Let's see who is connected to my wifi. How can I find out who is connected to my WiFi router and using the network? Find out who connected to me

Today Wi-Fi is available in almost every home, office, shopping and entertainment center. Wi-Fi networks make it easy for people to connect to the Internet whenever needed. Free wireless access is, of course, convenient, but at the same time, router owners often worry and ask the question: “How can I find out who connected to my WIFI?” This problem is quite relevant today, so it is important to understand all the nuances.

Depending on the model, the router may keep a log of operation. But finding useful information there is quite problematic. The easiest way is to look at the current status and determine how many connected devices there are. But this method is not entirely reliable, since it displays information in a given period of time.

What should router owners be wary of?

Users who access the Internet via a Wi-Fi connection should be wary if they encounter situations like these:

  • Reduced data transfer speed. There can be many reasons for this phenomenon, but it is more advisable to make sure that the low speed is not caused by connected foreign devices.
  • Active indicator blinking. This usually happens at the moment when information is exchanged with the Internet. If all the “legal” devices are not working at the moment, and the light is still on, the user should be wary.

Table of connected equipment

Some users use the following method to help answer the question: “How can I find out who connected to my WIFI?” To quickly check whether unscrupulous users have connected to Wi-Fi, you can use the method of viewing the equipment table. To do this, you need to enter the IP address into the browser line, and then launch the command interpreter. You can do this like this: go to the “Start” menu, then select “Search”, type “cmd” and enter “Enter”. Then you need to run the “ipconfig” command. The router address will be displayed next to the Default Gateway inscription.

After entering your login and password, in the window that opens you can see a list of devices that connect to the router. If the IP and MAC addresses are unfamiliar, these users should be blocked. If necessary, you can limit their priority to a certain time.

How to find out who is connected to Wi-Fi using

This method is quite simple. When the owner of the router is overwhelmed by thoughts of how to check whether someone has connected to my WIFI, you need to go to the settings and select the appropriate tab. All information will be displayed there.

To enter the settings panel, you need to enter the numbers in the address bar of your browser that are indicated on the back of the router. They may differ depending on the device model, but most often it is 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. You can also see the numbers, login and password in the technical documentation.

When all the data has been entered, you need to click OK and go to First you need to go to the “Basic Settings” section, then to the “Wireless Mode” menu and select “Wireless Mode Statistics” there. On the right side of the window that opens, you can see the number of stations connected to Wi-Fi. In these statistics you can see the MAC address of the devices, the total number of packets and the encryption type.

Experienced router owners know that they can solve the problem: “Check if someone has connected to my wifi” using a cable. To do this, there is a “DHCP” tab, where you need to find the “List of DHCP Clients” item. If there are connected devices, not only their MAC address will be displayed, but also their IP address.

How to block someone else's MAC address?

If, in search of an answer to the question: “Who connected to my WIFI?” the owner has detected other people's connections, the MAC address must be blocked. This is not difficult to do, just filter out extraneous devices. To do this, go to the “MAC Address Filtering” section and select “Enable”. Next, you should set the button on the first parameter. After this, you can add someone else's address and save all changes. This measure will block access to the Internet, and third-party devices will no longer be able to use Wi-Fi.

You need to select a password with great responsibility so that it is difficult to guess. A simple and predictable cipher is unlikely to become an obstacle to the connection of unscrupulous outside users.

It is advisable to combine large and small letters, numbers and punctuation marks in your password. It is advisable to make it as long as possible.

Scan local network

There is another way. It involves scanning the local network. You must enter the IP address of your laptop or computer and select the closest range. After checking, two addresses should be displayed: the connected device and the modem. If there are more of them, this indicates that other people's devices are connected to Wi-Fi.

Some users install WEP encryption, but this method is unreliable. There are programs that allow you to hack security and connect to the Internet. WPA is a stronger barrier, but not all older router models support this protocol.

Wireless Network Watcher

It will be useful for users to know that there is a program for checking. You can determine who is connected to my WIFI using Wireless Network Watcher. It is better to download the utility from the official website to avoid various fakes.

