Fix any Wi-Fi problem
If you have recently connected to certain Wi-Fi Network and you can’t remember which password you did used for that connection, I will show you which steps you need to perform in your Mac OS X and see which password you need to use. Who Is On My Wifi is a small utility which scans your wireless network for other computers and devices connected. By default, Who Is On My Wifi will scan a range of local IP addresses to see whether they respond or not. Those that exist will be listed in the main interface of the program. Wi-Fi problems on macOS Big Sur/Mojave/Catalina. Wi-Fi connection — it is central to intelligent life on Earth. But there could be numerous reasons your Mac won’t connect to Wi-Fi: a new software update, broken Wi-Fi preferences, or several networks conflicting with each other.
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Who Is On My WiFi is an app that allows you to see who's connected to your wireless Internet. It provides a lot of the same information that many routers do when accessed via a web browser, but it's easier to set up and access than these built-in landing pages, and it also can be set to alert the user to new Wi-Fi connections. Who Is On My WiFi? Is a tool designed for anyone who suspects that unknown computers may be using their wireless network without their permission. The program identifies all of the devices that are using a given WiFi network so that you can see which have been authorized (your own computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.) and which you don't.
There are few things more frustrating than an internet connection that’s very slow. Thankfully, there’s a great deal you can do to troubleshoot the problem and speed up your connection. Here’s how to do it.
Why is my download speed so slow?
Internet speed is measured by how much data per second can be downloaded and uploaded. It totally depends on your Internet use, but the processes like uploading large files and video conferencing require decent speed.
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So what is a fast download speed? Normally, anything that’s above 100 Mbps is considered good Internet. This means, your Mac will handle multiple simultaneous online activities without major interruptions. Still, there’s no limit to perfection. If you want to reach the optimal speed to make downloads faster, there are a couple of things you can try.
First, you need to find out whether the slow download speed is due to your broadband connection or your wireless network. Since your wireless network is the bit over which you have control, you should check that first. In any case, optimizing and fine tuning your home or office wifi will improve performance.
How to increase Internet speed
Firstly, look at where your router is situated. Ideally, it should be in the centre of your house, so that every room gets a good signal. It should be away from walls, the floor and the ceiling as much as possible. And keep it away from metal furniture, which will reflect radio waves rather than allow them to pass through. Modern routers support both 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks. The latter allows for faster speeds, but the former suffers from less interference from other devices like microwave ovens and cordless telephones. So connect to the 5GHz network on devices that support it. If you have devices that only support 2.4GHz, place your router away from appliances like a microwave or cordless phone.
Here are a few simple steps you can take to improve your Internet speed:
- Analyze your Internet speed. For a quick check of current speed, find and access Network Utility via Spotlight. Select your WiFi connection under the Info tab, and check Link Speed. The tools like NetSpot ot WiFi Explorer will help you automate WiFi monitoring as well as track factors that impact Internet speed.
- Replace old cables. Ensure all your cables are in good condition. Clean dusty cables, replace those that are too loose or damaged, and double check whether the cables you use fit your network environment.
- Optimize your router/ISP’s settings. Check the current setup of your router and tweak DNS settings if necessary. Unfortunately, ISPs don’t always come with the DNS configs that perfectly match your environment.
- Scan your Mac for viruses. Sometimes, malicious programs and files on your computer can be the reason of poor Internet speed. Open CleanMyMac X > Malware Removal and the app will automatically make your Mac clean.
- Regularly update software and firmware. Access Software Update via the Apple menu and see whether you might have missed a macOS update. Outdated OS as well as installing the beta versions of the new macOS may hinder the quality of your Internet. If the operating system is fine, check for the new versions of your router’s firmware.
- Eliminate on-system interference. Make sure there are no “heavy” programs like virus scanners on your Mac — they may interfere with network performance.
- Check your filters. Low-quality filters are another source of damage for your WiFi infrastructure, so you might need to replace them.
- Fix external interference. The position of your router determines the Internet speed you get, especially if other devices located in your building rely on the same WiFi channel. We recommend to use NetSpot, an app for interference monitoring that shows you where to position a router.
