How many client devices can be connected to one Wi-Fi access point. How to find out who connected to my wifi

Good day.

Did you know that the reason for the drop in speed in a Wi-Fi network can be neighbors who have connected to your router and occupy the entire channel with their jumps? Moreover, it would be okay if they only downloaded it, but if they start breaking the law using your Internet channel? Claims, first of all, will be against you!

That is why, it is advisable to set a password for your Wi-Fi network and sometimes see who is connected to the Wi-Fi router (what devices, are they yours?). Let's consider in more detail how this is done ( the article provides 2 ways)…

Method number 1 - through the settings of the router

STEP 1 - entering the router settings (determining the IP address to enter the settings)

To find out who is connected to the Wi-Fi network, you need to enter the router settings. There is a special page for this, however, it opens at different routers - at different addresses. How can I find this address?

1) Stickers and stickers on the device ...

The easiest way is to take a close look at the router itself (or documents for it). On the body of the device, there is usually a sticker on which the address for settings is indicated, and a login with a password for entering.

In fig. 1 shows an example of such a sticker, to access the settings with "admin" rights, you need:

login address: http://192.168.1.1;
login (username): admin;
password: xxxxx (in most cases, by default, the password is either not specified at all, or is the same as the login).

Fig. 1. Sticker on the router with settings.

2) Command line ...

If you have the Internet on your computer (laptop), then you can find out the main gateway through which the network functions (and this is the IP address to enter the page with the router settings).

Sequencing:

first start the command line - a combination of buttons WIN + R, then you need to enter CMD and press ENTER.
in the command line, enter the ipconfig / all command and press ENTER;
a large list should appear, in it find your adapter (through which the Internet connection goes) and look at the address of the main gateway (you must enter it in the address bar of your browser).

Fig. 2. Command line (Windows 8).

3) Special. utility

There are specials. utilities for finding and determining the IP address to enter the settings. One of these utilities is described in the second part of this article (but you can also use analogs, so that there is enough of this "good" in the vastness of the network :)).

4) If you failed to enter ...

If you did not find the settings page, I recommend that you read the following articles:

Fig. 3. TP-Link

Rostelecom

The menu in Rostelecom routers, as a rule, is in Russian and problems with search, as a rule, do not arise. To view devices on the network, simply expand the " Device Information", DHCP tab. In addition to the MAC address, here you will see the internal IP address in this network, the name of the computer (device) connected to Wi-Fi, and the time of work in the network (see Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Router from Rostelecom.

A very popular router model, and often the menu is in English. First you need to open the Wireless section, then open the Status subsection (in principle, everything is logical).

Fig. 5. D-Link who joined

If you do not know the password for accessing the router settings (or you simply cannot enter them, or you cannot find the necessary information in the settings), I recommend using the second method of viewing the connected devices to your Wi-Fi network ...

Method number 2 - through the special. utility

This method has its advantages: you do not need to waste time looking for an IP address and entering the router settings, you do not need to install or configure anything, you do not need to know anything, everything happens quickly and automatically (you just need to run one small special utility - Wireless Network Watcher).

A small utility that does not require installation that will help you quickly determine who is connected to the Wi-Fi router, their MAC addresses and IP addresses. Works in all new versions of Windows: 7, 8, 10. Of the minuses - there is no support for the Russian language.

After running the utility, you will see a window as in fig. 6. There will be several lines in front of you - pay attention to the column "Device information":

your router - your router (also shown is its IP address, settings address, which we have been looking for for so long in the first part of the article);
your computer - your computer (from the one from which you currently launched the utility).

Fig. 6. Wireless Network Watcher.

In general, an extremely convenient thing, especially if you have not yet understood the intricacies of the settings of your router too well. True, it is worth noting the disadvantages of this method of detecting devices connected to a Wi-Fi network:

the utility shows only online devices connected to the network (i.e. if your neighbor is now asleep and turned off the PC, then it will not find and show that he is connected to your network. The utility can be minimized to the tray and it will blink for you, when someone new connects to the network);
even if you see someone "outsider", you will not be able to ban him or change the network password (for this you need to enter the settings of the router and restrict access from there).

This concludes the article, I will be grateful for the additions on the topic of the article. Good Luck!

Almost every apartment has computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones and other devices. To ensure that all these devices have access to the Internet, owners create home wireless networks and install Wi-Fi routers. Today, the issue of protecting these networks from illegal exploitation by other users remains relevant. In this article, I'll show you how to find out who has connected to your network.

Reasons for concern

You should be alarmed by the regular decrease in the speed of data transmission on the Internet. Another user's wireless connection is not the only reason for slow speeds. But it doesn't hurt to control the situation.
If you are sure that all devices in the apartment are disconnected from the wireless network, and the indicator on the router continues to blink intensively. This is another reason to find out if any of the neighbors are connected to my Wi-Fi.

How to check how many devices are connected to the router

1st way

To find out who has connected Wi-Fi, you need to go to the router settings. To do this, open your browser and enter the IP address of your router in the address bar. If you enter the settings for the first time, then you will need to enter your username and password. You can find out the IP address, username and password yourself. To do this, you need to look at the sticker on the back of the device.
You can also find out this data in the search engine by entering your router model. Provided, of course, that you have not changed them before. On the start page, select advanced settings, and then the "DHCP" tab. This tab displays all devices that are currently working from your router. The MAC address can be used to find out if someone is connected to the wireless network.
Possibility of network administration is provided. By deleting the MAC address, I will prevent someone else's device from accessing my Wi-Fi. Watch a detailed video on how to determine who is connected to a Wi-Fi router, for example, a D-Link router:

2nd way

Using the program Wireless Network Watcher. Download the free WNеtWatcher utility on the Internet. Start it up. The program will scan the network and show who is connected to your Wi-Fi router. First on the list are my computer and router, below are the devices that are connected to my Wi-Fi.
For each device, name, MAC address, manufacturer are indicated. You can find out who is using your network by the device name. Another option is to look at the MAC addresses of your devices and compare them with the addresses given by the program. The advantage of this utility is not only that you can see who is connected to your network at the moment. This program runs in the background. If someone tries to use your Wi-Fi, you will hear a beep.

Disadvantages of wireless network watcher:

There is no way to block an unknown user. Even if you find that an attacker is connected to your router, you cannot prevent this from happening. For the program to work, at least one device must be connected with a cable to the router. Watch a detailed video on using the program:

How to improve the security of your wireless network

Always change your router login and password. The passwords provided by manufacturers can be easily cracked by hackers. To change the password, go to advanced settings, on the System Tools tab, select the Password item. In the tab that opens, you can edit the current password.

2. In the "Wi-Fi / Wireless mode" menu, select the "MAC filter / MAC address filtering" tab. On the Filter Mode tab, select Allow.
In the memory of the Wi-Fi router, enter the MAC addresses for which you leave access to the wireless network. After that, no device can connect to your network, even if the person knows your password. Using the tips from this article, you can conveniently see who is connected to the wireless network without your knowledge and close access to the free Internet.

Since the advent of wireless technologies and Wi-Fi routers, the problem of traffic leaks has become especially urgent. It would seem that you are not downloading anything, but the statistics show that several hundred gigabytes have been downloaded for the current day / week / month.

If not you, who did it?

Option 1: OS downloads updates with subsequent installation. This option can be considered only if the total amount of traffic does not exceed 1–2 GB per day.

Option 2: someone shamelessly connected to your network via a Wi-Fi connection and downloads gigabytes of data from the Internet without a twinge of conscience. And there may be several such applicants.

So how do you see who is connected to your wifi router?

Let's say right away that it will not work to find out the "criminal by sight". But the circle of suspects can be narrowed down to a few MAC addresses (unique number of PCs and other digital devices).

Let's take a look at several well-known router models as an example.

How to see who is connected to your wifi D-link?

First you need to get into the settings of the router itself. For these purposes, in the browser, enter the standard set of numbers for the IP address (192.168.0.1). If the system starts to "swear", then we change the address to 192.168.1.1.

You will see a typical dialog box in which you need to enter your login and password.

The windows may differ from each other, but their essence is the same. Login - admin, password - admin.

We go to the main menu of the router settings.

You need to immediately switch from basic to advanced settings, otherwise you will not see anything. For these purposes, there is a corresponding menu at the bottom right.

We are interested in the item "status" and the double arrow to the right of the name. Click on it until you come across a "customer" link. Here we also need it.

It displays a complete list of all devices and gadgets that consume traffic over Wi-Fi. Calculate how many of them belong to you. In particular, the following can work from a router:

notebook;
smartphone;
the tablet;
television;
game console, etc.

