You pay the monthly cable or DSL bill each month with your hard earned money, so that in all respects should be your internet. No leeches and no one else trying to ride for free by using your Wi-Fi. In today’s post, we will review how you can keep a constant monitor on your wireless network setup.
There is a good possibility that your router’s software may actually have some built-in functions for detecting wireless connections. For example, in Airport Utility for Macs and many Linksys routers for Windows, you can check how many wireless clients are connected to your Wi-Fi network. However, this function is a bit limited, as it doesn’t allow for advanced features such as live monitoring and detection. With NirSoft Wireless Network Watcher, however, you can keep better track of your Wi-Fi network.
To get started, jump to the NirSoft Wireless Network Watcher homepage and scroll down the page until you reach the download links. From here, proceed to download the NirSoft installer to your computer.
Upon download, you won’t need to install the software, as the .EXE file contains the launcher also. Simply double click the .EXE file to start using NirSoft.
Once the application starts up, you may notice that it is very lightweight, fast, and simple. The software detects wireless users and lists them by IP Address, Device Name, Mac Address, Network Adapter Company, Device Information, Computer Name, Initial Detection Date and Detection Count.
You can configure more advanced settings for the software by navigating the path Options > Advanced Options.
Earlier in the article, it was mentioned that the software is capable of detecting live connections. However, what if you don’t have the NirSoft window active on screen? For this, you can set the software to beep whenever it detects a new connection, using the pathOptions > Beep on new device.
If you prefer the application to take up even less desktop space, you can also check the option Put Icon on Tray.
Cool stuff… but what if you want the software to auto launch whenever you start your PC, so that you don’t have to remember to start it. For this, you may be able to use Windows Task Scheduler or another automation software.
That’s basically all there is to it. Although simple in nature, NirSoft’s Wireless Network Watcher is a nice basic utility for monitoring your Wi-Fi network. It would be nice to have a boot option to disconnect unwanted users from the Wi-Fi, but that would require things like setting up a master computer for the network, etc… Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. If any of our site visitors have any similar recommended Wi-Fi monitors, feel free to leave a comment in order to help others.
