How to view who’s connected to my Wi-Fi

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I am currently using the free version of “Who’s on my wifi” which works but I find it confusing as it adds the same computer names after each scan (not all but some) .Is there a native way to Windows to do this. I also tried “net view” in an Command Prompt but that only gives my laptop name. I have given my password to boarders living in my house until there wifi is up and running again and then I will change the password again. This is why I have a sudden interest in this. I see How to Geeks recommend “glass wire”. Thanks for any help or advice on this.
Pete.

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Not native to Windows but take a look at Nirsoft network tools. They are all free. You’ll be able to monitor just about anything on your network.

Joe

--Joe

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I use the Nirsoft Wireless Network Watcher and it seems to work fine for me.
Joe

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Fing – download here – is another good free option

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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Fing – download here – is another good free option

Thanks for that John, I did not realize that there was a Windows version. :cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Who is On My WiFi will actually alert you whenever a new device connects to your network.

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Who is On My WiFi will actually alert you whenever a new device connects to your network.

Yes it does which is pretty good really, thanks for the ideas everyone but still using “Who is on my WiFi” as really busy with work at the moment. When using “Who is on my WiFi” I get the same device appear as Unknown when I have already checked it as Known and it is the same device but with a different mac address and I’m sure it is also changing the IP address sometimes to.
Thanks Pete.
41991-Screenshot-40
Update. Can a WiFi booster in the house be causing this, I will unplug it after when suitable and test this.

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Most of my desktop and laptop PCs have two MAC addresses. One for the wired MAC and a different one for the Wireless MAC. I generally plug in at home but allow all machines to also connect via wireless. I see two connections per machine when I allow both to connect. Of course, each has a different IP and a different MAC address. Perhaps this will help with your research?

Yes it does which is pretty good really, thanks for the ideas everyone but still using “Who is on my WiFi” as really busy with work at the moment. When using “Who is on my WiFi” I get the same device appear as Unknown when I have already checked it as Known and it is the same device but with a different mac address and I’m sure it is also changing the IP address sometimes to.
Thanks Pete.
41991-Screenshot-40
Update. Can a WiFi booster in the house be causing this, I will unplug it after when suitable and test this.

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Most of my desktop and laptop PCs have two MAC addresses. One for the wired MAC and a different one for the Wireless MAC. I generally plug in at home but allow all machines to also connect via wireless. I see two connections per machine when I allow both to connect. Of course, each has a different IP and a different MAC address. Perhaps this will help with your research?

…Good point loutog, I did not know this.

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I’ve not seen that with “Who’s on my wifi”. Once I have marked it know (I also enter a name easier for me to remember in the”Description” column).

I’ve just updated to V3.0.3 and it removed all of my careful additions to the “Description” column. Really stupid of them.

I guess I’ll look at alternatives mentioned above.

K

Yes it does which is pretty good really, thanks for the ideas everyone but still using “Who is on my WiFi” as really busy with work at the moment. When using “Who is on my WiFi” I get the same device appear as Unknown when I have already checked it as Known and it is the same device but with a different mac address and I’m sure it is also changing the IP address sometimes to.
Thanks Pete.
41991-Screenshot-40
Update. Can a WiFi booster in the house be causing this, I will unplug it after when suitable and test this.

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I’ve not seen that with “Who’s on my wifi”. Once I have marked it know (I also enter a name easier for me to remember in the”Description” column).

I’ve just updated to V3.0.3 and it removed all of my careful additions to the “Description” column. Really stupid of them.

I guess I’ll look at alternatives mentioned above.

What a shame losing all the “Description” information, maybe give it one more try and take a screenshot so after the next update you will be able to copy it back again without having to work what device matches each mac/IP address.

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Well, don’t think I want to do that all over again. Any software “over-install” should be, at least, sensitive to configuration data like this (a big flaw in “Who’s on my WiFi” to me). At the very least tell the user that this data will be overwritten.

I have about 18 devices in my home that connect (although many devices are CAT6 wired in the home) and it took quite a bit of time to work which MAC Address corresponded to which device. “Most” other devices (non-PC) do NOT come with a “name” (like PCs) to recognize it easily. Most of what I did was to lookup the MAC address on the net and check the first three bytes of that address for the manufacturer and try to correlate that. For those devices in the home that I have from the same manufacturer led me to power up those devices one at a time to see which one was which.

In the home, I have this equipment:
2 desktops, 1 laptop, 2 tablets, 1 networked laser printer
2 AVRs, 2 HD cable DVRs, 1 DVD player
Several phones between us and frequent guests
Router, cable alarm router
Obihai VOIP box
2 nooks

Just too much for me to go back and do it all over again. One down thumb for “Who’s on my WiFi”. I started using Nirsoft instead. One bad thing about Nirsoft is that it does NOT have the concept (that “Who’s on my WiFi” does) of that this is a “known” device (at least as far as I can see from the options and advanced options).

I hope that this helps others.

K

I’ve not seen that with “Who’s on my wifi”. Once I have marked it know (I also enter a name easier for me to remember in the”Description” column).

I’ve just updated to V3.0.3 and it removed all of my careful additions to the “Description” column. Really stupid of them.

I guess I’ll look at alternatives mentioned above.

What a shame losing all the “Description” information, maybe give it one more try and take a screenshot so after the next update you will be able to copy it back again without having to work what device matches each mac/IP address.

