SoftPerfect WiFi Guard
Online User Manual
Introduction
SoftPerfect WiFi Guard is an essential tool for everyone running a small WiFi network and striving to keep it secure. Generally, modern WiFi networks are well protected, but there is a number of weaknesses that can compromise your WiFi password; this includes vulnerabilities in encryption and brute force attacks. As a result, someone can gain an unauthorised access to your Internet and LAN, exploit them and stay unnoticed.
You may think: “It’s ok, who cares, I’ve got unlimited traffic.” But what about someone reading your personal emails, stealing private information or breaking the law online while using your Internet connection?
Here comes our little application that allows you to know immediately if your network is used without your knowledge. It is a specialised network scanner that runs through your network at set intervals and reports immediately if it has found any new connected devices that could possibly belong to an intruder.
Getting started
If you have not already done so, download a copy of WiFi Guard. Upon the first launch of WiFi Guard you will either see the main window or the configuration dialog if the application needs some additional information:
You can leave most settings unchanged, however you must choose your WiFi adapter from the list to let the application know which network it should scan. If you only have one adapter, this dialog will not be displayed and you will be presented with the main application window:
These columns show the IP and MAC addresses of detected devices, round-trip time (how long it has taken the remote device to respond; also known as the ping time) as well hardware vendor and additional information.
From here you can click the Scan Now button, return to the Settings or see All devices ever detected.
Click Scan Now to detect all your network devices. This will scan your WiFi network and show what is there. Depending on the size of your network, it may take a while.
Once the scanning process has finished, you will see a list of devices, including your computer, your router and possibly some other devices. Your computer and your router will be marked green straight away, because the application already knows they are legitimate. The devices marked red represent everything else: other computers, smart phones, TV, Xbox, etc. These are red because WiFi Guard doesn’t know yet whether they have your permission to connect to your network.
The whole idea of WiFi Guard is that you mark your devices as “known” and this will allow you to spot new devices in the network that are not yours or should not be there.
Double-click each unknown (red) device and mark them as known if you recognise them. You can also add a comment for convenience:
The simplest way to identify the devices would be to think what in your place has access to the Internet. Turning various devices off and on one by one will help to find out what is what.
If you still have no idea what those devices are, it makes sense to change your WiFi password in your router to stop them using your network.
Once you have identified all your devices, the list will look like this, with every your device green:
If you identified all the devices as yours, it’s cool: your network is not compromised.
From now on you can either run WiFi Guard periodically to detect any new devices in the network, or better configure it to run when the system starts and scan your network every 30 minutes or so.
In the event of detection of unidentified devices in your network you can act accordingly: mark them as known if you connected them, or change your WiFi password if those appear to be intruder’s.
Still have questions? Check out the how-to articles or drop us a line.
End User Licence Agreement (EULA)
This software and the included documentation is copyright SoftPerfect. All rights are reserved. The software may be used, installed or copied only in accordance with the terms of the licence described in the following paragraphs.
DISTRIBUTION TERMS
The evaluation version of the software may be freely distributed, provided that the original distribution package is not modified in any way.
EVALUATION VERSION
This is not free software. You are hereby licensed to use this software for evaluation purposes without charge. The evaluation version may be of a limited duration, or have some features limited or disabled. To use the software without these restrictions, you need to purchase a licence.
GRANT OF LICENCE
The software is licensed, not sold. Upon purchase of a licence, SoftPerfect grants you non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the software and all its features according to the terms of this EULA and the purchased licence type as described in the Licence Types section.
LICENCE TYPES
- Single Device Licence grants the purchaser, or agents of the purchaser, rights to install and use the software on one device only (e.g. computer, server, USB flash drive or virtual machine) at any given time. To install and use the software on more than one device, you must purchase the corresponding number of single device licences or one of the special licences listed below.
- Multiple Licence Pack grants the purchaser, or agents of the purchaser, rights to install and use the software on up to as many devices as is stipulated by the quantity in the pack. For example, the “Up to 10 Devices” pack allows installing and using the software on up to ten devices.
- Site Licence grants an organisation, or agents of an organisation, rights to install and use the software on an unlimited number of devices within one organisation site, including any cloud-based installation and use performed from that site. An organisation site is defined as a location, or group of locations, used by the organisation that are all within 100 miles (160 kilometres) of each other.
- Worldwide Licence grants an organisation, or agents of an organisation, rights to install and use the software on an unlimited number of devices at an unlimited number of locations used by the organisation, including any cloud-based installations and use performed from those locations. If not listed, please contact us for the worldwide licence price.
- OEM Licence grants an organisation, or agents of an organisation, rights to use and distribute the software with their own hardware or software products. These products must provide substantial additional functionality to this software, and not include any potentially unwanted programs.
Where applicable, additional licence subtypes include:
- Home Licence grants a private individual rights to install and use the software at home, that is in a place of residence, for domestic purposes with no intention to generate income.
- Business Licence grants an organisation (a company, corporation, firm, enterprise or institution, or part thereof) or a person rights to install and use the software in a commercial and non-commercial environment for the purposes of or in connection with running a business, supplying products or services to other organisations or individuals, or generating income.
DISTRIBUTION OF LICENCE KEYS
Except for the specific purposes described in the Grant of Licence and the Licence Types sections, licence keys issued by SoftPerfect may not be distributed by any person, organisation or their agents without written permission from the copyright holder.
DISCLAIMER
THIS SOFTWARE IS DISTRIBUTED “AS IS”. NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND IS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. YOU USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. IN NO EVENT SHALL SOFTPERFECT OR ITS AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR INACCURACY OF DATA, LOSS OR INTERRUPTION OF USE, OR COST OF PROCURING SUBSTITUTE TECHNOLOGY, GOODS OR SERVICES, OR ANY OTHER LOSS OR DAMAGES.
MODIFICATIONS
Unauthorised modification, decompilation or reverse engineering of the software or any subset of the software without written permission from the copyright holder is strictly prohibited.
TERMS OF ACCEPTANCE
Installation or use of this software signifies your acceptance of the terms and conditions of the licence. If you do not agree with them, you must stop using and remove the software from your devices. SoftPerfect reserves all rights not expressly granted here.
Acknowledgements
This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit.