Once you’ve shared your Wi-Fi password with someone, they will have unrestricted access to your network and will be able to join your network from any device they own. That’s how things generally operate, at least in my experience. Here’s how you kick them to the curb.

Change Your Wi-Fi Password

The simplest and most safe approach is to just change the Wi-Fi network password on your router, which is the most straightforward. This will forcefully disconnect all devices from your Wi-Fi network, including your own, and restart them.

You’ll need to rejoin the Wi-Fi network by entering the new password on all of your devices in order to continue working. Whoever tries to connect with you without knowing your new password will be denied access.

Be honest with yourself: If you have a large number of devices, reconnecting them all will be a time-consuming task. However, it is the only true, failsafe approach available. Anyone who has access to your Wi-Fi password might join your network on a new device, even if you have the ability to ban a device from your router so that it cannot reconnect.

(And, even if people don’t recall the password, there are methods for recovering Wi-Fi passwords that have been saved on Windows PCs and other devices.)

Read More: Best Wifi Router

In order to do so, you’ll need to get into your router’s configuration settings (which are often accessible through a web interface), sign in, and change the Wi-Fi password. While you’re doing it, you can also alter the name of the Wi-Fi network that you’re connected to.

We’ve got instructions on how to log into your router’s web interface, and you can also conduct a web search for the manufacturer’s name and model number of your router to get the manufacturer’s handbook and official instructions. Wireless or Wi-Fi should be shown as an option in your router’s configuration menu.

This is all presuming that you have a password for your router! Make certain that safe encryption (WPA2) is enabled, and that you have a strong passphrase. Anyone will be able to join your open Wi-Fi network if you have one set up on your property.

Use MAC Address Filtering on Your Router

A feature of certain routers is access control, which allows you to select which devices are permitted to join your network. Each wireless device has its own MAC address, which is unique. Some routers allow you to prevent devices with a certain MAC address from joining by blacklisting (banning) them.

The ability to create a whitelist of just allowed devices and prohibit additional devices from joining in the future is available on some routers.

This feature is not available on all routers. Even if you are able to utilize it, it is not completely secure. Someone who knows your Wi-Fi passphrase might alter their device’s MAC address to match an allowed one and take its place on your Wi-Fi network if they had your passphrase.

No matter what, you’ll have to manually enter MAC addresses when connecting new devices, or an attacker will just be able to join at any time, which doesn’t appear to be the best solution.

However, if you only want to turn off a device for a short period of time—for example, your children’s gadget—and you aren’t concerned about them traveling around the block, this might be a nice option for you to consider.

You’ll have to rummage around in the settings of your WI-Fi network to discover whether it even supports something as complicated as this. Some Netgear routers, for example, provide a feature called the “wireless card access list” that allows you to access your wireless cards.

On other Netgear routers, such as the Nighthawk, the access control function only restricts access to the internet; devices that are prohibited from connecting to the Wi-Fi network are still able to join the Wi-Fi network but are denied internet access. Google Wifi routers allow you to “stop” internet access to devices, however, this does not result in the devices being disconnected from your Wi-Fi network.

Use a Guest Network in the First Place

Create a guest Wi-Fi network on your router if you’re providing visitor access to your Wi-Fi network. This will make the procedure much simpler for you and your guest.

The guest network is a separate access network from the main network. A network named “Home Base” might exist alongside a network named “Home Base – Guest,” for example. You will never grant access to your guests to your core network’s resources.

Many routers include this capability, which they refer to as a “guest network” or “guest access” in their configuration settings. Your guest network might have a completely distinct password from your main network. If you ever need to change it, you may do it by just changing the guest network password rather than changing your regular network password and kicking your own devices off of the network.

In addition, guest networks can frequently be “isolated” from your primary network. If you activate “isolation” or disable “allow guests access to local network resources,” or whatever the option is named, your visitors’ devices will not be able to access file shares on your PCs or other network-connected resources.

Once again, you’ll have to go into the settings of your router to check whether it has a “guest network” function. Hopefully, it does. Guest networks, on the other hand, are far more prevalent than access control lists.

If You Can Access the Device Connecting to Wi-Fi

In the unusual event that you get access to someone’s device and they haven’t established a password or are unable to prevent you from doing so, you can delete the password that has been saved. For example, you may instruct an iPhone to forget about a network or remove the Wi-Fi network profile that has been saved on a Windows computer.

This will fix your problem if you have access to the person’s device and they haven’t recalled or written down your Wi-Fi password. The gadget won’t let them connect unless they manually input the password again on it. Of course, they may read it on any other devices to which they have access and on which the password has been kept as previously stated.

What About Software that Kicks People Off Your Wi-Fi?

If you look for information on this issue on the internet, you’ll find individuals advocating software such as Netcut or JamWifi, which may send packets to other devices on your Wi-Fi network urging them to disconnect from the network.

These software programs are essentially carrying out a Wi-Fi deauthorization attack in order to boot a device from your Wi-Fi network for a period of time.

This isn’t a viable alternative. Even after you deauthorize a device, it will continue to attempt to connect to your network. As a result, some software can continue to transmit “deauth” packets even if you keep your computer turned on indefinitely.

This isn’t a legitimate method of permanently disconnecting someone from your network and forcing them to remain disconnected from your network.