If the number of subscribers significantly exceeds the number of "allowed" devices, it means that someone illegally "sucked" to your source. There are 2 options for solving the problem:

Setting a password;
Changing it to a more complex one.

Important! Password the access point if you haven't already. Firstly, you will benefit in data transfer speed, because the traffic will not be scattered to unauthorized users, and secondly, you will protect yourself in the future.

If the password is weak (1111, qwerty, etc.), change it to a more complex one. At the same time, do not tell anyone this chaotic set of numbers and letters, otherwise all efforts will go down the drain.

Now you know how to see who is connected to my wifi dir 300 and other D-link models.

How to see who is connected to your wifi TP-link?

Perhaps the most well-known company supplying network equipment. It is not difficult to configure it, as well as view the list of connected devices.

So how do I see who is connected to my wifi tp-link? At first, you will need to enter the same standard IP, i.e. 192.168.1.1.

Note! If you have not previously changed your username or password, then enter "admin" in both columns.

In order not to poke around in all the settings and not to search for parameters by typing, switch to the "Wireless" tab. Next, click on the "Wireless statistics" sub-item.

Here is a list of all devices that are currently connected to your Internet network via Wi-Fi (in this case - 2). You can see 3 graphs:

MAC address;
Encryption type (the same for everyone);
The number of packets transmitted.

The choice of options is, of course, meager, but these are all available statistics.

In addition to Wi-Fi connection, you can also look at those who are powered by your router "the old fashioned way", ie. through the cable. To do this, open the "DHCP" - "DHCP Client List" tab.

There are also 3 data columns available here:

PC name;
MAC address;
IP address.

Thus, you can "figure out by IP" someone who is not quite legitimate connected to your network and brazenly steals traffic.

And just in case, change your router password or enable this feature if you haven't done so before.

How to see who is connected to your ASUS wifi?

An equally well-known supplier of routers to the CIS markets. To find out who else is sharing traffic with you, just go to the parameters of the router (192.168.1.1).

You are taken to the main menu with a list of settings.

We are interested in nothing more than a "network map". It shows in detail how many people are "powered" by your router, the names of the devices and the IP addresses of each.

This screenshot shows that all subscribers are on the same subnet, i.e. There are no "strangers" here. But if they appear, they can be simply removed or blocked.

As a last resort, password-protect your access point or change the login key to a more complex one.

If you are told that it is impossible to determine the number of "illegal immigrants" who steal traffic for personal purposes, you can safely laugh and prove the opposite.

Some models of routers allow you to limit the number of devices connected at a time, vary the data transfer rate, and more.

In any case, ask the seller about additional settings, or look for similar information on the Internet.

A large number of different client devices can be connected to one Wi-fi access point. Connecting devices at the same time is assumed. But how much depends on the access point itself and restrictions. For example, MikroTik hotspots are programmatically limited to 2007 clients.

You just need to understand that in most situations it is not recommended to create such a large number of connections due to a number of features of the wi-fi protocol. That is, this is not because of the access point itself and its characteristics, but precisely because of the Wi-Fi protocol. Everything is due to the fact that user devices such as laptops, smartphones, and so on work exactly according to some standard from the entire 802.11 family and they cannot support specially created polling mechanisms and protocols to speed up the operation of the radio part, because they are not regulated by the 802.11n standard itself ( + p). For example, client devices do not support airMAX, iPoll, NV2, and so on. And without such protocols and mechanisms, when a large number of clients are connected, the total data transfer rate drops sharply due to the division between all connected clients, delays and the like increase. Wi-Fi uses a half duplex environment. Continuous RTS / CTS negotiation and retransmissions are required during collisions and for other reasons the rate will drop. The speed decreases even when 2 users are connected, and when each new one is connected, there will also be a decrease. Now RTS / CTS does not really save the situation, and especially when there is interference due to the presence of re-reflection, interference and physical obstacles in the path of signal propagation in the form of walls, trees and other things.

The hardware part of the access point can also limit the number of connected clients. But it all depends on specific situations. Let's see what affects the number of client devices connected to a wi-fi access point:

Performance built into the access point (how quickly the software code is processed and what hardware it is equipped with);

What are the capabilities of the access point in terms of radio communication. That is, whether the MIMO technology is implemented, operates in one or two bands at once, what is the channel width, whether the guard interval is short, whether the modulation is high, and so on;

Which model of the Wi-Fi access point is involved and what are its technical characteristics. Again, is it MIMO, large channel width, short guard interval, high modulation, and so on;

Active requirements for the speed of information transfer for each connected client, taking into account even those actively transmitting traffic;

The type of TCP / UDP traffic, what packet sizes, whether VPN encryption is used when the access point works directly with the tunnel, and much more.

