Who is stealing your wi-fi

[Narinesa]

I noticed my modem and router lights are busy all the time.

Somebody is using my wi-if without my authorization.

But is that possible since I do not have a password ? You need a password to get in.



Well I do not use password but my system is locked to all wi-fi



So how does my wi-if devices gets in.

I program the device MAC serial number into my router.

So the router will allow only those MAC address serial authorized.



But my modem and router are still busy. That’s not possible ?



Next step I looked at the router diagnostic log report.

Lo and behold my Samsung wi-if smart TV was online to many website.

So I disallow Samsung smart TV wi-if access.



Point, it can happen to any smart device.

 

[DelJo63]

Back to some basics. Disable or power off the TV(s).

As long as ANY device is attached to the router, there will be a trickle stream of traffic and thus the lights flash 24/7. Your symptom does not validate that some unknown device has wifi access in all cases.

 

[Narinesa]

Jobeard,
You are probably correct as I am no expert in network.
BUT it was not an unknown device - it was my smart tv wi-fi
And I see all the websites it went to from the router log file

But the high speed 24/7 using of my internet has been fixed.
My internet is no longer slow as a snail.
I now get top speed and the router is not busy 24/7

 

[DelJo63]

Your approach is very sound - - allow only known MAC addresses to connect to your router

 

[Narinesa]

Your approach is very sound - - allow only known MAC addresses to connect to your router

I went one step further.
Disable my wi-fi broadcast.
However had to manually add network for my andriod to work since the scan for wi-fi cannot find a hidden network

 

[DelJo63]

I went one step further.
Disable my wi-fi broadcast.
However had to manually add network for my andriod to work since the scan for wi-fi cannot find a hidden network

That's correct

 

[Techatron]

MAC address binding is a very good technique to allow only trusted devices to connect to your network. Also using a strong WiFi encryption method, such as WPA2-PSK (TKIP) or WPA2-PSK (AES),to encrypt your WiFi password will ensure that it becomes almost impossible for any unauthorised person to decrypt it and connect to your network.

 

[TECHAKHILESH]

In my suggestion, you use password protection so that no other device could access your network without the authentication which will help you a lot in your issue.

 

[Narinesa]

Thanks for the good advices.
Looks like everyone missed the point.

My smart TV is an authorized wi-fi device.
It is allowed to use the internet.
It appears to be hijacked.
However, someone (China maybe or South Korea) is using it it day and night which is using up my internet. As a fix, I disconnected my smart tv from the wi-fi and had no more problems since. Don't know what is a permanent fix.

 

[DelJo63]

Once a device on your LAN gets hacked, your only effective corrective action is to reload its firmware.