How can i check who is using my wireless router?

Question

How can i check to see if people are using my wireless internet via my router? And how can i block their IP address or the address of anyone that tries to use it? Also how many people can i have using my router before it starts getting slow as far as online mmo's and what not go? Right now i have 8mb dl and 500 kb/s upload. I live in a dorm style appartment building and don't want anyone using my internet w/o me giving them permission.

Answer 1

You can restrict access to your network via your router by requiring them to authenticate themselves using a password.  WEP is a bad choice due to it's well-known vulnerabilities (a person with even a moderate knowledge of computer technology can crack WEP in five minutes or less), so WPA/WPA2 would be your best bet.  If you don't wish to use a password, you can restrict access to the router via MAC address (the hardware ID of your network card) so only computers whose MAC addresses are set to be allowed to connect can connect.  This involves doing an "ipconfig /all" in the computer's command prompt, Finding the network adapter and it's MAC address, then copying the 12 byte (xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx) hex address of your router, inputting it into your router's MAC allow list.

In your router's configuration, there should be an option somewhere to display a "DHCP Client List" which will show you every user connected to your network.  You can go through the router's logs to see if anyone other than you has connected to it in the past.

I hope I was of some assistance.

Answer 2

Use this simple but excellent utility http://www.lookatlan.com/

If that doesn't give enough detail the install http://www.wireshark.org/ and watch all the traffic on your LAN.

You can't block by IP address (it's your DHCP server that assigned them to the clients on your LAN). You can block MAC addresses, but that's insecure and easy to defeat. The best way to prevent unauthorised access is to set a strong WPA key. (WEP 128 is OK, but can be cracked, if you have old kit that doesn't support WPA.)

Answer 3

Simple just secure your router, or go into the security settings and set up a MAC Address filter. I'd say its easier just to create a password for your router though. To do so you need to know your router's User name and Password usually provided in the setup documentation allow with what address you need to type into your browser to set it up. If you find that someone has already accessed your router and changed those setting simply go and do a restart on the router by holding down the reset button located somewhere on the router. Follow the directions in the booklet provided with your router to secure your network and enjoy all of YOUR hard earned bandwidth. Also to view those on your router enter your router settings and there should be an option on there to "View Connected Devices" or something similar which will show their IP address and their MAC address.

~Yiffy

Answer 4

enter cmd into the run commands and type in 'netview'