OK, you’ve been good, and secured your wireless network. If you haven’t (and I can’t imagine the why of that), then please… please do so
immediately. You can get a good guide here. This is of paramount importance to your identity because illegal and costly activities can be perpetrated on "your" network. The last thing you need is Homeland Security knocking on your door, telling you about "kiddy stuff and piracy" you've allegedly been engaged in.
If you're unsecured, download and run the utility and print a report. You might need it. Then, secure your network! WPA/2 is recommended if supported by your router. If not, then there are ways to flash your router (you might 'brick' it - be careful and read up on it) to install software to allow WPA/2, but that's a subject for another article. Read about DD-WRT here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation . Read that article well!
OK, now you’ve secured your network and you wish to check up if you’ve done well. How do you do that?
Neil Sofer, aka NirSoft has provided yet another free (and freely distributable, if unaltered) tool: Wireless Network Watcher v1.10.
“Wireless Network Watcher is a small utility that scans your wireless network and displays the list of all computers and devices that are currently connected to your network.
For every computer or device that is connected to your network, the following information is displayed: IP address, MAC address, the company that manufactured the network card, and optionally the computer name. You can also export the connected devices list into html/xml/csv/text file, or copy the list to the clipboard and then paste into Excel or other spreadsheet application.” – NirSoft
It scans only the network you’re connected to: It cannot scan other networks.
System requirements:
- This utility works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
- This utility can only scan a wireless network that you're currently connected to. It cannot scan other wireless networks.
- In rare cases, it's possible that Wireless Network Watcher won't detect the correct wireless network adapter, and then you should go to 'Advanced Options' window (F9), and manually choose the correct network adapter.
- Although this utility is officially designed for wireless networks, you can also use it to scan a small wired network.
You should take a look at all the utilities Mr. Sofer has created. They are all small, and free. Look for them here: http://www.nirsoft.net/ and bookmark this site!