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Will Someone Hacking My Router Show up on My Computer?

Question: If someone hacks into my router, will their activity show up on my personal computer and phones? We have activity as far as websites visited but we swear that the router must have been hacked. Is it possible for activity to be on the computer and phone if they weren’t actually used?

Hacking a router is possible, but fairly uncommon.

Most router hacks happen from the computers in your local network. That means you may have malware on one or more of your machines and it’s accessing the router. This can show up in several different ways on your computer.

I’m not so sure about the phones.

But since you asked, let’s talk a little about this scenario.

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What is router hacking?

Router hacking is a technique that redirects you from legitimate websites to malicious sites in an attempt to gain account and personal information or to infect your computer.

For example, let’s say a hacker compromised your router. By replacing the router’s DNS settings, any time you navigate to PayPal.com you might instead be taken to a website that the hacker created to look like PayPal.com.

If you think the site looks legitimate, you may enter your user name and password to access the site. The hacker then has that information and can use it to access your real PayPal account.

Hacker in the nightIn a router hack, the redirected site could be anything: Google, your bank, or a credit card company. It can be any place where you might provide account or personal information that the hacker can capture.

The other scenario is that the redirect could send you to malicious sites that then try to install malware on your machine.

Local effects

A router hack itself may not leave any sign on your computer, so your anti-virus and anti-malware programs won’t detect anything. All of the redirects happened on your router, so you won’t find any evidence.

However if the router was hacked due to malware on one of your systems, then perhaps that malware would be detected.

While router hacking can happen to anyone, I don’t believe that’s what’s going on in your case.

I would suspect that the activity that you’re seeing on your machine is more likely because you are infected with malware or somehow, someone else is using your equipment when you’re not around.

 

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43 comments on “Will Someone Hacking My Router Show up on My Computer?”

  1. I know if someone is entering my wireless connection by monitoring the main computer where I program the router; I can detect (see) every connection with assigned address. I an unknown connection takes place I would know because Everyone allowed has a name given; otherwise it says, it says unknown device or computer. If you know a few things, you can give them a hard time and get them in trouble.

    Reply
  2. I have a tricky one! I’m sure my father (who uses my internet very often when he comes over) has hacked into my router so he can monitor my usage of MY internet. What I do in my home on my internet is my business. What can I do about that? He is quite a genius when it comes to software/hardware programmes and so on and I am not. He talks a lot about open and closed sources which make not much sense to me but whilst he was in my home using my broadband I noticed he had my router on his laptop, it said logout in the top right of the screen, I don’t know how to access it myself so how on earth did he get it? I am 31 years old and don’t need daddy keeping an eye on what I do online. How can I change this? I do know he once was watching a friend from his own home play poker online and the man didn’t have a clue. Yes he is my dad but this is totally out of order

    Reply
    • he can’t monitor your work in your laptop even if he has access to your router…..but there’s something you can do to prevent him accessing to your router in the future by changing the default password , and if you don’t know the default password just type the name of the router on google and you’ll get the default username(which it is admin most of the time) and the password.

      Reply
  3. Turns out my new neighbor (live right next store), with friends who install internet, have hacked into my computer. How I found this was Homegroups. I’ve never used home groups since I am a single user with only one computer. I was SHOCKED when I found that 2 additional user profiles had been set up. Once I found them, I deleted them right away. I went to advance Homegroup settings and again, found my settings changed. So now, every time I use my computer, I go to the advanced homegroup settings to make sure, my neighbor is NOT in my business. Is there anything or anywhere else I can check to make sure my computer is secure? Thanks in advance! Teri Howard

    Reply
    • If he’s got that kind of access you appear to be on the same network. You should have your own internet connection – separate from his – and should make sure your router is secure. That should prevent any attempts like you suspect. Without knowing the details it’s very possible that other user profiles are being set up for more benign reasons, though.

