How to See What People Are Doing on Your WiFi.can i see what others are doing on my network.
Most modern web browsers allow deleting browsing history, or users can also use private or incognito modes, which do not store browsing history information. However, some special routers and your ISP may still see what people are doing on your WiFi based on your DNS queries.
There are times when you want to monitor internet activity on your router. For example,
- You are a parent and want to track your children’s online activities.
- You are sharing Wi-Fi with your flatmates and you want to know if they can see your browsing session
- You just want to know how to do it to keep yourself safe.
So, here are three ways to track internet activity on your router. However, none of these methods are reliable, meaning they all have their pros and cons. It goes without saying that you should test these methods on your own network and not other WiFi. Because this is not only unethical, but it can also cause problems with the law.
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How to find out what people are doing on your Wi-Fi
All of the following methods work in the same way, that is, when devices on your network connect to the Internet, data packets are sent over the air and are technically selectable. with a suitable tool. Following are some tools to monitor network packets. However, let’s see how it works.
1. WireShark
Wireshark is a popular packet capture tool designed specifically to see what people are watching online in real time.
Once launched, the software shows the IP addresses of all devices on your network. Just select the one you want to monitor and start a packet capture session. And it’s all. After a few seconds, you will see incoming and outgoing data packets from the target.
While this may sound simple, it is technically challenging. For example, the data you contain is an IP address and a lot of junk information and you need to sort out this dump. The popular YouTube channel, TheNewBoston, offers a series of tutorials on using Wireshark for beginners. Check this. Credit: www.wireshark.org
When capturing packets from other devices, be sure to enable promiscuous mode and set a filter for HTTP requests. You can find these settings in the options menu on the home screen.
Pros: With this tool, you can find a lot of useful information and provide a great tool for network administrators.
Cons: You will have to buy a separate WiFi adapter (like this one) to use Wireshark in promiscuous mode (i.e. monitor traffic from other devices). This is because most device manufacturers block packet capture at the hardware level to avoid misuse.
Platform – Windows, macOS, Linux
Check out Wireshark (Free)
2. OpenDNS
If you find Wireshark challenging, OpenDNS is for you. The logic behind OpenDNS is simple. When you try to connect to the Internet, all your network traffic goes through a router, which then forces it to go through your DNS provider to resolve the domain name to its equivalent IP address. Right?
Therefore, if you replace the default DNS server (usually provided by your ISP) with an OpenDNS server, you can easily monitor your network traffic using the OpenDNS control panel. This will give you a quick idea of what sites people are browsing on your network. Not only that, you can even block certain content like adult sites, gambling, etc.
To get started with OpenDNS, all you have to do is ask your router to use the public DNS server IP (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) and then create a free account on the OpenDNS website. After logging in, you need to associate the router with an OpenDNS account and that’s it. You will now be able to control your network from the OpenDNS control panel. Our favorite site HowToGeek has a detailed guide.
Read: How To Find Out Which DNS Server I’m Using
Pros: Works great and easy to set up, even for a non-technical person. And that is not all. you can also block websites or even services like WhatsApp across the entire network.
Cons: You can’t see real-time traffic. It shows data after 24 hours and also doesn’t detect which computer on your network opened a particular website. So you have to guess this based on the time and date.
Platform – Internet, works on all platforms
Check out OpenDNS (free)
3.zANTI (Android app)
If you are looking for how to check WiFi history on Android, zANTI is the answer. This is similar to Wireshark alternatives for Android. While I find it more user-friendly than Wireshark, and best of all, since your Android’s NIC is capable of capturing Wi-Fi packets (unlike most PCs), you don’t need to buy additional network hardware to capture data. other people on your network.
All you have to do is install this application on your Android device and launch it. The app will scan the network and show you a list of connected devices. Select the one you want to follow and launch an attack on the man in the middle .
zANTI captures all HTTP traffic from the target device in real time. However, if you want to see HTTPS traffic , enable SSL stripe, this will prevent websites from being opened over a secure protocol.
Pros: Simple and easy to use. Works right out of the box and can capture data packets along with many other features. It can even intercept username and password from some less secure websites.
Cons: Requires root and does not work all the time. So not 100 percent reliable.
Platform – Android only
Check out zANTI (free, email required)
Prevent people from seeing what you do on your WiFi network
If you don’t want people to see your online activity. You need to do 3 things
1. When it comes to sensitive issues, do not use a site that does not have https. Fortunately, most sites on the Internet support https by default. When you browse sites with https like Reddit, people who are spying on you or even your ISP can see that you have connected to the IP address of the Reddit server, but it cannot see the traffic that you are communication.
If the site does not support https by default, but still supports https as an option, you can install HTTPS Everywhere. It is a browser extension for Firefox, Chrome and Opera that encrypts your communications with many major websites. This will not change the HTTP site to HTTPS, but for some sites that do not support https or have partial https on the checkout page, this extension will apply it throughout the site.
2. Use a VPN. VPN will bypass router-level logging. If you’re not sure which VPN to use, here’s our list of the best free VPN apps we recommend on TechWiser.
3. Use other Internet sources for confidential Internet searches, for example, to create an access point from your smartphone. For an extra layer of protection, you can even use a VPN connection from your Android device.
There are other ways to monitor network traffic, such as installing a new firewall, but this can be expensive and is mostly used by businesses.
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How to See What People Are Doing on Your WiFi