How to find out who is using your Wi-Fi. How to find out who is connected to my WiFi. Viewing a list of connected clients

The Internet is an integral part of life modern man: wireless networks are multiplying at an enviable speed, but the number of “freebie” lovers who prefer their neighbor is increasing in proportion to them. At the same time, the rightful owner of an unscheduled “shared” access point only gets into trouble: a drop in traffic, etc.

Therefore, the question “how to find out who is using my wifi” is more than relevant today, and in this article we will tell you how to see how many users are connected to a wifi router.

How to check how many devices are connected to wifi?

To find out whether enterprising neighbors are using your wifi, you first need to determine.

For most modern routers, the factory settings are indicated on the service sticker located on the back panel of the device.

Here, the IP address line contains the combination of numbers xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (in most cases, this is 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1), which is necessary to access the device settings.

To see how many devices are connected to wifi, in the router control panel, find the section where all will be listed active users your wireless network.

If you wish, you can delete or ban the Mac address of the selected device here, thereby preventing the thief from further access to your traffic.

Is it possible to find out who is using my wifi without using the router settings?

In addition, you can figure out who is using my wifi using special software, designed specifically for monitoring wireless networks.

As such programs or utility " Wireless Network watcher", which can be downloaded for free at open access Internet.

After installing the program, it scans your network and shows all computers and mobile gadgets connected to the router.

At the same time, for each device, basic data is indicated (Mac address, device name, manufacturer and device model), with the help of which you can identify illegal WiFi users.

However, ban third party connections only possible through the router's web interface.

To protect your WiFi network from “encroachments” it is recommended to install only complex unique ones: it is advisable to use letters different case and numbers. In addition, you can disable and limit the number of users who can connect to your network.

Wireless Internet has appeared in the offices of almost all organizations, residential apartments, shopping centers, parks and bus stops. Unfortunately, in addition to its many benefits, wireless Internet brings problems to users in the form of criminals who connect to someone else’s access point without permission. Today we will teach you how to find out who is connected to your Wi-fi and turn off freeloaders!

In what cases should you check for third-party wifi connections?

Detecting a foreign connection is easy. Several signs indicate this:

Poor throughput. Often the problem arises because additional traffic spent by unauthorized persons.
The provider often restricts access from the IP address to certain sites.
When you disconnect all devices from the router, the indicators stop lighting. If there is even a slight blinking, other devices are connected to the network.

Who can connect to my wifi

Two categories of attackers connect to the user's Wi-Fi:

Typical amateurs free cheese”, who want to use the capabilities of the Internet without paying a penny.
People who specifically hack into someone else's network in order to visit prohibited web resources and spread negative information on someone else's behalf. This category of attackers poses a serious danger to the network owner, since it is quite difficult to prove non-involvement in illegal actions in this case.

To obtain a list of devices connected to the router, it is recommended to use the functions of the router control panel. The check includes several sequential steps:

Type in the address bar of the browser the IP of the router (IP is usually indicated on your router, the most often used IP: 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.100.1).
Entering credentials into electronic form request ( Standard pairs login/password: admin/admin or admin/root).

You can also check the list of users using programs specially developed for this purpose, the best of which are listed at the end of this article. Most often, such utilities are used in cases where access to router data is impossible via various reasons. Running program scans the local network in a few seconds and displays full list all devices connected to it.

How to view connected devices to wifi on Android and iOS (iphone)

A smartphone running Android and IOS can act as an access point, and this is often used by attackers. But, if desired, you can easily identify “foreign” devices. To do this, you need to perform several steps in sequence:

Open the settings menu on your mobile phone.
Go to the “wireless networks” section.
Enable hotspot. To do this, modem mode is activated and the wireless point access. This parameter may also be called: “wi-fi access point”.
Go to the Wi-Fi access point menu.
Open the “connected users” section. This section will display a list of all connected devices with unique identifiers.

