Is Your WiFi Being Shared? Learn How to Tell if Someone is Using Your WiFi

Is your favorite streaming show stuttering? Or have you noticed that downloads take a little longer than usual? It may not be a problem with your WiFi router at all – instead, someone could be using your WiFi network without your permission.

It can be tough to tell if someone is using your WiFi, and it might seem impossible to boot an unwelcome guest from your home network without tech support. Today, let’s explore a few different ways to know whether your WiFi is being stolen, plus go over simple steps you can take to kick someone off your WiFi network.

Is stealing your internet even possible?

Simply put, yes. It’s absolutely possible for someone to get into a WiFi network they don’t have permission for. But in most cases, “hacking” a WiFi network doesn’t have anything to do with surveillance vans or complex computer code. In fact, most WiFi theft happens when someone sneaks onto an unprotected home or public network.

For example, say that you get a new WiFi router and network and set your password to “0000”. If someone not in your family is lucky enough to guess that password, they could access your WiFi network and slow your download speeds without you being any the wiser!

What’s the harm? It’s never a wise idea to let someone continue to use your WiFi network without your permission. WiFi theft can lead to consequences like:

• Slower downloads and uploads for your family
• Your WiFi network being used for illegal activities, such as purchasing illegal products
• Your computer’s internet browser being overtaken and used for identity theft
• Malware getting installed on your home’s connected devices

Plus, the last thing you want is for a freeloader to enjoy the WiFi that you pay for.

How to tell if someone is using your WiFi

There are plenty of ways you can tell if someone is using your WiFi. For example:

• Are your WiFi downloads much slower than normal? If nothing has changed with your WiFi plan and you've ruled out other reasons for slow internet speeds, it might be due to unwelcome traffic.
• Log into your WiFi router’s online site, then look for a page marked “network map” or something similar. This will have a list of the devices connected to your router. If you don’t recognize a particular device, it might be in use by a WiFi freeloader.
• Your computer’s antivirus software might have alarms to warn you about WiFi theft, too. Providers like Avast or AVG regularly scan networks for vulnerabilities. They might also detect unwelcome WiFi users and send you alerts.
• Check the lights on your router from time to time. If you turn off all your WiFi devices but the activity light on the router continues to blink, that means traffic is still flowing – probably to a device you haven't authorized.
• When you get your monthly utility bill, check the traffic or how much data was sent through your router. If it’s a monumentally higher amount of data compared to what you normally use, there’s a good chance someone unexpected is using your WiFi network for their own purposes.

How to kick someone off your WiFi

Once you’ve figured out that someone is using your WiFi network without your permission, you don’t have to wait to take action. You can kick them off your WiFi network yourself with a few simple solutions.

Change your network name and password

The easiest way to block unwanted WiFi users? Simply change your WiFi password or add a password if you hadn’t previously.

Not only will this make it harder for freeloaders to access your network again, but it should freeze them out entirely so long as they don’t know what the new login credentials are. Changing the password also prevents anyone who had access to your network previously from being automatically reconnected by accident.

If you want to take it a step further, you could change both the network’s name and password. Changing the network name will make it harder for outside users to realize which network is yours, making it even harder to guess the password. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to reconnect every device in your home that uses the WiFi network using those new credentials you set (network name, password, or both).

You can take these security steps in your WiFi router’s settings – they’re different for each router, but your internet service provider should have included a list of instructions to help you get to them. Router settings are typically reached using an app on your phone that the tech might have set up when you installed service, or they could be accessed through a specific website. Remember, you can always contact tech support to learn how to access WiFi router settings for your network.

Set a WPA2 password

You can go a step further and set a more secure WiFi Protected Access (WPA) 2 password. These passwords use very strong encryption to prevent them from being hacked.

To make a strong WPA2 password, you don’t have to overthink things or make it overly complicated. Instead, just make it at least 16 characters and a combination of upper and lowercase letters plus numbers and symbols. Arrange the characters however you want; just be sure to write the password down so you don’t forget it!

Then, be sure to enable WPA2 encryption for your WiFi router on its settings page. With these steps, you’ll make it almost impossible for even the most talented hackers to get your network’s password by brute force.

Set up parental controls

Many routers come with inbuilt parental controls, which can be handy tools to kick someone off your WiFi network.

Access your router settings, then find the parental control options. Here, you should be able to see what devices are connected to your WiFi, and you can easily check boxes or otherwise pick devices you want to block from using your WiFi network. Parental controls typically let you block devices for either a certain amount of time or permanently, depending on your preferences.

Ban a foreign device

If you don’t mind diving into the nuts and bolts of your home’s WiFi network, you can use media access control (MAC) address filtering to boot a foreign device from the network.

In a nutshell, every device has a MAC address: a unique 12-digit number that identifies it for network communications. When you block a specific device's MAC address, you prevent that device from accessing your network permanently.

You can block a device via the MAC address by:

• Going to your router’s settings and locating the DHCP table
• The DHCP table will show information about every device that your router has assigned an IP address to
• Once you locate the foreign device, copy down its MAC address
• Then, go to your router’s WiFi settings again and find the “MAC filtering” page (it might be labeled something similar)
• Add the device’s MAC address to the list to deny it access to your WiFi network

Investing in secure WiFi for your home

While all of these smart solutions can minimize the likelihood of someone getting into your WiFi network without your permission, they don’t necessarily prevent someone from tapping the internet lines physically – such as hacking the coaxial internet cables outside your home. For that, you need fiber.

Fiber internet – like the kind we offer at Glo Fiber – is resilient, reliable, and much harder to “hack” since the glass fiber cables are buried underground. Beyond that, fiber internet brings lightning-fast WiFi speeds and better bandwidth to homes just like yours.

When it comes to fast, secure WiFi, fiber is your best bet. Glo Fiber offers plans with speeds ranging from 600 Mbps all the way up to 2.4 Gigs! Contact us today to learn more about our whole-home WiFi services.