Forums | MacLife

DJ · 2009-03-30 9:54 am

Hi all,

I am curious about using Airport Utility (airport extreme- N) to know who is connected to my wireless network. Currently I can go in and see how many clients, but is there a way to see more info listed, such as "DJs MacBook" or "Queen Victoria's iMac"? FYI, I am running latest version of leopard and airport software/firmware.

The reason I am wanting to do this is sometimes my internet is slow (timewarner cable) and I am wondering if it is a timewarner issue, or if someone is connecting to my wireless and stealing my bandwidth. It is password protected of course, but there might be someone smart out there who has gotten in somehow. And I would like the piece of mind to be on the couch and able to view a list of connected client names.

Is this possible either with airport utility or some other app?

Last edited by DJ (2009-03-30 10:00 am)

sturner · 2009-03-30 11:42 am

1. Do you know how many authorized computers you have on your network?

2. Do you have a list of the MAC addresses? That is a series of two digit numbers that look like this (00:17:f2:0f:dd:ab)

3. Make a list of those. They are associated with your hardware.

4. If you see any computers with MAC addresses other than those, yes someone is leeching off of your wi fi. You need to strengthen your security at that point.

DJ · 2009-03-30 12:55 pm

sturner wrote:
1. Do you know how many authorized computers you have on your network?

2. Do you have a list of the MAC addresses? That is a series of two digit numbers that look like this (00:17:f2:0f:dd:ab)

3. Make a list of those. They are associated with your hardware.

4. If you see any computers with MAC addresses other than those, yes someone is leeching off of your wi fi. You need to strengthen your security at that point.

1. Yes, there should be the following devices at any given time:
3- computers (MacBook, PowerBook, iMac)
1- iPhone
1- Nintendi Wii
1- Airport Express-N (this is not creating it's own network. I have it joining the existing Airport Extreme
network so that my XBox 360 can get online)
- I have a wireless HP printer, but it is not connected to the airport. It has it's own self-created wifi network,
so everytime I print, I switch from my home network, to the HP network.
- Tivo wireless adapter (it only connects once per day for programming updates, i think late at night).
By the way, I assume that when a computer is sleeping, or the nintendo (for example) is not on, then they will not show up in the client list. Is this correct?

2. I don't have the Mac addresses listed, but can make a list.
After making the list, is there a way for Airport to then know which is which and list a hardware name, or will it only list the mac addresses?

Thanks for the info and advice~

sturner · 2009-03-30 4:15 pm

For 1. when sleeping the computer will showup as an assigned address. If you are using DHCP then those addys will expire if not renewed by the expiration date. If you do not use a DHCP server setup, and assign addresses only to those machines, and you can limit the number of addresses available as well. If you aren't using DHCP then exterior computers will not normally be able to find an address to use.

2. I don't think it will show the hardware name.

Keep checking, there are others on this forum who might be able to give more, or better advice/information.

Forums | MacLife

#1 2009-03-30 9:54 am

Airport Utility- more detailed info on connected clients?

#2 2009-03-30 11:42 am

Re: Airport Utility- more detailed info on connected clients?

#3 2009-03-30 12:55 pm

Re: Airport Utility- more detailed info on connected clients?

sturner wrote:

#4 2009-03-30 4:15 pm

Re: Airport Utility- more detailed info on connected clients?

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