- Use a cable. We know, it feels like a tip from the 90s, but WiFi is actually always a bit slower than the Internet you get when you plug in directly to the modem.
- Get a new modem. Very often, that’s the only fix that can help. Check with your ISP or test other providers to see whether you can get some extra speed.
- And yes, don’t do any of the above until you try a restart. Power cycling — which is turning off and on your modem — is what you should begin with. Sometimes, there’s no particular reason your Internet is slow. It’s just your modem needing a fresh start.
How to get better Internet speed
When you’re satisfied with your router and it’s in the best possible location, time to analyze your wireless network. The following solutions will not only help you run a speed test, but also understand how to improve Internet speed.
NetSpot will produce a full analysis of all the wifi networks within range of your home or office and highlight any problems. It produces a heat map of your home or office and highlights ‘dead spots’ where wifi signal strength is low or non-existent. It can also advise on the best placement for your wifi router, and really useful suggestions to troubleshoot your networks.
WiFi Explorer allows you to identify conflicts with other networks, identifies signal overlaps, and provides a graph of signal to noise ratio. By maximizing the signal v noise, you can improve signal performance and speed up downloads.
One possible cause of poor wifi performance is interference from other wifi networks in your street. WiFi Explorer and NetSpot analyze how fast Internet is by analyzing those networks and let you know if they are causing a problem.
If there are lots of routers in your neighbourhood using the 40MHz spectrum, known as wide band, it can cause congestion – wide band occupies seven channels, compared with five used by 20MHz networks.In this case, switching to the 20MHz band may actually increase Internet speed by reducing interference. To do that you’ll need to access your router’s admin page in a web browser. You’ll need to consult its manual, or look for a sticker on the bottom of the router, for an IP address, username and password.
How to increase download speed on a slow internet connection
- Turn off bandwidth-hogging apps and plugins.
If you haven’t been able to improve the speed of your home broadband or wifi network, or if you’re on mobile network, you can still download faster. TripMode allows you to control which applications can download data. That means you can reserve bandwidth for apps you want to use to download and therefore download faster. - Split the downloads in threads to maximize download speed.
To splitting the downloads in threads try to use Folx, one of the most popular download managers for macOS. It has features for downloading movies, archives, or big files that allows you to split downloads into separate streams enabling faster downloads. - Schedule downloads.
One way to speed up downloads is to schedule them for a time when your ISPs network is less busy. Peak times are usually early evening through to around midnight, so use Folx to schedule downloads for the early hours of the morning. Some ISPs also throttle bandwidth for some users during peak hours, so downloading when it’s less busy is a very good idea.
How to download torrents faster
Despite the negative publicity BitTorrent has had in recent years, there’s nothing illegal in using it or in downloading torrents. As long as the content you download isn’t protected by copyright or, if it is, you have permission from the rights owner to take it, you’ll be fine. What’s more, it’s totally safe to use selected third-party tools to increase upload speed on torrent.
Additionally to Folx download manager it is also a torrent client. It has several features to make torrent download faster.
- Check seeds and peers.
Folx has its own built-in torrent search engine, so you don’t need to use a web browser. When you search for torrents in Folx, it will display the number of available seeds for each result. The more seeds, the faster the download is likely to be, so choose a torrent with lots of seeds. - Limit upload speeds and speed up torrent downloads.
Torrent clients upload files as well as download them and so the bandwidth available for a torrent client like Folx is used for both. If you limit upload speeds, you can make download speeds faster. You can also limit download speeds for browsers on your Mac, making more bandwidth available for torrents. To limit upload and download speeds, open Preferences in Folx and click on the Smart Speed tab. Of course, if you want to improve upload speed, you can limit download speeds instead. - Check port number.
Many torrent clients use port numbers 6881-6889. ISPs know this and some of them throttle bandwidth to those ports, which can make download speeds slow. In Folx Preferences, in the Torrents tab, check the port number and make sure its outside that range. If the port is showing as ‘in use’ click ‘Randomize port’ to choose another. - Prioritize downloads.
If there’s one download you want more than the others that are downloading at the same time, right click on the other downloads and use the ‘Limit Speed’ option to cap their download bandwidth and increase torrent download speed for your file.