You need to run the program from the device that will be connected to the router. Otherwise, Wireless Network Watcher will be of no use. After scanning, you can see not only the number of connected devices, but also their MAC addresses, and even the name of the manufacturer.

But you won’t be able to disable unscrupulous users through the program. To do this, you need to go into the router settings and block addresses. Professionals use a special utility that allows you to determine the location of a connected device with an accuracy of several meters.

There are quite a few ways to find out who connected to my WIFI, and each user can choose the one that suits him.

It's quite annoying when someone gains unauthorized access to your computer. If you think your computer has been hacked, disconnect it from the Internet. Then find the vulnerabilities that the attacker exploited to break into the system and fix them. Then take steps to avoid similar intrusions in the future.

Steps

Part 1

Blocking unauthorized access

    Keep in mind that your computer may turn on automatically to install updates. Most of the latest versions of operating systems are updated automatically; As a rule, this happens at night when no one is using the computer. If your computer turns on without your knowledge (that is, when you are not using it), it most likely woke up from sleep mode to install updates.

    • An attacker could gain remote access to the computer, but this is unlikely. But some measures can be taken to prevent the attempted intrusion itself.
  1. Look for obvious signs of remote access. If the cursor moves, programs are launched and files are deleted without your participation, someone has gained access to the computer. In this case, turn off the computer and disconnect the Ethernet cable.

    • If you find unfamiliar programs or your Internet connection speed has dropped, this does not mean that your computer has been hacked.
    • Many programs that update automatically open pop-up windows during the update process.
  2. Disconnect your computer from the Internet. Do this if you think your computer has been hacked. Disconnect your computer not only from the Internet, but also from the local network to prevent unauthorized access to other computers.

    • Turn off your wireless router and disconnect the Ethernet cable from your computer.
  3. Launch Task Manager or System Monitor. Using these utilities, you can determine active processes.

    • On Windows, press Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + Esc.
    • On Mac OS, open the Applications - Utilities folder and click System Monitor.
  4. In the list of running programs, find programs for remote access. Also look in this list for any unfamiliar or suspicious programs. The following programs are popular remote access programs that are installed without the user's knowledge.

    • VNC, RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, and TeamViewer
    • Also look for unfamiliar or suspicious programs. If you do not know the purpose of a particular active process, find information about it on the Internet.
  5. Please note that the CPU load is abnormally high. It is displayed in the Task Manager or in System Monitor. High CPU usage is normal and does not indicate a computer hack, but if it occurs when no one is using the computer, most likely there are many processes running in the background, which is very suspicious. Keep in mind that high CPU usage occurs during background system updates or large file downloads (that you forgot about).

    Scan your system with an antivirus program. Be sure to install an antivirus or do not turn off Windows Defender. Open your antivirus program and run a scan of your operating system. A full scan will take about an hour.

    • If your computer does not have an antivirus, download it on another computer and copy it to your computer using a USB drive. Install an antivirus and scan the system.
  6. Delete files found by the antivirus. If your antivirus detects malware, remove it or send it to “quarantine” (this depends on the antivirus); in this case, the found programs will no longer harm the computer.

    Download and install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. This is a program that detects and neutralizes malware that is not found by the antivirus. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware can be downloaded for free from malwarebytes.org.

    • Since your computer is disconnected from the Internet, download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on another computer and copy it to your computer using a USB drive.
  7. Scan your system with Anti-Malware. The full scan will take about 30 minutes. Anti-Malware may detect a malicious program that is controlling your computer.

    Send detected malware to “quarantine”. In this case, the found programs will no longer harm the computer.

    Download and run Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit Beta. This program can be downloaded for free from malwarebytes.org/antirootkit/. Anti-Rootkit Beta detects and removes rootkits, which are malicious programs that allow an attacker to gain a foothold in a system and hide traces of entry. A full system scan will take some time.

    Monitor your computer's behavior after removing malware. Even if your antivirus and/or Anti-Malware program has found and removed malware, monitor your computer's behavior to determine whether there is hidden malware.

    Change all passwords. If your computer is hacked, the attacker most likely obtained your passwords using a keylogger. In this case, change the passwords for various accounts. Do not use the same password for multiple accounts.