How to disconnect suspicious devices of your users from wi-fi

Suspicious users are disconnected from the network using the router control panel. Here the user prohibits data transfer for any of the selected devices. The device is identified by unique twelve-digit numbers, so their owners will not be able to overcome the effect of the applied filter even if they wanted to.
To disconnect “left” devices from your wifi you need:

Type the router's IP in the address bar of your browser (the IP is usually indicated on your router, the most commonly used IP is 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.100.1).
Log in (enter login/password). (Standard login/password pairs: admin/admin or admin/root).
Find a list of connected devices. Usually it is located in a special tab with the names “Users”, “Clients” and other similar things.
Select suspicious devices and remove them (or deny access, depending on the router’s admin interface).
Ready.

Advice: In order not to manually delete all suspicious devices connected to your Wi-Fi, you can simply change your Wi-Fi password to a more complex one and reboot the router. After that simple action Freeloaders won't bother you anymore.

How to protect your wi-fi from fraudulent connections of freeloaders and hacking?

For reliable protection to protect your network from unauthorized connections and hacking, simply install the “accept” filter to specific MAC addresses. All are included in the list of permitted secure devices, and all others will be filtered out. It is recommended to install additional protection your network in the form of a strong password with in a modern way WPA2 authentication. WPA2 is harder to crack than its legacy WEP counterpart.

Programs for viewing and monitoring wifi connections

The router does a good job of identifying suspicious connections, but does not inform the owner that new devices have appeared on the network. U third party programs This function is available and they do an excellent job with the connection controller. Among them, the following developments stand out:

WIFI Guard. The program allows the administrator to control the volume of connected users and easily block access for them if necessary. A green or red indicator lights up next to any of the connected users. The color indicates the legality of the device connection.
Netgear Genie. The program is easy to use. Immediately after installation, the application provides information about all connected users in this moment. This network manager has a rich set of tools, thanks to which you can control connections, fix minor network errors, test connection speed, configure the router, set parental controls.
Acrylic WIFI Professional. In addition to clearly fulfilling the main responsibilities, the program fine-tunes the access point, identifies and helps in eliminating network problems. The functionality and security of the network is checked by the program in real time and background without taking up much space in random access memory. The program provides the most complete data about the network, carefully analyzing traffic, connection speed and other standard parameters.

One of the main problems when using wireless wifi network is unauthorized access to it by third party users. Often, attackers connect to someone else's Wi-Fi, which is too protected easy password or having none at all. The presence of additional connections reduces throughput channel for each client, as a result of which the owner of the router experiences a sharp drop in Internet speed. A reasonable question arises: “How to find out who is connected to my Wi-Fi and how to block uninvited guests?»

Signs of third-party connections to a Wi-Fi network

The most obvious signal indicating the appearance of extra users is a decrease in the speed of access to the Internet.
Another symptom is the constant flickering of the indicators on the router at a time when all standard devices seem to be turned off and should not make requests.

How to view connected devices in the admin panel of a Wi-Fi router

To check who is “sitting” on your Wi-Fi, you need to go to the router settings. As an example, let's take a router, the configuration of which we discussed in a separate article. So, to go to the web interface of the router in any browser, enter address bar IP address 192.168.0.1 . Next, in the window that appears, enter the username and password (by default admin And admin).

If you have already changed your password when initial setup router, then we enter a new value accordingly. Standard data for logging into the control panel network device, as a rule, are indicated on back side his body.

After passing authorization, we find ourselves in the interface of the administrative zone of the router. In the case of our TP-Link TL-WR841N, select the section in the menu Wireless Mode - Statistics wireless mode (Wireless – Wireless statistics). Let's see who is currently connected to your Wi-Fi network.

To identify foreign devices, deactivate the Wi-Fi module on all your connected devices (tablets, laptops, smartphones). If after such actions the list is empty, then there are no strangers on the network. Otherwise there is unauthorized connection. Block Wi-Fi access extra devices You can do it here by clicking on the “Deny” button.

Another way to set a ban is to go to the “MAC Address Filtering” section, enable this function and add all unwanted addresses to the rules.

More detailed information for all connected to your Wi-Fi router devices, including wired ones, can be seen in the “DHCP Clients List” tab of the DHCP section. Some router models provide the ability to block third-party connections through DHCP settings.

