Ah, the wonderful world of Wifi! It’s everywhere, it’s important and it feels like oxygen for our devices. But what happens if your wifi feels slower than a snail on a treadmill, are you pretty sure your neighbor hasn’t downloaded “all the seasons of that show” overnight? Suspicious, right? Well, you might be onto something, someone could be mooching off your Wifi!
In this guide, we’ll take you through the telltale signs that someone might be freeloading on your network. By the end of this post, you’ll not only know if someone is sneaking onto your connection, but you will also be able to give them the boot!
So, how to know if someone is stealing your wifi? Let’s find out!
So, your internet speed is cruising along nicely, and then suddenly it’s dragged through molasses. This is one of the most obvious signs that someone else might be hogging your bandwidth. According to a 2022 study, an average of 20% homes experience wifi theft without even realizing it! How is that not shocking?
Though it is true that there are other non-theft factors too that can slow down your wifi like too many devices connected, streaming on 4k movies, or the old school router you have had since the flip phone era, an unwanted guest on your network can also cause a serious speed drop. Monitor it, if the internet is consistently slower than it should actually be, especially when you are barely using it, then it might be time to investigate.
Your wifi router is smarter than it looks. Most routers keep a log on the devices that have been connected to them. All you need is to do some digging and then you can find out exactly which gadgets are hitching a ride on your network.
You can start by logging into your router’s settings (Pro Tip: most routers can be accessed by typing 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 into the browser). Once you’re inside, find the list of connected devices. Do you see any names you don’t recognize? Unless you’ve adopted a digital family with mysterious devices, it’s likely that someone joined your wifi party uninvited.
To make things easier, an app like Fing can scan your network and give you a clean list of all the devices connected to your wifi. It’s like the guest list for your Wifi’s birthday bash, and you want to make sure no party crashers are on there!
Most of you may have signed up for a limited data plan, and this makes you quite careful about how much you stream, download, or scroll. But then again, out of nowhere all of a sudden your data caps hit sooner than expected even when you were being responsible. The culprit? A possible wifi thief who’s maybe binge-watching Netflix or downloading files with abandon.
A 2023 report confirmed that one in five households experienced unusually high data usage due to unauthorized wifi access. If your data spikes for no apparent reason, it’s not because of the late-night Youtube sessions, there is someone else getting cozy on your network.
Here’s a fun trick, your router’s lights also tell stories! When your wifi is in use, the router typically flashes lights to indicate data transmission. If you aren’t using wifi on any of your devices at all yet the lights on the router keep blinking like they’re at an EDM festival, its a big sign someone is connected and sucking up all the bandwidth.
In simpler words, your router’s light shouldn’t be more active than a squirrel on caffeine (that would be a show) unless of course it’s someone from your household using the internet.
No offense to your password, but if it is something like “123456” or “password”, you are basically putting out a “free wifi” sign for your neighbors. In fact, even studies have proven that people still use 123456 as their password. It’s insane, why in a sane world would anyone do that!
If your wifi is more on an easy to guess side, the chances of your password being easily cracked and your wifi system being hacked is 99.9%. The simpler the password the more hackers you invite. It’s just like leaving the front door of your house open with a sign that says “come on in”.
You are having an online game night for yourself and you are just about to break a record or maybe it’s a relaxing family night and you all decide to Netflix and chill, and then — bam! — buffering, lagging or sudden disconnection. Oh my God, this just ruined your night, such a buzzkill.
Yes, it is true that these interruptions could mean a general internet congestion or a server down, but someone piggybacking your wifi and eating up your bandwidth is also a more likely possibility. How do you feel if you are playing soccer and the extra person constantly steals the ball? It ain’t fun, right?
By now you may have noticed all the signs and have many reasons to believe that someone is taking advantage of your wifi. What to do now? Don’t worry, we have a few tricks up our sleeves:
Isn’t it just annoying how someone would just woosh in and freeload off your connection like that. They are using up all your resources without so much as a “thank you”. Learning how to know if someone is stealing your Wifi is important in order to maintain a fast and reliable connection and also to secure your digital life.
Keep a lookout for all these signs mentioned above, follow the wifi protection tips we provided and you are good to go.
I'm incredibly satisfied with WaveNet. Their connection has been consistently reliable, with excellent speeds, and their customer support team has been prompt and helpful whenever I've needed assistance. I highly recommend their service