    Log out of all accounts. Do this after changing your passwords. Sign out of your accounts on all devices on which you use these accounts. In this case, the attacker will not be able to use the old passwords.

    Reinstall the operating system if you are unable to block unauthorized access to your computer. This is the only reliable way to prevent intrusion and get rid of all malicious files. Before reinstalling the system, create a backup copy of important data, as during the process of reinstalling the system, all information will be deleted.

    • When backing up your data, scan every file because there is a risk that old files will lead to infection of the reinstalled system.
    • Read on for more information on how to reinstall your Windows or Mac OS system.

    Part 2

    Preventing unauthorized access
    1. Set up automatic updates of your antivirus program. A modern antivirus detects malware before it reaches your computer. Windows comes pre-installed with Windows Defender, which is a good antivirus that runs and updates in the background. You can also download an excellent and free antivirus such as BitDefender, Avast! or AVG. Remember that you can only install one antivirus program on your computer.

      • Read for more information on how to enable Windows Defender.
      • Read for more information on how to install an antivirus program (this will turn Windows Defender off automatically).
    2. Set up your firewall. Unless you own the server or run remote access software, there is no need to keep the ports open. Most programs that require open ports use the UPnP protocol, which means ports are opened and closed as needed. Constantly open ports are the main vulnerability of the system.

      • Read and then check if all ports are closed (unless you are the owner of the server).
    3. Be careful with email attachments. They are the most popular way to spread viruses and malware. Open attachments to letters from people you know, and even then it is better to contact the sender and find out if he sent any attachment. If the sender's computer is infected, then malware will be sent without his knowledge.

      Set strong passwords. Each protected account or program must have a unique and strong password. In this case, an attacker will not be able to use the password to one account to hack another. Find information on the Internet about how to use a password manager.

    4. Don't use free wireless networks. Such networks are insecure because you have no way of knowing whether someone is monitoring your incoming and outgoing traffic. By monitoring traffic, an attacker can gain access to the browser or more important processes. To protect your system while connecting to a free wireless network, use a VPN service that encrypts traffic.

      • Read

How can I find out who is connected to my WiFi router? Every wireless network owner wants to know the answer to the question. This may be needed for various purposes, but most often when you want to find and punish a “criminal”.

How to find out about an unauthorized connection?

There are only 3 signs that someone has connected to the wireless Internet:

  1. Sudden and frequent falls. This could mean that someone is connected to the network and is “stealing” traffic. Of course, there is not always an extra user. Often this may be due to the work of the provider itself. Therefore, it would be a good idea to find out who is connected to Wi-Fi and how to remove this “guest”.
  2. “The site is not accessible to my IP!” – this is exactly what you can hear from some PC owners whose WiFi connection was interfered with by someone else.
  3. When disconnecting gadgets and PCs from the router, its indicator light should not blink or remain constantly lit.

How many people are using the WiFi connection?

How can I see and check who is connected to my WiFi and determine the number of users? You can do this directly.

Important! To access the router management menu, enter the router address in the browser address bar. Typically this is 192.168.1.1.

In the window that opens, enter your account information. For most wireless network devices, this is admin/admin (password and login, respectively).

How to determine who is connected to my WiFi? router The question comes down to the steps mentioned above on any router. The number of connected gadgets will be displayed directly in the control panel in the Wireless item. In some models you will have to open the corresponding tab, while in others the number of users will be visible in the right block of the window.

To view detailed information about who is connected to the router, you should go to “wireless statistics”. What you should pay attention to? The names of computers and other devices will not be displayed here, but the MAC addresses of all gadgets are available. Here you can also block a specific user. Important point: output from a specific MAC address will not be available until the user is removed from the banned list or the router is reset to factory settings.

Software for viewing router map

The most convenient way to monitor “left” users and connection status is in the settings of the router itself. The router control panel will allow you not only to see who is connected to my Wi-Fi, but also to block access to both the network itself and the devices in it. The disadvantage of this solution is that the router does not send notifications about new users connecting.

That's why there are programs to see who is connected to WiFi. Among the most popular are:

  1. Network Watcher. You just need to launch the application and press the F5 key - and the application will start searching for all available devices and their addresses on the local network. To configure the program to work automatically and receive appropriate notifications, you need to set a scanning interval.
  2. WiFi Guard. Its functionality is similar to the previous software, but unlike Network Watcher, it can be launched in the system tray when the OS starts.

