Hardware Is someone stealing my Wi-Fi?

[philip11]

So I have no security on my router what happened is for the past week or so my Download speeds have been rather slow I mean like 2Mbps for download speed but http://Speedtest.net said it was 27Mbps so finally I got suspicious so I unplugged my second router to see if that did anything and boy did it my internet was back to normal and that was around 1:00 PM or so then about a half hour ago my speeds were back down and this time Speedtest said Ping was 31 ms but earlier it was 61 ms and my download speed was 27 Mbps but now it's 18 Mbps

is someone stealing my Wi-Fi?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

So I have no security on my router

Stopped reading here. Get WPA2, cuz chances are someone is mooching off your Wifi.

 

[Originality]

There are a number of reasons why you could be losing connection speed. Your ISP could be having problems, local telephone exchange could be having problems, your router might not be configured correctly or might need a power cycle to flush the cache, your combined computers may have background downloaders running (e.g. torrent clients), and so might any WiFi leachers (and if you've got no security, you probably have a few).

Also your ISP may be throttling you during peak times. Likewise, during peak times, your telephone exchange might be overloaded with demand. Could be many things.

 

[rehevkor]

You can find out the names on connected clients through your router (depends on the router where, for me it's under "MAC Filtering"). But yeah, no security? Someone is probaby stealing it - asking people nicely not to probably isn't going to work, put some security on it.

 

[BlueStar]

Is it even stealing if it's open? People's devices could be connecting to it automatically and downloading stuff like updates. A better way of phrasing it would be "I'm sharing my wifi with everyone in range, could this be why my connection is slow?"

Although it could be worse than just a slow connection...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/06/swat-team-throws-flashbangs-raids-wrong-home-due-to-open-wifi-network/

 

[Flame]

why on earth would anyone leave they security open is beyond me.

child predator could be using your internet.


put some security asap.

 

[philip11]

why on earth would anyone leave they security open is beyond me.

child predator could be using your internet.


put some security asap.

It's because the only person I think could be stealing it is someone right next to me but she's an old lady and I wouldn't expect her to have been stealing it, but anyway I now have security on it so now stop trolling

 

[Rydian]

People will often just connect to whatever network they see that they can. Most people don't know what's up and will leech off other networks without realizing it.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

Is it even stealing if it's open?

Hell no, mooching? Yes. But it's like trying to steal food at an All you can eat buffet after you paid for the first plate.

 

[BlueStar]

why on earth would anyone leave they security open is beyond me.

child predator could be using your internet.


put some security asap.

It's because the only person I think could be stealing it is someone right next to me but she's an old lady and I wouldn' expect her to have been stealing it

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving