Monitoring wifi usage

[Vile23]

I've been having pretty random internet problems with FIOs recently. Bad download speeds out of nowhere, which shouldn't be happening with price I pay for this shit. I kinda wanna try and see if someone might be stealing some of my bandwidth. Anyone have an application they use to check out potential wifi freeloaders ? This shits pissing me off.

[virusiidx]

I don't have any monitoring software to offer, but I would suggest you log into your router and check which computers/IPs are connected to your router via wireless. Also, update your wifi password.

[Kurp]

Yeah, the easiest way to see if anyone is leeching is connect to your router and view the connected devices. If you haven't done so, enable security with a password. I recommend WPA over WEP.

192.168.1.1 is a common IP address to access your router, I know Linksys and Netgear use it. If that doesn't work, enter cmd into the run line to open a console. Enter ipconfig as a command at the console, the 'Default Gateway' should be the address to access your router.

[Nattack]

log into your router, check dhcp list (portforward.com can help with this, or you can log in by checking your "default gateway" address and putting it into a web browser)

wireshark also allows monitoring individual devices on your computer, but better yet doing a check for viruses and spyware can also free up bandwidth should there be any present. you can take a look at whats being done by issuing a netstat command in commant prompt.

furthermore, you might just be having wireless interference - try hooking in directly/disable wireless and see if you get a boost in speed

it may be the server you're downloading from (ping, tracert)

finally, blocked ports/incorrectly configured firewalls can make certian programs use the internet inefficiently (see:torrents) but im far too lazy and i find it somewhat unlikely it would affect day to day downloading from the web

[Jefe]

Just to add a bit, even if you find another device, you'll see your ISP's IP, so you'll need to check the MAC address. Although, it'd not help since I'd assume the person is spoofing their MAC. If you have an unwanted device, try to implement MAC filtering. Also, I would never recommend using WEP. They are very easy to crack. I think the fastest one I've cracked was under 1 min. Try WPA encryption instead. Sure, it can be broken too but it's a bit more annoying (dealing w/ dictionaries, etc.) to crack. Cheers.

[Mici]

If its not that run a spyware/malware checker, my roommate gets shit all the time that bogs our bandwidth horridly

[William18]

Hi you can try to use ProteMac Meter.It’s tool record of your network and Internet traffic.It’s must be helpful to your.In my opinion it’s really good tool.

[The Stig]

I tease my leechers if any. Basically I label my router FREE INTERNET HERE (this changes periodically, sometimes FREE P0RN IF U CONNECT HERE. I occasionally insult the whole surrounding neighbourhood (YOU ALL SUCK HORSE DICK). no one knows it's me) but have armed it with MAC Address Filtering, so anyone trying to connect to my router will spend a long time trying and it not working.

Works brilliant so far, and I am 99% confident that no one in my area is smart enough to spoof their MAC address, or know about MAC address filtering.

[bungiefan]

I saw a prank for WiFi networks once that I need to find again. Basically you ran all internet traffic through a Linux box first, and if someone wasn't approved for your network the Linux box will manipulate all images they load, so you can do things like blur them, turn them into negatives, or spin them upside down. You could even replace every image loaded on an intruding machine with Goatse. Mix that with the free porn SSID and you've got an interesting situation. The prank triggered based on the MAC address of the machine, IIRC.

[The Stig]

I saw a prank for WiFi networks once that I need to find again. Basically you ran all internet traffic through a Linux box first, and if someone wasn't approved for your network the Linux box will manipulate all images they load, so you can do things like blur them, turn them into negatives, or spin them upside down. You could even replace every image loaded on an intruding machine with Goatse. Mix that with the free porn SSID and you've got an interesting situation. The prank triggered based on the MAC address of the machine, IIRC.

Sounds fun, but it's not really that fun if I can't see their reaction

What would be more interesting is if I can steal passwords/gain access to their PCs, but then that may take a bit more ... knowledge, which I haven't got time for at the moment.

I've resorted to renaming my WiFi network to:

"We can hear you having sex"

and later on

"I am under your bed"

[Pikarya]

"Ceiling cat sees you masturbating" should be suffice enough.

[The Stig]

"Ceiling cat sees you masturbating" should be suffice enough.

Hahaha, excellent, I will use this.

On the subject of router names, we had a really boring geek in our last year of university, named the router "OMG FTW" despite our protests as it was too generic/boring... but oh well, he was the only one to have admin access