      Reply
    • This happened to me too. Smart tv, laptops, anything using wifi. TV shows files from computers like it’s a hack. Laptops has Homegroups icon on every one now. I don’t have a network to share to other PC’s. I feel I’ve been hacked by something

      Reply
  4. Can anyone tell me if someone can use the same internet connection as me but on a different location, I have been experiencing heavy usage on my internet and don’t know what’s going on, when I check into my account I see that I’m using 2 GB per day which doesn’t make sense as I’m rarely online, I have an internet package of 30 GB a month and my provider is Not very helpful to find out what is happening with my internet as I feel someone has hacked into my system or duplicate my modem so they can have free internet… I’m not sure about that as I’m new to the internet??? Any ideas what is happening as I’m barely online yet my internet is just going very quick.,
    Any advice would be very helpful.
    Thanks
    Erade

    Reply
    • It wouldn’t be possible to use your internet connection from another location. I would check for malware – many forms of malware use the internet connection heavily to send spam.

      Reply
    • A good router will show you everyone connected to the router *and* how much bandwidth they are using, both now and by hour and by day. The Peplink Surf SOHO does this. Maybe your router does too. You should change the password for your router and, if using WiFi, for all the wifi networks. If the router was provided by your ISP, get another one. For more see http://www.routersecurity.org.

      Reply
    • in reply to Bernadette
      September 23, 2015 at 7:15 am
      Can anyone tell me if someone can use the same internet connection as me but on a different location

      it is possible depending on your ISP. some offer a service where you can access “your” internet from anywhere in the world with log in details. ask your ISP for details and if they offer this service.

      its also possible but maybe rare and pointless to conect to your internet from someone elses “a hackers internet”. chances are you have a virus causing you to download junk (virus scans are pretty useless most times)

      Reply
  5. My router was hacked but I outwitted the hacker and once I regained entrance to my router……THERE IT WAS……his calling card!!! Everything I needed to give to the authorities was right there in black and white. Reset your router to its default ID and password. Shut it down. Wait a while. Turn it back on and immediate enter the IP address in the address bar. If 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 won’t work, keep trying using a different “end” number such as the number 2. The logon screen will appear—-FINALLY. Now you have access to your router. Change everything and use a really strong password. (Keep in mind that the hacker may still be watching you so you need to be using a free software like KeyScrambler to encrypt what you type, just in case he is using a keylogger). Uncheck anything and everything that is remote. Save it all and shut down the router. I found a router that has a button on the back to shut my router on and off, which is very convenient. And I shut it off when I am not using it….always.

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  6. Routers are hacked for many reasons. A spy agency may want to spy on you. Bad guys want to use it for DDOS attacks or serving up ads. As a rule, all the computing devices using the router will have no clue that the router was hacked. That said, see this

    Welcome to The Internet of Compromised Things
    http://blog.codinghorror.com/welcome-to-the-internet-of-compromised-things/

    for an example of the effect of router hacking. For more on the subject see http://www.routersecurity.org.

    Reply
  7. I have a router that was given by my ISP,for long I did not notice anything strange until I went on holiday and upon return saw that I was throttled,someone was using my internet while I was out of town,probably through the Wi-fi and were seeing the usage of around 10gig a day!The reason I believe to be hacked was I wanted to connect to my router and could not get on,phoned my ISP and they helped met to login to my router and saw someone changed all my passwords,usernames and addresses to ‘f*** you’!!!
    Is there anything I can do,apart from changing all passwords,login passwords and all that so that this person can not get into the router or the SSID passwords again? Thanks in advance

    Reply
  8. I had a bad break up with ex and he’s angry I won’t talk to him (he physically/emotionally abused me) He is now claiming to say I hacked into his computer/online accounts and is turning his computers and hard drives over to authorities (?) I know he’s trying to scare me somehow, is there some possible way he could set me up to make it appear I did something (which I haven’t)
    Thanks, Kandi

    Reply
    • Abusers make threats when they feel weak and powerless. If you didn’t hack into his system there is little, if any, evidence that would be conclusive enough to lay charges against you.
      If he had access to your computer before the breakup he may have hacked his own router from your computer but that doesn’t prove that you did it. Police are very unlikely to lay charges on thin evidence. Have you reported his physical violence? If not it might be a good idea because you could then tell the police about his threats in your complaint about him. You could tell the police that you are making the complaint because you believe him to be a threat and that, despite you breaking up with him, he has continued to harass you.
      Stop answering emails, texts, and taking calls from him. Otherwise you could be accused of leading him to believe that there is still a chance. If you accidentally take a call and find out it’s from him hang up. Don’t communicate with him at all or you could be accused of giving him the impression there is still hope for the two of you.
      You most likely have nothing to worry about as long as you have completely severed the relationship. If you continue to communicate with him regardless of how inflammatory his comments are (stop reading them or listening to them) you are part of the problem. Stop taking any part in the problem and make sure that he has no excuse to believe you have any further interest in a future with him in it.
      I had to completely sever ties with my sister. Why? She was telling lies about me that were very damaging. Once I stopped all communication and refused to communicate with her except through a lawyer she has not been able to tell anyone I said this or that. No communication means no further drama.