To summarize all that has been said, let us express our recommendations. So, if you are interested in the question of how many devices can be simultaneously connected to one access point, then we recommend connecting from 10 to 40 clients. If you need high speeds, then 3-7 clients. More accurately, you can calculate only on the basis of a specific situation. Experiments will be most accurately identified on the spot, so to speak. Make a simulation and see what speed and how many devices will be distributed.

When creating a professional radio network, where specialized access points using polling protocols are used, high speeds are achieved and the decrease with an increase in the number of users is much slower.

I will try today to answer an interesting question, which, it seems to me, is of interest to many. Let's try to figure out how many devices can be simultaneously connected to the router. Wirelessly Wi-Fi, and network cable.

How many different computers, phones, tablets and other equipment can be connected to one router, how it will affect its work, and whether it will work at all.

Let's get straight to the point. And, first, let's figure out how to connect devices via a LAN network cable. As a rule, in common modern routers, there are 4 LAN connectors. For example, I have it at hand, now I will take a photo of the LAN connectors.

This means that you can connect 4 devices to it. For example, or.

It will not be possible to connect more devices, since there is a restriction on connectors. This, I think, is understandable.

Maximum number of Wi-Fi devices?

It's more interesting here. There is no physical limitation when connecting via a wireless network. Compared to network connectors.

But, this does not mean that you connect 20 laptops to the router, and everything will work fine.

Yes, there is a limitation. And, I think that this is the maximum number of IPs that a DHCP server on a router can issue. For example, by default, Asus has a final IP address 192.168.1.254 :

And at Tp-Link, for example, 192.168.0.199 :

It turns out that, for example, you can connect 99 devices to Tp-Link, and more than 250 to Asus. But I think that these numbers do not mean anything in practice. Absolutely. This is theory. If I am wrong, please correct me.

I think that no router, even the most modern and powerful one, can withstand 99 devices 🙂. He simply cannot physically provide them with access to the Internet. Moreover, stable access.

I didn’t have to test, but I think that if you connect even 10 devices to the same popular one, and start downloading something, or open sites on them, then it will simply “freeze”. The Internet will disappear everywhere, and only a reboot will save it. His processor simply cannot withstand such a load. Even if you run games on several computers, I'm not sure that it will keep the connection stable. Even a torrent on one computer can load the router. I have already written how to deal with it. "

This does not only apply to TL-WR841N, or TP-Link, it applies to all routers. If, for example, take his younger brother TL-WR741N, then things are even worse there. (it is cheaper and weaker)... Very often I come across complaints that the Internet just stops working. Only a reboot saves, and even then, not for long. This is a prime example of the fact that a router simply cannot withstand the load created by the devices that you connected to it.

If we take more expensive models, for example Asus RT-AC66U, TP-LINK TL-WDR3600, then the situation with the number of simultaneously connected devices and network stability will be much better. Since these models are much more expensive and more powerful. They have more powerful processors, power supplies, etc.

And mobile 3G routers (almost all models), have a limitation on connecting devices via Wi-Fi. Usually, this is up to 5 devices. For example: Huawei EC 5321u-1 Rev.B, Sierra Wireless AC802 - up to 5 devices. But to the Easo M8 - you can connect 50 devices, but 5-7 are recommended. It is clear that he will never pull 50 devices.

Afterword

When choosing a router, you should already roughly know how many devices you will connect to it. If you have, for example, two computers and several smartphones, then you can take a not very expensive model, such as the TL-WR841N, or another from this price category.

But, if you want to build a wireless network in a big house (where there are many devices), in a small office, hostel, etc., then I advise you not to save. Take a router that costs more than UAH 1000. (4000 p.). That everything would work stably and without failures.

Otherwise, the Internet connection will start to disappear, and you will long and tediously look for an answer to why this is happening. And the answer will be very simple, just your router will not withstand the load that the devices will create. Moreover, if you are going to play online games, watch high quality videos, or download (distribute) torrents.

I will be glad to see your questions, comments and additions in the comments. Good luck!