Using third party apps to monitor Wi-Fi

Various utilities allow you to determine the fact of unauthorized use of a wireless network. One of the most popular - Wireless Network Watcher. Find and download this program won't be difficult. Once launched, the application scans the network and shows who is connected to the Wi-Fi router.

The list displays IP, MAC addresses, device names and manufacturers. Your router and computer have special designation in the “Device Information” column – we immediately exclude them from the list of strangers. The remaining lines require verification. You can identify “outsiders” by disabling “your” devices (they will immediately disappear from the program’s list) or by comparing MAC addresses.

The disadvantages of applications include the lack of functionality in them to limit the access of an attacker, if one suddenly appears. You will still have to block through Wi-Fi settings router. In addition, scanning the network will only be possible if at least one computer is connected to the router via cable.

Among the advantages of utilities, and specifically the Wireless Network Watcher program, we highlight the possibility of background monitoring of all connecting devices. Click on the “Options” menu item, and then check the boxes next to the “Background Scan” and “Beep On New Device” options.

Now connecting any device will be accompanied by a corresponding sound signal.

How to secure your wireless network

The first step is to change the factory password to access the administrative Wi-Fi panels router. Applied to TP-Link routers this is done in the “System Tools” section – “Password” subsection.

To increase the level of security, you can also register specific MAC addresses that will be allowed to change the router settings. To enter this restriction, go to Safety - Local control . On the tab that opens, set the switch to the “Only computers listed in the list can perform administration” position and set the necessary MAC addresses.

Another mandatory point is to set a password directly for the Wi-Fi networks. This is done on the “Wireless Security” tab in the “Wireless” section. The password should be long and complex enough to be difficult to guess. It is better to choose the encryption method WPA/WPA2.

Well, in order to be 100% protected from attacks by unidentified users, you should strictly define a list of trusted MAC addresses. We already did something similar when we wanted to ban suspicious addresses. Now, on the contrary, we will allow, but only fixed ones. Let's go along the way Wireless Mode - MAC Address Filtering(Wireless – Wireless MAC Filtering) and select the switch position “Allow access to stations specified in included entries”. Let's add allowed addresses below. Now only they will be allowed to access our Wi-Fi.

We hope that after reading this article you will be able to install full control above home wireless network, and the question “How to see who is connected to my Wi-Fi” will no longer be so relevant.

If your Internet speed has dropped, you may need to find out how many people are connected to your Internet. This is done quite simply, just go to the router settings and check.
Look who connected to your wi-fi quite simple. It’s also easy to “kick him out” from the team and deny him access. After all, if your Internet is glitchy, maybe you someone steals it. So let's go
Again, you need to know what address your router has. In order not to repeat, I will write at least different alternative methods recognizing the router's main address
Press winkey + R -> Enter cmd -> ipconfig /all

This is what the Address looks like if you are connected from the network (via a cord) to the Internet

If you connected via wifi, then the main network address (the address of your router) after entering the commands as written above

In any browser, enter the address that the command gave us ipconfig/all. Now enter 192.168.1.1 into the address bar (in your case, your option) This way we will connect to the router first, and then we can look list of people connected to our wi-fi network. Enter the administrator login and password. Usually admin/admin, and most often you change it yourself. It happens that the Internet provider gives you a paper with the login and password for the router written down. After entering, we get to the admin panel of our router.

Now let's look at two different routers
Let's see who is connected to Tp-link. Example with OpenWRT firmware.
To do this, go to Network –DHCP and DNS. In the Active DHCP Leases line. As you can see from my screenshot, there are only 2 devices connected at the moment. This is 1 computer and 1 laptop.

How can I find out if I am connected to my Wi-Fi or someone else?