      Reply
  9. I have an ATT uverse router and we used to be able to change the name of ihe connecction on it but when they replaced it, they told me that for security reasons they can’t change the name on it anymore. I used to be able to do it and now I can’t. Is due to NSA? How do i buy a router when I have ATT uverse that is not theirs a more secure router? I have a home business and am on the internet a lot and have had malware and all else. Now when I am on my PC it does a lot of snap crackle like someone is trying to get it, light a lightening bolt effect very brief or a camera shot. Does this mean I have been infected by malware.?
    MY PC stopped powering on for a month and then now works. I think it was the keyboard could not be recognized so I got a new one and it works now but that snapshot effect noise and millisecond comes on every once in awhile. I have Eset security 8, malwarebytes premium and heimdal that updates and patch all software. I learned about Heimdal when I was n france June 2014 when systems wee hacked with extortion threats and requesting money. On the French news channel they had the State Department recommending products but not here. They also did an extensive review and gave links of the best products. Eset and Heimdal were on the liist. If you can understand what I am talking about it, I just want to have a safe router but cant afford VPN. I am not selling stocks or bonds, just eretailer. Thank you LEO and friends

    Reply
    • I have no idea what could be causing that flashing and noise, but I generally don’t suspect malware in cases like those. Malware writers usually prefer to do their dirty work unannounced. Flashing and noises are most often caused by hardware issues, but it doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of software issues. This could be caused by any one of a large number of things. I’d have a technician look at the machine.

      Reply
    • You could check your sound assignments. If you’re running windows go to control panel and then “sound” and then click the “sounds” tab. go through each sound that has been assigned to find out which, if any, of the sounds matches the one you are hearing.

      Another thing you can do is change the sound scheme from “default” to one of the other schemes. If the sounds you have been hearing change then you know it’s one of those sounds. You can isolate by elimination. Just play each of the sounds adjacent the corresponding action in Windows and you’ll be able to find what process is triggering that sound. These are clues that could lead you to the culprit.

      Sounds like a screen capture moment to me but hopefully this will be able help you narrow it down.

      Reply
    • That depends on how and where you are viewing the blocked site. If you are doing it on someone else’s computer such as at work, then they can see it.

      Reply
  10. For a year now my best friend thinks that I have been hacking his computer and his phones we get into arguments about it cause I have no idea what he is talking about how can I prove OE what can I do to prove its wasn’t me cause when it comes to computers and phones I really don’t know much about them let alone hack someone please I am really desperate to prove my innocents I don’t want to loose my best friend

    Reply
    • Unfortunately, it not possible to prove the non-existence of something, in your case hacking.That’s why the burden of proof is on the accuser.

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  11. If someone hacks my account from another state will their activity show up on my browsing history on my phone? Please help!!!

    Reply
  12. Hello. I am in the middle of a VERY ugly and very dangerous divorce. I am not very tech savvy, at all and he knows this well. He has people helping him that are very tech savvy. Key Chain was put on my phone without my knowledge. I get notifications saying someone is attempting to access my email. Got the IP address, location and time of the attempt once. Got a new Lenovo yoga in January. Right now it won’t come on or just a white screen, at best. My daughters Mac now won’t turn on. He set up my email and his email is the rescue email. When i asked him about, via text, said he knew nothing. Blamed our 14 year old daughter. I was getting emails saying that he had the rescue email. No phone for a week. Spent 9 hours with an Apple Customer care specialist (2 different calls) t

    Reply
  13. Can mine and my daughters’ computer be hacked remotely? Cursor moving without me. White screen, if it comes on at all or shut down for days. My daughters’ Mac won’t turn on. User Id changed on my phone. Husband set up my initial email and I get the email saying he is the one getting the rescue emails and he says he’s done nothing and blamed my daughter. 9 hours with an apple customer care sr advisor on 2 calls. Key chain out on my phone when I woke up one morning. My phone periodically gets so hot it will burn you. It freezes. Texts I am typing erase themselves and I am not controlling it. In a very dangerous divorce. He is trying to stop us from going to court. Thank you.

