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Unknown devices or users on wlan and ethernet

falesia
Dabbler
Posts: 20
Registered: ‎31-01-2012

Unknown devices or users on wlan and ethernet

I've been trying to investigate why, in this house of three adults, the usage has massively shot up from consistently well under 40GB /to over quadruple that.
I went into the modem last night and along with our three computers there are four or five other devices using the network. One or two of them say "unknown" followed by some letters and numbers. Are they Xbox's or something? (Sorry, not very hip to the hop on gaming etc as it doesn't interest me). Then there are a couple of other things that look like named computers.
There's an option to delete these users in the modem's settings. Would that be a good idea?
Is this anything to be worried about? Could someone be pinching my connection?
6 REPLIES 6
w23
Pro
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Registered: ‎08-01-2008

Re: Unknown devices or users on wlan and ethernet

Did the letters/Numbers look like '00:1D:D8:67:DC:3A' (Fictitious example to show the format)?
If so, then this is the MAC address of the device and you can Google the first 3 pairs of characters to identify the vendor, in my example 00:1D:D8 is identified as Microsoft (X-Box).
Call me 'w23'
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Strat
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: Unknown devices or users on wlan and ethernet

I have a list of the MAC addresses of all the computers , laptops etc I have. Then if I see one not on my list I know it's an intruder.
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anniesboy
Rising Star
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Registered: ‎06-01-2011

Re: Unknown devices or users on wlan and ethernet

Are you using Homeplugs? As I have two they show as unknown.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Unknown devices or users on wlan and ethernet

You should be worried! Are you using wireless connections - if you are not you should turn the wireless off completely. If you are using wireless, what security are you using?
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: Unknown devices or users on wlan and ethernet

Yes,
Just to add to the advice of others, if I were you I'd check the device addresses and do a little googling to see what they are. Following that turn your wireless capability off completely if it's not being used. If it is you can use MAC address filtering to only allow devices on a specifically approved list to access your network. I.e if your name's not down, you're not coming in Smiley
Let us know if you need any advice on doing this.
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gofaster
Rising Star
Posts: 369
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Unknown devices or users on wlan and ethernet

MAC address filtering is of dubious value.
If a hacker can crack your WPA2 password then he will have no problem in spoofing your MAC address.
Make sure you have WPA encryption turned on. If it was already on, perhaps try changing the password - this might identify the "unknown" devices when you find that they no longer work.