I Have a D-Link router and I think someone is stealing my wi-fi

Question

I Have a good modem with a D-Link router in which i play my ps3 online and my Mac computer, and at some different times ill be playing my ps3 and lag out of games, this never use to happen at all, ive changed my modem once when the connection wasnt working at all that solved the problem, i did that a few years ago. now every so often i will be playing online and i keep getting kicked every few seconds its getting ridiculous. so could someone please help me find out how to check on who has been using my router and if there are any security locks i can put on it.

Answer 1

I assume that you have a wireless router and that you are losing your connection

Being a bit on the paranoid side aren't you

There are many things which can cause interference and poor reception with wireless connections

First make sure that the router is high and not cluttered

Next change the channel from the default channel 6 to another one of the channels  - channels 1 and 11 are first picks

Change the ssid if it is on the ssid default ( which is the default ssid for dlink and smc brands) At the worst add a single digit

Do not use identifying information such as name ,address , phone number etc)

Turn on encryption

Help here:

http://www.portforward.com/english/route...

if you want to see if someone has logged on

check in your status > lan area to see if any rogue devices have logged on

You can see any signals more clearly that are drifting in with a  program called netstumbler

The windows wireless utility is scaled down and not too sensitive

change the channel first

Answer 2

From what you desrcibe i can;t figure out if your problem is someone stealing you internet or you have a crappy (bad quality) connection.

To check if someone is connected to your network (actualy this will show you if anyone has connected for the last 24 hours) open a browser (preferably not ps3's) and type your routers ip adress. If you don;t know what this is search in the manual, it should look like this 192.168.1.xx)

Type user name and password and find a wirelles tab and normally there should be a table listing the computers connected on the network.

Answer 3

You can password protect it.

Answer 4

Login to the admin page on your router. Usually, it's http://192.168.1.1 , but it can vary.

I don't know the specifics for D-Link (I do own one), but look for the 'DHCP Clients Table' and see what other IPs are online. This will help you know if there are others jumping onto your network.

However, there are ways to hide themselves from this table (like IP spoofing, static IP, etc).

So, you can do several things: Switch to a higher strength protocol (think: WPA2 instead of WPA or WEP). This will be either on your Wireless menu or Security menu. When you do this, make sure you choose the 16 or 32 character key.

In addition to this, you can also choose to do certificates. Sorry for being vague, I am not in front of my config page right now. This method provides for exchanging certificates with the router in order to verify your ID. I have not personally set it up, but it's a method my work WAPs do to authenticate us.

Another, more easier method you can do in addition to WPA2 is to do MAC address filtering. This is where you record all of your own MAC addresses on your network devices and then input them in an 'allowed' list on your router. Anyone not matching the MAC doesnt have access. But, this can be spoofed, from what I have heard.

Hope this helps.