I’ve always tried to be a good neighbor, but I didn’t expect that to include sharing my Wi-Fi. One day, I noticed a strange pattern in my internet usage graph, and when I checked the router, I found an unapproved guest list.

How I Found Out My Neighbor Was Using My Wi-Fi

Recently, I noticed my internet wasn’t performing like it used to. Pages loaded slowly, YouTube videos buffered, and video calls would freeze or drop. I assumed it was temporary, maybe a provider issue or a weather problem. My connection had been slow before, so I didn’t think much of it.

But then it started happening more often. The weird thing is, it wasn’t just slow during peak hours; even late at night, it barely worked. Since I work from home, a stable internet connection is crucial to my job; I just can’t afford a spotty connection to mess things up.

I restarted my router a few times, hoping to fix the issue, but the problem persisted. Then I called my service provider, and they assured me everything was fine on their end. So, I checked how many devices were actually connected to my network.

I logged into my router’s admin panel, something I hadn’t done in a while. Usually, you just type 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 into your browser, then enter your admin username and password. In my case, I’d never bothered to change it, so it was still the default one printed on the back of my router.

Inside the router dashboard, I checked the connected devices. There were 11 on my Wi-Fi, but I only remembered connecting 6.

Suddenly, I realized I hadn’t updated my Wi-Fi password in years. Anyone with the old password could still use or share it.

How I Blocked My Neighbor From Using My Wi-Fi

Now that I’d identified the real culprit, it was time to cut the cord.

Change the Default Router Login Credentials and Wi-Fi Password

The first thing I did was to change my router password. Here, don’t confuse the router password with the Wi-Fi password. The former is used to access your router’s settings, while the latter connects your devices to the internet. In this case, you’ll want to change your Wi-Fi password to something stronger to make sure it’s difficult to guess and access.

In the router settings, I navigated to the Network section and selected my Wi-Fi network. You’re likely using a dual-band router, which means you have 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands. However, you can typically use the same password for both for ease of use. Here, I swapped out my old Wi-Fi password for something more secure, using a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.

After pressing Save, any device not using this new Wi-Fi password is ejected from my Wi-Fi network. The downside is that this also includes my personal devices, but it means no one outside my network can access it.

In the same router panel, I navigated to the Maintenance section and clicked Password. If your router doesn’t have the login details printed on the back, try using “admin” for both the username and password; that’s usually the default if you haven’t changed it. The default login information for most routers is freely available online (unfortunately!).

After typing the current password, I created a new one and retyped it to confirm. I also added a password hint, a subtle reminder that I’d understand if I forgot it later. Once I entered the new password and clicked Save. Now, my router is secure.

Enabled WPA3 Security (or WPA2 If Not Available)

After updating my router and Wi-Fi password, I also wanted to check if my Wi-Fi security was up-to-date. Wi-Fi uses encryption to keep intruders out, but older protocols like WEP, WPA, and even WPA2 can be cracked fairly easily.

I logged into the router’s admin panel using my new credentials and navigated to Network > Wireless. The exact wording may differ depending on the router brand, but you’ll usually find it under the wireless settings section. In the SSID Configuration area, I checked my Wi-Fi security settings. My router didn’t support WPA3 (the latest and strongest security) but offered WPA2 (AES), a reliable choice for most home networks.

If your router lets you choose between WPA AES and TKIP, always go with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). TKIP is outdated and less secure, while AES is stronger, used in WPA2 and WPA3. Since WPA3 wasn’t available, I selected WPA2 and clicked Save to apply the changes.

You may also see an option for mixed WPA2/WPA3 Wi-Fi security. If this option is available (with AES), choose this as it provides encryption for all devices on your network, old or new.

Turned Off SSID Broadcasting

The SSID (Service Set Identifier) is basically the name of your Wi-Fi network. By default, most routers have this feature enabled, which means anyone can see your network when scanning for available networks. But if you turn that off, your Wi-Fi becomes invisible to others, and you can only connect to it if you know its exact name.

In your router settings, go to the left-hand menu and click on Network > Wireless. If you don’t see the exact options, look for something similar based on your router model. Under SSID Configuration, select Enable SSID, then use the drop-down menu to select Disable. Once you do that, your Wi-Fi network will no longer be visible to others.

Now, what if you want to let certain people or devices still connect to your network? That’s where MAC address filtering comes in, which I’ll cover in the next section.

Used MAC Address Filtering

Every device, like your phone or laptop, has its own unique MAC (Media Access Control) address. With MAC filtering, I can create a list of trusted devices and block everything else, even if someone knows the Wi-Fi password.

To get started, I first collected the MAC addresses of my devices.

• On Windows, find the MAC address in Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi > Hardware properties.
• On macOS, head to System Settings > Network > [Wi-Fi Connection Name] > Details > Hardware.
• On Linux, open a terminal window and input ifconfig, then note your MAC address.
• On Android, it was under Settings > About Phone > Status > Wi-Fi MAC address.
• On iPhone, I found it in Settings > General > About > Wi-Fi Address.

Once I had the address, I logged into my router’s admin panel and headed to Security > MAC Filter (the menu name may vary by router).

Under the Wi-Fi SSID, I found MAC Filter Mode and set it to Allowed. This meant only devices on my approved list could connect.

Then I added the MAC address and saved the changes; my Wi-Fi became a closed network, visible only to devices I trusted.

So that’s how I caught someone sneaking onto my Wi-Fi and took back control. If your internet seems off or you see unfamiliar devices connected, try logging into your router. Even just updating security settings or changing a default password can make your network much safer.