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How To Check If Someone Is Stealing Your WiFi & What You Can Do About It
Revisions:
11-21-12: Initial release
WiFi running a bit slow lately? If your router is still using old security methods such as WEP, then there’s a very real possibility that someone has hacked in to steal your WiFi. Apart from the obvious fact that your internet will be slower, the hacker might be using your internet to do nefarious evil things – all of which could easily be traced back to you. So how you can find out if someone is using your WiFi, and perhaps more importantly – what exactly can you do about it?
Check the devices associated with your router
This method is 100% guaranteed to see any devices registered on your network, but not every router contains this valuable info. Log in to your router by typing it’s IP address directly into the browser address bar. In most setups, eitherhttp://192.168.0.1 or http://192.168.1.1 should work, or it may be written on the router itself, along with the username and password you need to log in with.
Once logged in, look around a section called Attached Devices or Device List. On DD-WRT flashed routers, this is under the Status -> Wireless screen. You will find a list of all the IP addresses currently being used
Monitor wifi network use
Of course, not all your devices will have helpful names, so you’ll need to figure out the IP address of each computer and WiFi device you own in order to cross-check them against the list. I covered how to find your IP address a few days ago when I showed you how to control your torrent client from your mobile. Don’t forget that an iPhone or Android phone will also have it’s own IP address if it’s using your WiFi, so you’ll need to account for those too.
Basic Security – Stop using WEP
Any router purchased in the last 5 years or so should be able to support a more secure authentication protocol, so log in to your router again and find the Wireless Settings screen.
Change the security options to either WPA or WPA2. WPA2 is more secure, but it’s incompatible with some types of devices.Chose the option that allows for both. Don’t choose the Enterprise option as it is designed for companies with authentication servers. When choosing your password, make sure it is at least 15 characters long, includes upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation.
There are some other methods that people will typically advise you to take, that help ,but are not bulletproof.
Hiding your SSID: You can hide your network name so it won’t be seen, but freely available wifi hacking tools will reveal them instantly.
IP filtering: This blocks out a specific IP, but changing IP is as simple as refreshing the connection.
MAC filtering: More secure since it blocks a device via the unique hardware address that is given out when it’s manufactured, but again, anyone trying to steal your WiFi can easily “spoof” their MAC address.
So your WiFi is feeling a little sluggish? The truth is that someone probably isn’t stealing your WiFi. More likely your computer is running slowly, or your router needs rebooting. You could also try boosting the WiFi signal.
[Food for Thought] Getting Away With Crime?
Revisions:
8-21-09: Initial release.
OJ Simpson. He was one of history’s greatest football players, only to hit his downfall with the 1995 trial where it was speculated he had murdered wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Now I don’t want to get into the details of this trial, but the bottom line of the story is that OJ Simpson was acquitted or murder, meaning that he was pronounced innocent. The problem is so many people (and probably himself) know he was guilty, but thanks to a damn good lawyer he got way with what many believed to be murder.
In late 2006, OJ Simpson released a book titled “If I Did It”. The book which is supposed to be a first-person fictional account of the murder had he actually committed it was withdrawn by the publisher before it release, only to be released later by the Goldman family. I got a chance to read this book months ago, and I can say it was gripping.
Sure, it was marketed as “fiction”, but c’mon, we all know it is OJ Simpson’s own way of dealing with himself and the crime he probably did commit.
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