How to speed up Chrome downloads
There are a number of things you can do to boost up Google Chrome’s speed:
- Limit Extensions. Browser extensions can be very useful but they eat up memory and can be reason of getting slow download speed on browser.
- Don’t have lots of tabs open. Web pages in tabs use resources like memory and, if they auto-load, bandwidth too. Keeping tabs to a minimum will speed up your browser.
- Use a download manager extension. Folx has a smart browser extension that allows it to handle everything you download in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or any other browser. Using that can speed things up because Folx has features, like splitting files into streams, that are designed to make things faster.
- Avoid noname extensions that promise faster downloading
There are lots of Chrome extensions that promise to make the browser download faster. However, many of them don't work and causes Chrome run more slowly, don’t download the complete file, or, worse, are infected with malware. So, they are best avoided.
Downie does a similar job, even allowing you to down; pad 4K-resolution videos from streaming video and social media sites. Just copy and paste the URL for the video page into Downie or use its browser extension. Once you’ve downloaded the video, you can use Permute to convert it to any format you want.
Watch and download video at the same time
If you’re downloading videos from streaming sites, Elmedia Player can help. It has a built-in browser and download manager. Paste the URL for the video into the address bar in the downloader, then when it displays a list of all the files it’s found on the page, click Download next to the one that corresponds with the video file.
To view videos you’ve downloaded, click on the Downloads tab and press Play next to the one you want to watch.
If all else fails, check with your broadband provider
- Check whether your broadband provider has a fault
- Check whether wired instead of wireless can improve speed
Check that your broadband provider hasn’t reported a fault in your area by calling its helpline number.
Once you’ve ruled that out you need to find out whether the problem is your wireless network or is caused by your router failing to connect to the broadband network. If you have a Mac that has an Ethernet port or you have a USB to Ethernet adapter, connect it directly to an Ethernet port on your router to try speed up your Internet. If your download speed is much faster when connected by Ethernet, your wireless network may be the culprit.
Fortunately, there are lots of things you can do to troubleshoot and improve the speed of your wifi network.
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Your router’s lights are blinking, but no one is using it. Or you are not getting the internet speed; you paid for. Chances are, your neighbor is using your WiFi without your knowledge. Or let just say, for any other reason you want to see what devices are connected to my network.
Also Read: What to do if You Forget Your WiFi Password
Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to find out who is connected to your WiFi network. All you have to do is install a small app on your device, and it’ll give the list of IP and MAC address of all the devices connected to your network.
So, here are some best apps and methods to find out who is connected to your WiFi network.
1. See who is using your WiFi on Windows
There are several Window’s programs that show you the list of devices connected to your network. The one, I suggest is Wireless Network Watcher by Nirsoft. Like all the other apps from Nirsoft, this one also weight in few KBs and can be executed directly from the .exe file. No installation required.
To get Started, download Wireless Network Watcher from Nirsoft official website (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the download link). Next, open the zip file and run the .exe in it. If you see a warning from your AntiVirus, ignore it. The app is safe.
The app will display all the connected device, along with their IP and MAC address. It also shows the device’s manufacturer name, like Motorola, Apple, etc, which will help you better identify the devices, since remembering MAC address is not convenient.
You can also set up a sound notification. So when a new device connects to your WiFi, you hear a beep sound. To do that, go to options > beep when a new device is connected.
I also tried other popular alternatives like Advance IP scanner and GlassWire, and both in their free version are similar to Wireless Network Watcher. So don’t bother trying them. And if you are looking for the advanced option, then try Angry IP Scanner or Wireshark, but they need good technical knowledge.
2. See who is using your WiFi on macOS
There is no Mac version of Wireless Network Watcher. And other popular options, which are free in Windows (like SoftPerfect WiFi Guard) becomes paid in Mac ($9). But luckily, there is one app.
Who’s on my WiFi is a free MacOS utility, that does exactly what it says, i.e. it show the list of all devices connected to your WiFi. The app is available on iTunes, and it weighs only 1 MB.
When you open the app, it’ll automatically scan your network and give you the list of all the connected devices. It also gives you a notification when a new device joins your WiFi.
