Recent statistics have shown that there has been a tremendous increase in smartphone adoption in Africa, and in Nigeria being one of the largest countries in the continent. By implication, this has resulted in increase in number of data bundle users, as well as in data bundle weight of smartphone consumers.

Although data bundle prices have drastically been slashed by the four major telecoms operators in the country, some ‘sharp’ smartphone users may still take to ‘stealing’ connections from Wi-Fi networks around them. At times, these ‘unknown connections’ can contribute to making the Network very slow, thus frustrating your work.

So how do you find out whether an unauthorized user is stealing your bandwidth?

A good way to do this is to take a look at what’s going on with your network, and to check whether the devices that are connected to it are ones you recognize or not. J.D. Biersdorfer of New York Times provides an easy way to do this.

One way to see what devices are connected to your Wi-Fi network (and to check whether you recognize all of them) is to log on to your router’s administrative page and check its DHCP Client Table, DHCP Client List, or the list of Attached Devices. From there, you’ll be able to see all of the computers, smartphones, tablets, and any other devices connected to your wireless router.

The website of your router’s manufacturer, or the print manual that comes with the router when you purchased it, should include instructions on how to log in to your router, which Biersdorfer notes usually requires typing the router’s Internet Protocol (IP) address into your web browser, and logging into the page with the administrator name and password.

When you see all the computers, smartphones, tablets, and any other devices connected to your wireless router, you should be able to identify the unauthorized connections on your network. From there, you can discontinue the connections to boost the speed of your network.