your dial-up, watching your computer try to figure out what is going on, companies now provide wireless connections which provide incredible speeds, but it also puts them at risk of being used by others.
Of course, somehow we still end up experiencing moments where our Wi-Fi connection seems to operate slowly. Some can’t be helped, but one could be very serious. Someone could be leeching onto your network and draining your speed. Keep on reading to find out how to know and how to block them from doing it ever again.
How to know if someone is using your Wi-Fi
First of all, you want to make sure your device is connected to the Wi-Fi network in question. If you aren’t then make sure you do so now. Next you’ll want to download the app at the bottom of this page. Fing is a great tool for monitoring all of the devices which are connected to your network.
After the app has finished installing on your device, open it and you’ll be greeted with your network name. You’ll also see a “Refresh” button, along with a “Settings” button. Tap “refresh” and you’ll see a list of all the devices connected to your network. It might take a couple of minutes so be patient.
You can then tap on any device shown to see a list of your options. You can do all sorts such as send pings or log how often they connect and disconnect to your network. If you go through this list of devices and see one that looks out-of-place or suspicious, you can actually block it forever from ever accessing your Wi-Fi.
How to block devices from using your network
Each device listed in Fing will display a MAC address. This will be a series of numbers in a format like this: “xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx”. Note this number down somewhere and then go onto your computer (which needs to also be connected to your router). You’ll want to open a browser page and input your own IP address. You can find this out pretty easily. Open your start menu and then click on “run”. In the box that comesup, enter “cmd” and press enter.
This will open a sort of DOS screen. Type in “ipconfig” and you’ll get all sorts of information, most notably your IP address. Type this address into your browser and you’ll be greeted with a screen from your network provider. You’ll need to login, which is usually something like Admin and Pass and then find the options for Security.
From there, locate “MAC Filtering” and “Add Device”. The MAC address you noted down earlier can then be put into the MAC field and then press save or OK. This device will now be permanently banned from accessing your network.
And that’s all there is to it. Hopefully nobody manages to latch onto your Wi-Fi and slow you down, but if they do, you can now kick them out with no issues.