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Devices are identified by mac address, so it is natural that if the mac address changes, the device is identified as unknown.

Why does the mac address of the device keep changing?

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Devices are identified by mac address, so it is natural that if the mac address changes, the device is identified as unknown.

Why does the mac address of the device keep changing?

I turned off the TP-Link Wi-Fi Booster and I got a normal scan on “Whos on my Wi-Fi” so that problem is solved but it is strange how that works (mac address changing)

Are you able to assign static IP addresses in the router for those devices ?

Still working on that one Sudo15, havn’t a clue really but it has been interesting on my router IP address page,maybe I should be somewhere else for that(to assign static IP address ). Found how to change my Wi-Fi password while I was there so good to learn a new thing.

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I turned off the TP-Link Wi-Fi Booster and I got a normal scan on “Whos on my Wi-Fi” so that problem is solved but it is strange how that works (mac address changing)

Are you able to assign static IP addresses in the router for those devices ?

Still working on that one Sudo15, havn’t a clue really but it has been interesting on my router IP address page,maybe I should be somewhere else for that(to assign static IP address ). Found how to change my Wi-Fi password while I was there so good to learn a new thing.

Assigning static IPs is also based on mac address. If the mac address changes, the router won’t have a way to determine which device should have a certain IP. So the question remains.

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I think that’s the $64,000 question as a Mac address is supposed to be specific to any given device.

Are you able to assign static IP addresses in the router for those devices ?

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Routers tend to have forums where you can ask how to do stuff – just Google for [make of router] forum and see what comes up.

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I was just wondering if that would have been a means of nailing them down as something is changing them.

Don’t know if the router logs would show up anything, but I think that could be a step too far in finding those – no offence Pete

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I was just wondering if that would have been a means of nailing them down as something is changing them.

Don’t know if the router logs would show up anything, but I think that could be a step too far in finding those – no offence Pete

If I turn off the Wi-Fi Booster before a scan there will be no problem, pretty sure there is no problem with people on my Wi-Fi now and will make sure to change the password when the boarders have there connection up and running again.
We have ultra fast fibre optic broadband getting installed in 10 days, it’s all laid in the street ready to be blown onto our property so really looking forward to the faster speeds. The whole of NZ is getting it. Our first 12 months (on contract) of unlimited data at 50/20 speed with a free phone line will cost $69 a month. We are on naked broadband (no phone line no contract) with unlimited data for $84 a month at present so what a deal….. Also will have 100/50 speed available for $110 per month for 100GB but I think thats over kill with my budget.Or unlimited 100/50 speed for $130 per month.

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So with the Booster off, do the Macs stay the same ?

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So with the Booster off, do the Macs stay the same ?

Yes, the Macs are correct and each device is listed one time instead of some of them showing up twice with two different mac names.

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Two MAC addresses for a device is correct for my setup. I use a wifi extender (Netgear WN3000RPv3) which generates a virtual MAC when I connect a device to it. The extender passes the virtual MAC to my router (Netgear WNDR3700v4). The router sees this as a new device so it assigns it a new IP (I use dynamic IP addresses). The first time I connect a new device to the extender, it creates a table entry associating the real MAC to its virtual MAC, ensuring that the router will always see the same virtual MAC for that device. Since I use an Access Control List on the router, it ignores any MAC that is not in its authorized list. So, when I connect a device to the extender, I must to add its virtual MAC to the router’s ACL. There are times when I connect a device to the router without using the wifi extender. In that case, the router sees the device’s (real) MAC address. That’s why I have to have both MACs in the ACL.
btw – since the extender itself has to wirelessly connect to my router, I had to add its MAC to the ACL. So, the router ACL now has an entry for the extender plus two entries for each device connected to the extender – one for the virtual MAC and one for the real MAC.

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Two MAC addresses for a device is correct for my setup. I use a wifi extender (Netgear WN3000RPv3) which generates a virtual MAC when I connect a device to it. The extender passes the virtual MAC to my router (Netgear WNDR3700v4). The router sees this as a new device so it assigns it a new IP (I use dynamic IP addresses). The first time I connect a new device to the extender, it creates a table entry associating the real MAC to its virtual MAC, ensuring that the router will always see the same virtual MAC for that device. Since I use an Access Control List on the router, it ignores any MAC that is not in its authorized list. So, when I connect a device to the extender, I must to add its virtual MAC to the router’s ACL. There are times when I connect a device to the router without using the wifi extender. In that case, the router sees the device’s (real) MAC address. That’s why I have to have both MACs in the ACL.
btw – since the extender itself has to wirelessly connect to my router, I had to add its MAC to the ACL. So, the router ACL now has an entry for the extender plus two entries for each device connected to the extender – one for the virtual MAC and one for the real MAC.

Welcome to the Lounge. Thanks for the help with the issue, your post seems to explain what I suspected was going on.The Lounge is a good place to work these things out as it takes me a while to get these things.
Pete.

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And yet they retained the same IP address – strange that but perhaps someone will have an explanation for it – TP-Link perhaps ?

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Could it be Apple devices that are the problem? See this article here.

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Could it be Apple devices that are the problem? See this article here.

No I don’t think that is it but I will check up on that. There is one ipad in my side of the house but not sure if there is more then one i device on the other. Thanks for the input. Pete.

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