You can look at your Mac addresses on your devices (phones, tablets, iPhones) and compare them with those in the list
You can find out the mac address of Android (Android phones and tablets) in Settings-> About phone -> Technical information

You can find out the mac address on an iPhone (phones and tablets on iOS) in Settings -> General -> About this phone

And look at yours mac address computer you can press winkey + R and enter cmd – ipconfig/all
Look at the top 2 screenshots. In short, the Physical address is the Mac address.
This is what it looks like in my case. I have 1 computer and a laptop connected. I see that this is true. Computer via cord and laptop via wi-fi

How to add to the blacklist

You need to add it to the Mac address blacklist. I’ll continue to show here for now (TPLink OpenWRT), but then I’ll show you using the example of the Dlink Dir-300 router
So let's go to Network -> WiFi -> Edit -> Mac-Filter

As we can see, we have 3 types of Mac-filer. Disable – disabled, which is most likely also selected for you, Allow listed only – Give Internet only to those who are on the list, Allow all accept list – Exclude those who are on the list. Father-in-law, you need your version. Let me try (for a while, for example, remove my laptop so that it cannot connect)

I select, Allow all accept list (Exclude those on the list) and enter his Mac address. Click Save Apply

As soon as I clicked Apply the laptop turned off. And if we go back to DHCP, we will see that the laptop is not in the list. Just before updating the list, the device must be rebooted!

OK. I also have dir-300 with me here and I will show you how to do the same there. Let's go to the admin panel. Now we need to go to Status - DHCP.

To add to the blacklist, you need to go to Wi-fi – Mac filter. Allow is an option when only those from the list will receive Wi-fi. The prohibit option means that everyone whose addresses you enter will not receive the Internet.

Now you have learned a little more about the capabilities of your router, you have learned how to manage users, who connected to your Wi-fi network

How to find out which of the left people is connected to your Wi-Fi router? The easiest way is to turn off the Internet during rush hour and listen to what is happening around you in complete silence. The hysterical reaction of the neighbors will tell you the answer to this question. Well, speaking seriously, you can find out this information in the router settings and using special programs. How all this is learned, and most importantly, what to do with this information later, we will consider in this article.

Signs that someone is stealing Wi-Fi

Slow Internet may indicate that poor Wi-Fi connections have appeared. The network will begin to slow down, the speed will drop to a critical minimum, and none of the household members will be caught actively downloading files. But nothing special active actions no need to restrict each user local network, if this network is provided by a weak router. With this, and even with a slow connection according to the tariff, each of the network devices will receive its own minimum resource. And this can even be reflected in the speed of opening sites. The balls are right for fans, but it’s unfair for those who pay for the Internet.

But where big problems than slow Internet or even hefty bills received under metered tariffs, uninvited guests can throw up if they turn out to be scammers, distributors of porn, wanted by members of extremist groups or other seekers of problems with the law. And with the help of our access point they will do their business.

You can detect the fact of a third-party connection to Wi-Fi if you temporarily disconnect all authorized devices from the network. The router indicator that continues to blink will indicate that wireless Internet someone is using it. The following will help you understand which equipment is currently connected to the network without our knowledge, and also take action against uninvited guests.

How to detect Wi-Fi theft using a router

You can specifically verify that there are third-party connections to the Wi-Fi network using the router’s web interface. To do this, you need to enter the interface in the browser window, log in and go to the section where active wireless connections are displayed. Each brand of router has its own interface, moreover, different versions Firmware may be available for different model lines, so universal instructions here, by convention, there can be no speech. But I, friends, will show the principle of action using an example TP-Link models TL-WR720N.

In the browser window, enter the IP address of the router; for TP-Link, as for many other models, it is 192.168.0.1. Next, an authorization window will appear in which you need to specify a username and password. Again, for many router models the default is admin and admin, respectively. To view devices connected to the Wi-Fi network, go to the “Wireless Mode” section and click “Wireless Mode Statistics”. In my case, there is only one wireless connection - a smartphone. By using TP-Link firmware We will only see the MAC address of the smartphone.

Not much more information, alas, is also displayed in the “Advanced Settings” section in the “List of DHCP Clients”, where all network equipment is listed. The router has detected the name of the computer connected via Ethernet. But the smartphone remained unknown to him.

Other router models may provide more information about connected devices. For example, determine the manufacturer or operating system. But even with such a minimum of information that TP-Link provides, the difference between total number wireless connections and the number of gadgets of their households.

