Source of stray wifi signal
April 16, 2019 5:15 PM Subscribe
A friend, who is not technically oriented, has a stray unencrypted wifi signal in her house. It does not allow access to the internet. It is in addition to the normal 2ghz and 5ghz wifi signals from her router.
The signal is full strength, and diminishes if I stand outside the house and walk away and therefore we don't think it's from a neighboring house.
Could this be a derelict range extender perhaps left over from a previous router or service, which is now verizon? I have no experience with range extenders and don't know if an abandoned one would continue to create a signal. Any other ideas?
I'm now 150 miles away so can't investigate directly for now.
The signal is full strength, and diminishes if I stand outside the house and walk away and therefore we don't think it's from a neighboring house.
Could this be a derelict range extender perhaps left over from a previous router or service, which is now verizon? I have no experience with range extenders and don't know if an abandoned one would continue to create a signal. Any other ideas?
I'm now 150 miles away so can't investigate directly for now.
Does your friend know what the SSID (WiFi Network name) is?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 5:28 PM on April 16, 2019
posted by inflatablekiwi at 5:28 PM on April 16, 2019
Sometimes things like printers can show up in a wifi network list. If there are any devices like that, try unplugging them to see if that makes the extra signal go away.
posted by clarissajoy at 5:30 PM on April 16, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by clarissajoy at 5:30 PM on April 16, 2019 [6 favorites]
Does your friend have any smart devices? Some TVs, printers, and Roku streaming devices have WiFi Direct to allow a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection without requiring a wireless router.
posted by bluecore at 5:32 PM on April 16, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by bluecore at 5:32 PM on April 16, 2019 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: The network name is "livingroom"; spelled as one word.
When I was on-site a couple of days ago I was afraid to power down the router and modem for fear of "doing harm" and not being around to make things right again. Good idea about cutting the main breaker but same issue there.
There is an HP inkjet does everything type printer (model 200 something). So that's a possibility.
posted by Kevin S at 5:59 PM on April 16, 2019
When I was on-site a couple of days ago I was afraid to power down the router and modem for fear of "doing harm" and not being around to make things right again. Good idea about cutting the main breaker but same issue there.
There is an HP inkjet does everything type printer (model 200 something). So that's a possibility.
posted by Kevin S at 5:59 PM on April 16, 2019
Best answer: My Xfinity router seems to put out 3 networks on each frequency it is using, the actual one, one called xfinitywifi (for the use of roaming XFinity customers), and one with no name.
posted by w0mbat at 6:02 PM on April 16, 2019
posted by w0mbat at 6:02 PM on April 16, 2019
Best answer: There is an HP inkjet does everything type printer (model 200 something).
On my HP printer I had to go to the secret web page the printer was web serving (on the regular network) to stop it broadcasting its own Wi-Fi network. I believe it's a matter of turning off "Wi-Fi Direct".
Finding your HP printer's IP address is left as an exercise for the reader, now that Safari no longer has Bonjour to find web servers on your local network.
posted by w0mbat at 6:32 PM on April 16, 2019
On my HP printer I had to go to the secret web page the printer was web serving (on the regular network) to stop it broadcasting its own Wi-Fi network. I believe it's a matter of turning off "Wi-Fi Direct".
Finding your HP printer's IP address is left as an exercise for the reader, now that Safari no longer has Bonjour to find web servers on your local network.
posted by w0mbat at 6:32 PM on April 16, 2019
my samsung 4k smart tv called itself livingroom by default out of the box. you may want to check that.
posted by koroshiya at 6:44 PM on April 16, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by koroshiya at 6:44 PM on April 16, 2019 [7 favorites]
Chromecasts act like a router to allow you to connect and configure them. One of the steps is to name it something to identify it. When it is connected to WiFi it does not show up, but if it loses connection it will show up as what you named it.
posted by Short End Of A Wishbone at 7:10 PM on April 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Short End Of A Wishbone at 7:10 PM on April 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
IAANetworkFieldTechnicianBIANYNFT. Some wifi analyzer apps will tell you the manufacturer associated with the MAC address that a particular SSID is being broadcast from. Many also have a needle or bar graph display that you can use to move slowly around a space and notice where the signal seems strongest. This can help you narrow down what and where an unknown wifi device is.
One that I know that does this is Ubiquit WiFiMan on Android. It's also available on iOS but is basically a completely different app and if it does this MAC identification I haven't yet noticed where it's listed.
posted by glonous keming at 7:20 PM on April 16, 2019
One that I know that does this is Ubiquit WiFiMan on Android. It's also available on iOS but is basically a completely different app and if it does this MAC identification I haven't yet noticed where it's listed.
posted by glonous keming at 7:20 PM on April 16, 2019
Response by poster: Many excellent ideas to test. A little google research shows that the HP printer has the Wi-Fi Direct feature. So that is the number one hypothesis for now. It is next to the livingroom though not right in it; whoever did the install (certainly not my friend) could have provided the "livingroom" name.
Thanks everyone for your help.
posted by Kevin S at 8:27 PM on April 16, 2019
Thanks everyone for your help.
posted by Kevin S at 8:27 PM on April 16, 2019
Best answer: A friend, who is not technically oriented
The network name is "livingroom"; spelled as one word
my samsung 4k smart tv called itself livingroom by default out of the box
These are the bright blue dots I'd personally join first, especially if your friend has any Samsung TV.
posted by flabdablet at 9:44 PM on April 16, 2019 [4 favorites]
The network name is "livingroom"; spelled as one word
my samsung 4k smart tv called itself livingroom by default out of the box
These are the bright blue dots I'd personally join first, especially if your friend has any Samsung TV.
posted by flabdablet at 9:44 PM on April 16, 2019 [4 favorites]
Chromecast is usually associated with a room and will show up on a wifi list.
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:46 AM on April 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:46 AM on April 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm betting some kind of smart device. I literally have a LITTER BOX that, during setup, temporarily creates its own tiny Wi-Fi network; any random item that is "smart" may be doing something similar.
posted by oblique red at 12:44 PM on April 17, 2019
posted by oblique red at 12:44 PM on April 17, 2019
Response by poster: I had no idea that these tiny, private Wi-Fi networks existed. I'll have to talk to the cat about this.
posted by Kevin S at 1:13 PM on April 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Kevin S at 1:13 PM on April 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
When we moved into our house, the Honeywell touchscreen thermostats were set up to broadcast WiFi signals. It took a while of fiddling with the hidden menus to turn them off.
(But I'm betting "livingroom" is a television set or TV-related product.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:31 PM on April 17, 2019
(But I'm betting "livingroom" is a television set or TV-related product.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:31 PM on April 17, 2019
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