How can i find out if my neighbour is tapping into my internet wirelessly?

Question

My speed and performance online has been very intermittent and poor for a while now, and I dont know whether its the provider or the fact that my neighbour could be sourcing my connection somehow. Is there anywhere I can go on my computer to find if anyone is accessing it wirelessly?

Please and thanks..Have a good day!

Answer 1

i encrypt my router with WEP (WPA is better), and i lock my WIFI to only use MAC addresses of things i own. Also, change the default password for your router access (usually Admin) to something else.

The internet isnt perfect and other things can affect wifi performance, including your neighbours own wifi router.

Answer 2

Check your router for any IP addresses that are not your own

You can secure the network by applying specific IP address access.

Answer 3

SIMPLE -- SECURE YOUR NETWORK.

Answer 4

Drunken Fool is right. Check you are using WPA to encrypt your system. WEP has the unfortunate need to broadcast itself every five,ten or whatever minutes dependingg on settings. (Doesn't matter if BT uses WEP, as people have to log on from any where useing known BT codes).

If you using Sky then go to the MAC portion of their setup and check only your nominated MAC addresses are being used.

But use WPA and not WEP, as that is the best way to keep anybody from hacking into you.

Answer 5

The folks at Talk Talk aren't quite correct when they say no one can use your connection because you're using a modem that you plug into.  IF your computer has a wireless connection on it that is active, they could still connect to your computer and then out to the internet via your modem.  Some desktop and most laptop computers do offer both wired and wireless network connections on them.  Unfortunately, Windows has a mode that is designed to operate exactly as I described -- letting your computer be the gateway to the internet for other computers.

Try this:  Right-click My Computer on the Desktop and select Properties.  Click on the Hardware tab and then click on the Device Manager button.  You should see a list of things that are in your computer.  There should be an item called Network Adapters in the list, with a + sign next to it.  Click on the + sign and look at the adapters that the computer knows about.  There will probably be something with 10/100 or 10/100/1000 in the title -- that's your wired internet (actually, it's the Ethernet port) that plugs into your modem.  If there's another item on the list that says something about wireless, you may still have a problem.  If not, then everything should be OK -- as the Talk Talk people said.

It's unlikely that you have this problem, but it's definitely worth a few minutes to make sure you don't...

Answer 6

Make sure you have protected your wireless connection, so that only you can access it - i.e. you can set it up to recognise your ip, or you can put a password on it.

I was amazed when I switched my computer on and found about 5 of my neighbours have unprotected wireless connections...

Answer 7

If you are one of those who have not set up security on your router, then it's time you did so. Use WPA encryption with a key that only you know. There is a router in my neighbourhood that has no encryption and I can connect to it, but I use my own. It's just an open door. Shut it and you can exclude the possibility that your speed degradation is due to unauthorised access.

Answer 8

Reset your wireless network, I mean completely from scratch.  And make sure you put on a password as soon as you can.  This was your neighbor can't get into it without the password.

But it is most likely to be your service provider.

:D