How will you know if someone is connected to your Wi-Fi illegally

         

        In the latter years of Analog Technology where Cellular is the King, there was a time when "War Driving" has emerged. It is kind of hacking terminology where hackers try to find a hole in security of a Cellular device particularly cellphone users- that black hat hackers tried to exploit  through sniffing,  and tried to stole important data or manipulate data being received or transmitted. But today we are in what we called " Internet Revolution ", where everyone is connected, whether through cellphone, laptop or any other device. War Driving has also emerged to this date, finding vulnerable Wi-fi that a " black hat " hackers may exploit. In my previous post where I elaborate some security measures, that it has a possible way to deter or prevent your connections from being hacked, but sometimes black hat hacker are so clever that despite of the security they were still able to evade them using some advance technique. Today I will show you " How to detect if someone is using your Wi-Fi illegally ".

        Requirements :

• Of course a PC equipped with Wireless Card or a Laptop with Wireless Adapter.
• Next a simple software that I will recommend, it is easy to use. Just download it here for free, it is a shareware meaning FREE to use. " Wireless Network Watcher ", the link provides explanation about this software..Here is the link http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_network_watcher.html. You can find the download link at the bottom of the page. Just download and install.

• After you installed it, here what it looks like

        The image shows some data, where this data is the actual connections that are being handled by your Wi-Fi, in short it is a " Live " connection. It  shows the Local I.P address of the user ( ex. 192.168.2.22 ), the device name, the MAC address where it may be useful if  you want to have some inventory regarding legit and illegal connections and filters them ( refer to my previous post " Securing Wi-fi Connections " ), the Network Adapter installed in the user device is also present..

         Before you can apply some test, you have to set simple configuration. Don't worry I will guide you.

Refer to the figure above you may see the Menu, just click the Options, then choose Advance Option

In Advance Option.. You must check "Scan the following IP address range: " then supply the I.P range

What is the I.P range you 'll going to use ? Here it is, if you know how to open the Command prompt do it, but if not here is the steps. This only apply for Windows user.

1. In your keyboard you will see a Window symbol , hold press that symbol then while holding press R ( Windows symbol + R ), a Run window will appear
   
2. Type CMD in Run Window then enter or click OK.
3. Another window will appear, you are now in the command prompt. Then type ipconfig and enter.

   

      4. Data will appear, try to look for this " Wireless Lan Adapter Wireless Lan Connection ".

    5. You can see the " Default Gateway... ( that is the default in my part, but its differ from you ). Just write it in a paper exactly how the number appear with dot.. ex. 192.168.2.1.

    6. Then in Advance option where you need to supply the I.P range, use that number, refer again in the image above showing the Advance option. For example my default gateway is 192.168.2.1, then i will put it in the I.P range from : 192.168.2.1   to 192.168.2.255. Note that only the last set of number change the 255..use the 255 also..click O.K when you are done..

    It's time for action, by clicking the green triangle, it will scan all the active connections in your Wi-Fi, the image shows the active connection in my Wi-Fi. First I.P is my Wi-Fi Router SE551, second is I.P is my lappy and the third is my wife lappy..I made an inventory regarding how many device we have in our house that are capable of connecting to my Wi-Fi so that when I made a scan I'll expect that it match my inventory. If you have 5 devices including your router expect that when you made a test you will get the maximum number of active connections.If it exceeds, then you have possibly illegal connections, but before that have an inventory.. What if you found suspicious connection ? I will discuss it later in my next post so stay in touch..Time to Apply now what have you learn ! Good Luck !

If you have further questions just leave it in a comment box, or you find it useful or irrelevant please leave a comment.Your comment is much appreciated..Thanks anyway.........

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