    Reply
  14. Sorry…didn’t realize it actually sent. Not tech savvy…
    In NC, need any advice and direction that I can get. They have violated and bullied us in many ways. I want to go to the police station with as much proof as I can. My search engine was changed to yahoo and I was safari and google. Also on Lenovo, spy ware outdated (installed in Jan 2016) keeps popping up. My mail I had been receiving in my regular mail started going to junk except his and my lawyers emails, primarily. Also, my children and I recently started having trouble texting videos, etc to each other. Also. In my junk are lOTS of very raunchy sites(never been to them once) and emails saying I’ve won, free money, etc. Sorry so long. Trying to give as much info as possible. Thank you so much. Elaine

    Reply
    • It’s really hard to sort out from here with might actually be going on. You could very likely be being hacked, but it’s also likely that you are misinterpreting things as well because of your lack of knowledge of computers. For instance: if your husband’s email is set as the recovery email in your account, then all you need to do is log into your account and change that. It is not proof of anything one way or the other, and it’s not dangerous in any way. It’s easy to change. Also, a search engine and a browser are different things. Safari would be a browser. Yahoo would be a browser.

      My recommendation is to not spend any time with techs online, but to take your computers to a local expert. If you have someone locally helping you then it won’t matter whether you understand the terminology or not, they will simply be able to sit down at the computers and help sort out what is really going on.

      Reply
    • Honestly, there’s nothing I can do to help from here. You need the aid of someone locally who can look into the specifics of your situation and determine exactly what’s happening.

      Reply
  15. I have a very different problem. A computer dealer in Missouri sold me a pc laptop. Itbhad software thstbwould allow him to control that pc remotely. I did not know that at the time but it was confirmed by a call to the software company.
    When I hooked up the laptop to the router which is hooked up to my Imac and which runs my wifi network which enables me to use my 2 Ipads and my Iphone 5s on the wifi network in my home, all of my devices were compromised.
    My skype and google hangout calls were recorded and published on the web. My emails are monitored ( gmail ) and my cameras were used to take still photos and videos of me in my apartment. I have seen the visual evidence of it on websites and on the net and have been told this by those friendly to me.
    My question is :

    If I take everything including the infected router to my local Mac store ( not the Apple store ) can they remove this hacking and its effects or will I have to replace all my devices since my network has been compromised ?
    Some say its now in the motherboard firmware and the only option is to replace all my devices and software scans will never delete the virus.
    The pc laptop is no longer connected to the net and has been disabled physically so it cant send out anything.
    I have a new unused outer from my internet provider but i do not dare connect it until everything is scanned and hopefully removed.

    I will not be able to pay for this until February.

    Reply
    • A clean install of the OS and programs should completely remove the spyware as long as he hasn’t installed some kind of keylogging hardware. Something like that could be hard to identify if installed neatly.

      Reply
  16. This might be off topic. I am only getting to now about routers and computers. A friend of mine set up my pc and router about 3 years ago he never put password on router just left it as admin. Didnt know much at the time but can he access my router from his house. Iv set a password on it now. And can anyone with my wifi password access my router been nosey. Is there any way of tracking if they did

    Reply
    • Some routers allow remote access via the internet. I’d go in and change the router password ASAP, and if you are computer savvy enough, you can check to see if remote access is enabled for your router. It’s specific for each router, so you’t have to go to the router manufacturer’s website to get instructions.

      Reply
  17. I bought a used router from Kijiji, and i discovered that my GPS location on Google timeline is keep said that I am at the address where i pickup the router. Is it a setting on the router I need to reset (PS, I did a factory reset already, didn’t help). Please advice?

    Reply
  18. My router is showing (on the logs) access during times I don’t use my computer or cell. Middle of night for instance. They are enterin searches into my browser on my cell and my husbands. When I search what they enter its usually about cloud or computer tec things and advertising info. This doesnt make a lot of sence. I have changed my password 3 times and I don’t think they are on my wifi just my router. Any suggestions. I have a wifi searcher on my cell and my computer so i see everything they do. It shows different ips entering my router. Help!

    Reply

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