But unlike network watcher in Windows, it’s not that good at fetching the company name of the devices. So, you’ll have to add the names of your devices manually. This way, next time you see a new device, you’ll know it’s not yours.
3. See who is using your WiFi on Android/iOS
There are many apps for Android and iOS, which can tell, who is connected to your WiFi. But the best one is Fing. It’s a free app and is available for both Android and iOS.
Like all the other apps, we have seen so far; Fing also shows you the list of all the connected device along with their IP and MAC address. But what makes it different from rest, is its ability to pinpoint the device name and network card, manufacturer.
For instance, Wireless Network Watcher can only tell the company name. So if you connect an iPad and Macbook, you’ll see Apple written next to it. But Fing on the other hand also manages to extract the device name. So, you can easily tell which devices are yours and which are not. You can also create a free Fing account and keep track of all devices on various WiFi network.
Fing (Android | iOS)
Though, one thing missing in Fing is that it doesn’t give you a notification when a new device joins or leave the network. But luckily there one app on Android --WiFi Watch, which can do that. You can enable this notification option from the settings.
4. Router
Using the router to see the list of connected devices has both advantages and disadvantages. The good part is — you don’t have to install any app. But the bad part is, not every user has access to the router and even if they have, it still takes a few extra clicks and the entire process is not quite convenient on mobile.
If you have dynamic DNS setupon your router, you don’t even have to be connected to that network, to see who is connected to your WiFi. This means you monitor your Home network from your office.
To find out who is connected to your WiFi using your router; simply, log in to your router dashboard by typing the router’s IP address in the browser, next type in router’s username and password. If you don’t know what they are, ask the person who has set up the router. Usually, it’s admin and admin or admin or password. You can also use this default router passwords database.
Next, you’ll see a router ‘web interface’. Now, since all the router are made by different manufacturers, your Router’s interface may look different from mine. But the core is always the same. So, look for options that say,- DHCP Client list, Attached Devices, Wireless, Connected Devices, etc.
Usually, it’s under the Wireless settings. And there, you’ll see the list of all the devices along with their IP and MAC address.
If you are not sure where to find them, do a quick Google search of your router manual and use CMD + F or CTRL +F, to find what you need. I do this all the time.
What to do if Someone is Stealing Your WiFi?
Although we are taught – sharing is caring, it doesn’t hold true when security is involved. Anyone connected to your local network will have access to files shared on the network and can also see your browsing activity. Not to forget, they are also leeching on your precious bandwidth.
So here are a couple of things you can do if someone using your WiFi without your permission.
#1 Change the WiFi password or enable MAC filtering. Both options are present in every router.
Who's On My Wifi App
#2 In some routers you can decrease the WiFi strength so that the signal won’t go outside your home parameter.
#3 Kick unauthorized people off your network. You can do that by using WiFiKill the app on Android [Root] or another way of doing that, is replicating their IP Address, or by using software to disconnect people from your current WiFi network.
Related: 5 Ways To Kick People Off Your WiFi Network
#4 If you are good with technical stuff, you can also find their location (accurate up to a few meters) using a network analyzer app and then confront them personally. Though, you might need a bodyguard or two this time. You never know, who you find.
Who Is Using My Wifi
However, this is not a full proof method, because it’s pretty easy to spoof Mac address and if some hacker is stealing your Wi-Fi, they probably have spoof their Mac address. Therefore, I suggest you check their Mac address to see if it change all time or stay consistent. If it changes then chances, are they are using the software. At this time, it’s better to increase your router security by using a complex WiFi password with WPA2 encryption.
Related: 10 Steps to Secure Your Wi-Fi Network From Hackers
Who Is On My Wifi Free
Wrapping Up
So, these were some simple ways to find out who is connected to your WiFi network. If you suspect, someone is stealing your internet, the best time to run the scan will be when you are getting low internet speed or facing any other network problems.
Also, usually, it’s hard to identify the devices, by looking at their IP and MAC address. One way to fix this is, simply turn off the Wi-Fi on each of your devices one by one to figure out which one is what. And for the future, I suggest you write down the last two digits of their mac address so that you know which one is what.