Wireless network connections are increasingly used because they are cheap, easy to install and configure at home, without always having wires in the way. The only problem with wireless networks is that they could be "scrounged" or stolen from other neighbors or people who pass under the house with a cell phone.
Let's say that those who use a wireless router to connect to the internet could run the risk of having their connection stolen by other users unwilling to pay.
The less experienced users to whom this article is addressed, those who have never put their hand on a WiFi router but have one at home, can use some valid tools to find out who is connected to the internet by stealing the WiFi connection .
READ ALSO: See ip addresses connected to the wifi network from Android or iPhone
1) Wireless Network Watcher
Wireless Network Watcher is a utility that scans the wireless network and displays the list of all the computers and devices currently connected .
Just run this small portable program to immediately see the list of PCs, cellphones or other network devices that have connected to the same wireless network that we are using.
Checking with this tool is important to know if there are activities of unauthorized outsiders within your network.
Each connected device or computer is represented with an IP address, name, MAC address, brand of the network card and information about the computer.
All data can be exported and saved in various formats including HTML, XML and text files.
The program is fully compatible with all editions of Windows, from Windows 7 up to Windows 10.
Wireless Network Watcher can only scan the wireless network the computer is connected to and not on other detected networks.
It may happen that the wireless network adapter used for checking is wrong; to correct this problem just change the option relating to the adapter to be used in the advanced options (F9).
Wireless Network Watcher is a Nirsoft network tool that also provides WirelessNetView, one of the tools to scan wifi networks and find the best channel.
2) SoftPerfect WiFi Guard
Alternatively, the small SoftPerfect WiFi Guard program is also excellent, which serves to know, at all times, who connects to the WiFi network and which highlights unauthorized devices in red, also showing their Mac Address in case you want to block them at the level router.
Just start it to immediately see all the wireless devices connected to the network, so you can make the right decisions (ignoring the devices in our possession and immediately showing which devices are not authorized to use our network).
3) Zenmap
Another app that we can use for free to see who is connected to the network is Zenmap, available for download here -> Zenmap .
This tool will scan all the devices present in the home network (WiFi and not), providing a series of advanced information obtained by scanning the open ports.
In this way, we will know which operating system each connected device uses, what it is doing at that moment and which ports it is using, so as to immediately catch any possible intruder.
4) Angry IP Scanner
A program very similar to Zenmap is Angry IP Scanner, available for download from here -> Angry IP Scanner .
So we can immediately see all the devices connected to the WiFi network, complete with advanced information such as ping, hostname, ports used at the moment and type of Web service intercepted (whether browser or other services).
So it will be much easier to find any intruders and eliminate all traces of freeloaders, avoiding blocking devices in our possession.
5) Advanced IP Scanner
Finally, I point out an advanced tool to discover every IP registered on the home network (WiFi and not) called Advanced IP Scanner and available for free download from here -> Advanced IP Scanner .
By starting the scan with this tool we will have all the useful information to identify a connected device, with the additional possibility of accessing the user's name and shared folders on the network.
If we find some foreign name or some sharing that we do not remember having activated on our devices, we will have proof that some freeloader is connected to our network and is exploiting our connection.
6) Fing (smartphone)
If we want to do this type of control directly from an Android smartphone or an iPhone, we can use the Fing app, available for download here -> Fing (Android) and Fing (iOS).
By starting this app from your smartphone we can immediately see all the devices connected to the network and their IPs, with the possibility of obtaining advanced information by tapping on each device that we will see appearing.
If the suspicious device does not belong to any of our devices in use, most likely we have just intercepted an intruder on the network.
7) How to protect yourself from intruders on the WiFi network
As seen in another article, it is important to protect the wireless network against intrusion to avoid serious problems.
Without repeating things already written in the guide, it must be considered that, for example, if those who stealthily connect to their network are good, they could sniff and intercept data and passwords.
If it turns out that someone uses the network without being authorized, you must absolutely take precautions and, at least, set a password on the router to enter the network.
Protecting our WiFi network requires configuring the wireless router and setting a WPA2 type security key with at least 12 alphanumeric characters, with the addition of capital letters and special signs (@, #, $, £, €, %, etc.) .
More experienced users may also decide to create a Mac Address filter so as to allow connection to the network only to well-specified PCs or mobile phones.
