How to know what devices are using home WiFi

[GCRyan]

I’m looking for advice regarding WiFi at home. Our 14yo son is incredibly challenging at the moment. I have Qustodio on his phone and it has quite a few restrictions. I have a feeling he has a burner phone as a work around.

I know there are apps to track what devices are using the home WiFi but I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions or an app they recommend.

Thanks in advance

Yes, you need to log into your router, there will be a page that shows you what devices are connected, On mine it's the home page, it may not show the device name, but will definitely show how many devices there are. For example mine shows my iphone and another device (my printer) connected by 2.4G and my PC by 5G, nothing by ethernet or USB.

We have vodaphone fibre and you can see what devices are connected via the app. We have had EE and we could also do it with them, also switch off WiFi to certain devices. I think it's a pretty standard feature tbh, just login to your account and take a look.

Stupid question/person here.

How do you log into your router?

Open any browser and enter 192.168.1.1 in the address bar. Most routers have the default admin password on them somewhere assuming you haven't changed it already. You can block specific devices from the router provided you know their MAC address. Any changes you make can be wiped with a simple factory reset, so the only certain way to keep wayward teens off your wifi is to lock the router away somewhere so they have no access to it.

OP - simplest way to ensure no unwanted devices can use your router is to toggle approved devices only. That way you can permit only specified MAC addresses to connect, and the router will automatically reject any request from any device which is not on the approved list. You can also use this instead of typical password entry if you like, because the router will just automatically accept requests from the specified devices and deny absolutely everything else anyway.

Thanks for the guidance. Much appreciated

If he has another phone, will he not have set himself up with data? Or be logging on to someone elses WiFi? DS used to use the neighbours, the bus, the Spoons, ASDA...
I mean fair enough if you want to try, but these gits are very resourceful!

It may not be 192.168.1.1 mine is 192.168.1.254, other addresses are available, it will be on a sticker somewhere, along with the username/password. Any device does have to be on and connected to show up, so MAC address limiting might be the answer, if the router supports it, however any body a bit tech will be able to spoof a MAC address to look like another.

It’s possible he has. And maybe I am naive to think I can catch him. I always seem to be in the back foot.

I am not sure if it is relevant to conversation but mine used. a vpn to circumnavigate our phone controls- it is such a nightmare cat and mouse game