How to see who's stealing your Wi-Fi and block them?

The Wi-Fi connection on your Android device can be slow for many reasons - including throttling, issues at your local cabinet, and buggy Android updates. But it could also be the case that your Wi-Fi network is congested because people are using it without your permission. This not only slows your internet but sharing a network with strangers also puts you at risk of being hacked (one of the reasons we don't recommend using free public Wi-Fi hotspots).

Here, we show you how to find out exactly who you're sharing your Wi-Fi network with, and how to kick any intruders off it forever.

 

The first thing you have to do is make sure you're connected to the WiFi network you want to monitor. Next, download the network-monitoring app, Fing, which you can do by pressing the install button below.

Fing - Network Tools  Install 

Once you've downloaded the app, open it, and on the homescreen you will see the name of your network, along with the Refresh and Settings buttons. To see the devices connected to your Wi-Fi network, tap the Refresh button. You will see a list of devices, with an indicator telling you if it's a smartphone or PC.

 Tap any device on your network to bring up a list of options for interacting with that device. These include sending pings, Wake on LAN signals, or even logging when those devices connect and disconnect from the network.

 

How to block trespassing devices

If you've spotted a suspicious device on your network, the next step is to banish it forever. Fing shows you the MAC address of each device connected to your network (the number will have this format with numbers and letters - 'xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx'). Make a note of this number.

• On your computer that connected to your router, enter your router IP into the browser, then on the next page enter your router login details (a list of default router passwords can be found here)
• Once logged into your router, find the Security options (its location varies between different routers). These could be located under Advance Settings.
• In Security, click Mac Filtering, then Add Device.
• Enter the MAC address of the device in the MAC field, give it a name if there is such an option, then click Apply, Save or OK.
• Once you're logged into your router, it might also be worth changing your Wi-Fi password, seeing as your last one might have been compromised.