Wireless Networks in the area.

[Mannheim62]

I turned on the wifi on my iPhone and connected to my network. I noticed in the list of available networks, that 2 in particular, belonged to the people next door but they have moved. Does anyone know why these 2 networks would still be showing up? The only thing I can think of is that they had AT&T for their internet. An AT&T installation tech told me that they will leave the equipment in the apartments and powered on. So I'm guessing that my iPhone is picking up the router signal. Is there a way to remove these 2 networks from the list on my iPhone? If not, no big deal. The AT&T installation tech also said I should check to see if there is someone else "piggy-backing" off of my network. I hope all this makes sense because I'm working on 1 cup of coffee.

Thank you,
Mike

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Every time you launch the WiFi panel on your iPhone, it is going out and searching for networks in your vicinity. It is, however, keeping track of previous networks you've connected to and when they show up in the network, it will automatically connect to that. You cannot delete anything from this list since it's transient and changes constantly.

If you are seeing networks that belonged to people that are no longer there, some piece of equipment is still hanging around broadcasting the network. The AT&T tech was probably right about equipment being left on after they moved, especially if they don't own the equipment. The rest of their advice on "piggy-backing" is bogus and useless.

Just ignore those two networks.

 

[Mannheim62]

Every time you launch the WiFi panel on your iPhone, it is going out and searching for networks in your vicinity. It is, however, keeping track of previous networks you've connected to and when they show up in the network, it will automatically connect to that. You cannot delete anything from this list since it's transient and changes constantly.

If you are seeing networks that belonged to people that are no longer there, some piece of equipment is still hanging around broadcasting the network. The AT&T tech was probably right about equipment being left on after they moved, especially if they don't own the equipment. The rest of their advice on "piggy-backing" is bogus and useless.

Just ignore those two networks.

I completely understand Ashwin; thank you so much for responding.

Mike

 

[RadDave]

I completely understand Ashwin; thank you so much for responding.

Hi Mike - just to add to Ashwin's excellent advice - if there are new occupants using the same router 'left behind', they may not have changed the SSIDs of their broadcasting networks, so the same network names may be showing up on your Wi-Fi listings; also, I'm assuming that you have security set for your own network(s), such as WPA2 Personal (which I'm using), so there is no need to worry about your neighbors getting onto your network (unless they know your password?) - Dave

 

[Mannheim62]

Hi Mike - just to add to Ashwin's excellent advice - if there are new occupants using the same router 'left behind', they may not have changed the SSIDs of their broadcasting networks, so the same network names may be showing up on your Wi-Fi listings; also, I'm assuming that you have security set for your own network(s), such as WPA2 Personal (which I'm using), so there is no need to worry about your neighbors getting onto your network (unless they know your password?) - Dave

Thank you for the clarification Dave; much appreciated. Yes, I have my security set on my AirPort Extreme to WPA2 Personal.

Mike