Strangers Connecting to Your Wi-Fi: How to Find Out Who's on Your Network, Why It's Dangerous and How to Lock Them Out for Good

Many people find out about outside connections by chance: the internet has become slow, especially in the evening, and the router app shows devices with unfamiliar names. Sometimes the Wi-Fi password was once given to a neighbour "for a couple of days", sometimes every past guest knows it, and sometimes the network is protected by a weak password or an outdated method that can be cracked in minutes. Let's look at how to find out who's connected to your network, why it's dangerous and how to lock out intruders reliably.

Signs of outside connections

• Speed drops for no obvious reason, especially in the evening and at night when nobody at home is online.
• The router's Wi-Fi lights blink busily even though all your devices are off.
• The router's device list contains unfamiliar names, or more devices than you have at home.
• Your provider reports suspicious activity or spam being sent from your address.

How to see the device list

The list of connected devices is in the router's web interface or mobile app — in sections such as "Clients", "Connected devices" or "DHCP". It shows names, IP addresses and MAC addresses. Start by counting your own devices: phones, laptops, TVs, set-top boxes, smart speakers, cameras, robot vacuum, printer. Not every unfamiliar name is an intruder: many smart home devices are named with a string of letters and numbers. If in doubt, switch your devices off one at a time and see what disappears from the list.

Why outside access is dangerous

• Speed and traffic. A neighbour downloading films noticeably slows the internet for everyone.
• Access to your devices. On your network, an outsider can see shared folders, the printer, cameras, a NAS and smart home devices, and with weak protection connect to them.
• An attack on the router. If the router's admin password is the default, an outsider can change the settings, redirect you to fake websites or lock you out.
• Liability. If something unlawful is done through your internet connection, the first questions go to the account holder.

How to lock them out reliably

1. Change the Wi-Fi password. Make it long — 12–16 characters or more — and unrelated to your name, flat number or phone number. You'll have to reconnect all your devices, but every outsider will be cut off.
2. Use modern encryption — WPA2 or WPA3. The outdated WEP and an "open network" are unacceptable.
3. Turn off WPS. Connecting with a button or PIN is convenient, but on many routers the WPS PIN can be cracked, making your Wi-Fi password useless.
4. Change the router's admin password. Defaults like "admin/admin" are known to everyone. Without this, an outsider already on your network can regain access.
5. Update the router firmware — old versions contain known vulnerabilities.
6. Create a guest network for guests, neighbours and tradespeople so you don't hand out the main password.
7. Turn off remote management of the router from the internet if you don't need it.

What doesn't work, or works poorly

• Hiding the network name. The network is still visible to special software, and it's less convenient for your own devices to connect.
• MAC address filtering as the only protection — MAC addresses are easy to spoof, and modern phones change their own MAC addresses.
• Blocking one device in the list without changing the password — the outsider will connect from another.

If the network has been compromised

If outsiders got in using the default admin password, check the router settings: have the DNS servers been changed, is remote access enabled, are there unfamiliar port-forwarding rules? At the slightest doubt it's better to reset the router to factory settings and set it up again with new passwords. It's also worth checking your computers for viruses and changing the passwords of important accounts if you logged into them while the network was compromised.

What our technician does

1. Checks the list of connected devices and identifies which are yours.
2. Checks the router settings for signs of a hack: DNS, remote access, port forwarding.
3. Updates the firmware, sets up strong encryption, turns off WPS and changes the passwords.
4. Creates a guest network and separates smart home devices and cameras from the main network.
5. Reconnects all your devices and checks that they work.

A real example

A resident of Vere complained that the internet barely worked in the evenings. The router list showed 14 devices, although she had five at home. The Wi-Fi password hadn't been changed for several years and was known to neighbours and former tenants, WPS was on and the admin password was the factory default. Our technician updated the firmware, set a long password and WPA2/WPA3 encryption, turned off WPS, changed the admin password and created a separate network for guests. The outside devices disappeared, and evening speed returned to what her plan promised.

A good habit is to open the device list in the router app every few months and check for anything unexpected. Many modern routers can send a notification to your phone whenever a new device joins the network. It takes a minute, but it lets you spot a problem straight away rather than when the internet has already started to slow down.

Call a technician

If you suspect strangers have connected to your Wi-Fi, we'll come to any district of Tbilisi around the clock. Learn more on our Wi-Fi setup, router setup and virus removal pages.