Any of the programs is a convenient and quick way to solve the issue of how to find out who is using my Wi-Fi.

We quickly determine the number of devices connected to the WiFi network (in two different ways), set up rules for limited and secure access to the wireless network, and also understand programs that make it easier to carry out the above actions.


Content:

Signs of unauthorized connections

First sign Quite often you can encounter sharp drops in connection throughput. Most often, the problem lies in the work of providers at different levels between you and the remote server, but it is also quite possible that your channel’s traffic will be consumed by unauthorized persons. Second sign Something that makes you think about controlling access to your Wi-Fi channel is sudden access restrictions for your IP address for some sites. In addition, pay attention to the behavior of the wireless connection indicator on the router case - when all devices are disconnected from the network, it should not blink, much less be lit almost constantly.

How can I find out how many devices are connected to my wifi?

How to find out who is connected to my wifi? The easiest way to do this is in the control panel of your router.

To enter it, type in the address bar of your web browser the IP address of your router on the local network (if no one has changed it, it will correspond to what is indicated in the instructions and on the router case; usually this is ) and enter the credentials in the request window (by the default in many routers is admin/admin). Further actions depend on the manufacturer of your router, but there are no fundamental differences, so let’s consider the actions using the example of the shell of Asus routers.


In the control panel of your router, you will see the number of all devices connected to the router in the “Clients” section. Clicking on it opens a detailed list of devices. For example, in the screenshot below we see two connected devices: a laptop and a phone.

For detailed information, you can refer to the “System Log-Wireless Communications” menu; it does not display the network names of devices, but only the MAC addresses of their network interfaces. Since they (MAC addresses) were also indicated in the list of clients (which we looked at earlier), it will not be difficult to figure out who is who. In our example, we see that the phone has been connected to the network for a long time, while the laptop has just been connected.

If for some reason you do not have access to the router, you can get by with third-party programs. The simplest option is a program made freely available by the developer. After pressing the F5 button (or selecting the appropriate item in the menu), the program will scan the entire range of addresses on the local network and display a list of detected devices.


How to see who is connected to a wifi router

More precisely, this question should have been formulated not “how to see who is connected to my wifi,” but “how to see which devices are not mine.” With phones and tablets, everything is simple: temporarily disable the wireless radio module on them, and they will disappear from the list of connected devices. You can find out the network name and MAC address of your computer by pressing the Win+R keys on your keyboard and in the window that appears, typing cmd to open the command console, in which you need to enter the following: ipconfig /all

In our example, the Notebook device found earlier turned out to be our own laptop. Simply put, all the devices found in the example earlier belong to us, and there are no third-party connections.

How to disconnect unknown users from your Wi-Fi

Through the router's control panel, you can prohibit wireless data transmission for any device on the network. Since they are identified by unique MAC addresses, in fact, serial numbers of their network interfaces, turning on the “Reject” filter for a device will mean that it cannot work on your Wi-Fi network, no matter how its owner tries to connect.

How to secure your Wi-Fi? We prohibit connecting to wi-fi unknown devices.

From the previous example, you can understand how to protect yourself from connecting unknown devices: turn on the “Accept” MAC address filter and add to the list all gadgets and computers that will be allowed access to the network. In addition, do not forget about the security settings: use a password protection of sufficient length with the WPA2 authentication method (unlike the outdated WEP, which can be easily cracked by a wifi sniffer, this will force an attacker to spend quite a lot of time hacking your network).

Programs for monitoring everyone who is connected to wi-fi

As you have already seen, the most convenient way to monitor the status of your network is through the router’s control panel - this way you can quickly identify an uninvited guest and block his access to the network. However, the router cannot warn the owner about new devices appearing on the network. For this purpose, you can use third-party programs, for example, the one already described above: set in its settings the frequency of scanning the network and the appropriate type of notification about a new device, and you will always be able to find out about new connections in your wireless network.

Another program has similar functionality - . But, unlike the previous program, it can automatically launch in the system tray along with Windows.