If your connection to your home Wi-Fi always seems sluggish – maybe someone is accessing it who shouldn’t be.
If you unplug the router for a few minutes, that will remove anyone connected to it, but only until you reconnect the router then your devices and possibly someone else can connect again.
If you think someone has access to your Wi-Fi who shouldn’t have, and knows the passcode then you need to change the passcode.
If there is still reason to suspect someone is accessing your WI-FI without your permission, then there are steps you can take to identify the culprit.
Check the Router Access List
You will need to login to your router. The instructions when you got the router will tell you how to do this and it may also say on the back of the device. These instructions differ for each router.
You will need to know its IP address (plus login and password) and then you can access from any computer browser.
The router will show you a list of devices currently attached to it and usually enough information for you to recognise who the devices belong to.
You will see something similar to this
| Wired Devices | |||
| MAC Address | IP Address | Device Name | Time Connected |
| 54:21:XX:XX:XX:XX | 195.179.0.2 | Erica’s PC | 2 days 4 hours 31 minutes |
| Wireless Devices | |||
| 54:21:XX:XX:XX:XX | 190.161.0.9 | Chromecast | 45 minutes |
| 54:21:XX:XX:XX:XX | 190.161.0.8 | Android Phone 140927271 | 1 day 12 minutes |
| 54:21:XX:XX:XX:XX | 190.161.0.7 | iPAD | 35 minutes |
The device name will hopefully tell you enough to identify the owner of the device but if you have several Android phones in the house, for example, then it may not be enough.
What to do if you find an unauthorised device
If you have not set the router to encrypt the data then make that change and try again.
If you still seem to have an interloper then that person must have hacking skills and you would need to invest time and money in a network monitoring or employ an expert to trace the interloper for you.
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