Changing your Wi-Fi password

In principle, at this stage the investigation can be completed: the fact of theft has been established, then we proceed in the most simple method– change the Wi-Fi password. Or we install it if the access point was initially not password-protected. In the tested TP-Link model, this is done in the same “Wireless Mode” section, in the “Wireless Protection” subsection, in the “PSK Password” column.

For the average person, these measures will be sufficient. But our move will not stop more or less competent thieves, because the Internet is full of instructions for determining the password of other people’s points Wi-Fi access. Devices of persistent balloon lovers must be blocked by MAC addresses. And if there are several devices connected to Wi-Fi, you need to determine whose MAC addresses are.

How to find out whose MAC addresses are

How can you find out where whose MAC addresses are if the router firmware does not provide at least some identifying feature for network devices?

Option No. 1: You can find out the MAC addresses for each of your household devices using the functionality operating systems or third party applications gadgets used. And thus identify the Internet thief. But there is a much simpler method.

Option number 2: you can resort to help special Windows program SoftPerfect WiFi Guard. This and more convenient way determination of MAC addresses of network devices, and also a tool for preventing unauthorized wireless connections.

We don’t close the router’s web interface for now, we’ll come back to it later.

SoftPerfect WiFi Guard program

Unpretentious, supportive Russian-language interface program SoftPerfect WiFi Guard provides a small but useful list of features:

Scans the network for connections, in particular wireless ones;

Reveals third party devices and signals their connection;

Provides information about MAC addresses and manufacturers of equipment connected to the network;

Keeps a history of all devices ever connected to the network since the first scan.

The program is downloaded from the developer’s website, there is a portable version:

https://www.softperfect.com/products/wifiguard/

You can use SoftPerfect WiFi Guard to monitor up to 5 network devices for free. This restriction is removed when purchasing a perpetual (!) license for 1,120 rubles.

How to use the program? Install it into the system or unpack it portable version. Let's launch. If your computer has several network adapters, including virtual ones, and this will certainly be the case for those who work with hypervisors, SoftPerfect WiFi Guard will start with active window settings and asks her to indicate the one she needs network adapter. In the list of adapters, select the physical one - the one that does not include the names of hypervisor programs.

We launch the scan directly in the SoftPerfect WiFi Guard window.

The program will notify you with the following notification about all detected smartphones, tablets, TVs and other equipment connected to Wi-Fi.

After which the window will display the entire list of network devices. Router and current computer in the “Info” column will be marked, respectively, as “Internet gateway” and “This computer”. The router and the current Windows computer will appear with a green indicator, which indicates that they are authorized by the program by default. All devices connected via Wi-Fi will be marked with a red indicator. And this means that the program sees them as third parties. And they will continue to see it this way until we ourselves sanction them. In the “Manufacturer” column of each device we will see the manufacturer. For desktops, the motherboard manufacturer will be displayed as such a company.

In fact, in this way, based on the device manufacturer, you can determine which of them owns the MAC addresses displayed both in the router interface and in the program window. Of course, if it happens that an Internet thief has, for example, a smartphone from the same manufacturer as someone in the household, then he will have to look at the MAC address on the latter’s smartphone and use the exclusion method.

So, where whose gadget did we figure out, now with the help context menu programs can copy MAC addresses - of thieves for the blacklist or of our household for whitelist blocking using a router.

But we’ll talk about blocking a little later; first, let’s look at some more features of SoftPerfect WiFi Guard. Double-clicking on an unauthorized device will open a properties window where you can authorize it by checking the box that says “I know this computer or...”.

In this case, the gadget will receive green indicator, and during subsequent scans the program will no longer display a message about it. By clicking the “All devices” button, we get a list of all computers, smartphones, tablets and other equipment ever connected to the network during the program’s operation.

In the settings section we can change the time period for scanning the network. If the preset half an hour is too short a time period, move the slider of the “Rescan the network every...” option to the left, to the desired value. Also in the settings you can check the option to run the program from the system tray. And if necessary, select the program to autorun.