So, I got a new router last weekend because my mom (she lives with me not the other way around) wasn’t getting hardly any signal in her room and my old router was a couple of years old so I figured there was probably some new tech that would do the job better.

I found the latest and greatest NetGear router, and let me just say “this thing rocks”! The signal is great! We’ve got GIGABIT WIRELESS capability. The range is great too… almost too good! lol.

I’ve noticed a couple of time where things just really seem to be running a bit slow as far as network connectivity was concerned. I often work late at night when, seems to me, bandwidth should be less of a problem, but I’ve found that since I got the new router that it was actually sometimes much slower! Crazy, right? Well, not really.

It turns out that when I started poking around in the admin panel to see what the deal was I found that there were quite a few more “connected devices” than the number of devices I even own much less operate regularly. It turns out that with the increased range I had apparently become the default ISP for several people in the area! This is kinda cool because it shows that it works way better (range wise). But it’s not cool because I want my bandwidth… I did not buy it for them. Plus, I run a business out of my house and I don’t need some knucklehead I don’t even know causing me trouble down the road by misusing my connection.

I spent the next 1/2 hour going through each and every page of the admin panel to make sure I didn’t leave any access means unsecured. This thing has two channels of wireless and then a guest network also. I only knew about one prior to going through all the settings! I thought about turning on logging so  I could see what the invaders were doing, but that just seemed wrong. They could have been simply passing through and some might have not even realized they were on someone elses account if their wireless had switched just because my signal was stronger. I value my privacy so I try to treat others as I would want to be when it comes to that. That being the case I simply secured all the wireless access options and cleared the logs. I’m hoping that now I’ll no longer be sharing my bandwidth with passerbys and neighbors… I’ll keep an eye on the “connected devices” for a few days to be sure, but I’m pretty sure I got it handled.

All in all, I love this router. If you have a router more than a few years old it’s probably worth looking at an upgrade. Just be sure to pay attention to your security settings (I probably accidently turned them off – I seriously doubt it defaulted to open but Ican’t be sure) and you’ll be pleased with your choice!