How to see who's on your Wi-Fi network

Here's how you can find out who uses your Wi-Fi without your permission

Knowing who uses Wi-Fi will help you identify hackers who are "walking" your network and get free internet access. This unauthorized access not only delays your connection but also poses a security risk if the Wi-Fi thief steals your personal information or contaminates your network with malware.

Changing your Wi-Fi password invites neutral neighbors and other hackers from your network, but this is a problem if you do not want to. For this reason, it is advisable to monitor the Wi-Fi network closely to detect unusual activity and to detect suspicious devices.

The best Wi-Fi routers for home and small office
A Wi-Fi router can tell everyone where you live - what you can do about it
Here's how to fix your router security smell
There are many free tools to show you how to use your Wi-Fi network in real time for desktop and mobile. In our guide below we will explain how to use the two best network displays available to catch Wi-Fi thieves in action.

You can then either change your Wi-Fi password in your router settings or ask hackers to ask you to log in to your network in the future.

How to see who’s using your Wi-Fi network on a Windows PC:

One of the easiest ways to monitor Wi-Fi on a Windows PC is to use the free wireless network viewer (opens in a new tab). Created by developer NirSoft, aka NirSoft (opens in a new tab) This simple tool shows you exactly what devices are currently connected to your network so you can quickly identify unusual and unauthorized activities. Here is how to use it.

1. First download the free wireless network viewer (opens in new tab) from NirSoft. You get about two-thirds of the download link from the site.

2. Run the installer to install Wireless Watcher on your computer. After completing the setup wizard, select Start NirSoft Wireless Network Watcher and tap Finish.

3. The Wireless Network Supervisor immediately starts scanning the Wi-Fi network and lists the connected devices.

4. When the scan is complete you can see the results of the wireless network viewer. Pay attention to the "Device Name" and "Network Adapter" columns to see if there are currently unknown or unauthorized devices connected to your network.

5. You can set up a wireless network viewer to sound when a new device connects to or disconnects from your Wi-Fi network.