How to detect intruders in my wireless network?

Is there any lightweight software which allow me to do so? And which is easy to understand and use.

I know of network magic. But, it uses too much resources.

 

If you have it password protected I wouldn't worry too much...

 

The router admin should be able to give a list of all the connected computers.

John

 

You should be able to see all the comps connected in the router page in detailed form.

What router/firmware?

 

You can also use MAC filtering to allow only hardware with MAC addresses you specify to connect to your network.

 

I have my router set to 24hr lease of ip addresses. Anyone that connected during that lease time will remain in the log until the lease is renewed. So even if they only connected for 10 seconds, they would still be listed.

I'm sure more expensive routers could hold this log for much longer.

If the question is if there is a windows software that can do this than its no because it has to be done at the routers level.

 

you should be able to view the dhcp clients to see the connected computer's name and mac address

 

Try Microsoft Network Monitoring 3.1

 

If your network is small enough, and stable enough (i.e., you don't have new computers popping in for a while and then disappearing), get all the network info set up using DHCP, record it for each computer, then disable DHCP and just go to a statically configured network - no DHCP means it's just that much harder for someone to break in - they'll have to resort to spoofing.

 

as others have said, enable logging in your router and it will save it in a file you can review/print out.

You can see who was connected by pc name, ip, mac address , etc.

But the talented folks can spoof a wifi mac address, so again, make your lease expire after 24hrs.

And as Blue always recommends, use a pw of at least 20 random generated digits/characters and change monthly, or sooner, if you think you have a problem.

Blue also recommends the following link for password generating:
[B]https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm[/B]

I use a 25 character ASCI PW from there-- I just cut and paste it from the 63 digit one provided at that site.

EDIT--After reading the guide on cracking wpa/wpa2 at smallnetbuilder, it is recommended to also change your SSID...it can slow them down. It's an excellent article........

 

Google NetStumbler. The App will show all computers connected to your SSID and also all access points in your area. If you have a GPS connected to your computer, it can even show you lat/long of the access points and computers. Freeware.

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,23439-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html

 

also you may want to check around nonags.com. They usually have some pretty great freeware that might fit the bill.

 

If you don`t want to log in to the router 10 times each day, you can install this little freeware on your laptop. http://www.mywifizone.com/
It`s very simple to use, and gives you a warning each time a new computer access your private network

 

Uhh, I think you got the wrong hotlink - that takes me to software I can download if I want to turn my computer into a hotspot and share it with anyone who wants to join, not an app that lets me detect intruders on my network.

 

Network Magic will work good. Thats what i have.

If you have a seperate router/modem, then the modem page will just show the router connection, not whats connected to the router, at least thats how it is on my router/modem.

 

Netstubler doesn't work with all cards, I have an Intel 4965AGN and Netstumbler doesn't work. I installed Vistambler though (Vista vrsion of Netstumbler), and it works, but it lack the power bar units

Network Magic is very basic, and sometimes it causes issues, as a matter a fact Network Magic competes with windows network manager.