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I have noticed that when I go to connect to my wifi on my home network, a new Wifi appeared with identical signal strength but with the addition of the number 2 in the wifi name. Both are encrypted wireless networks and both have the same password but different mac addresses...

What's bizarre is that it only appears on one computer (mine) that is connected to the router (2WIRE237).

I have checked three other computers on the same network, and 2WIRE237 2 does not appear. In addition, although 2WIRE237 2 is "secure" (see photo), for some reason my computer automatically knows the password. I can connect to 2WIRE237 2; meanwhile, the network does not appear for anyone else using the network. Why?

Keeping in mind, the Wifi network 2WIRE237 2 has never been implemented....there has never been a "2WIRE237 2" as the router name. It has always been "2WIRE237".

photo of wifi selection in windows - 2WIRE237 and 2WIRE237 2

I have read that hackers can utilize this method to gain access to computers. How can I determine if this is a Evil Twin attack? Does it appear so? What programs are user friendly to determine this? I have downloaded EVILAPDEFENDER; however, I am not a technology genius and I do not know how to install the program or run python.

I believe my information and data is being compromised. I don't know how to determine if this is a MITM attack or some type of router or Evil Twin attack?

The model number of the router is 380THGV

Romani
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1 Answers1

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To eliminate if the “extra” wireless network is from your router or not, simply unplug it. If both networks disappear, you know immediately the problem is not a hacker and instead is a configuration issue on your end.

Based on your description, this does not sound like “cyber-crimes and cyber-stalking.” That is highly unlikely, and you should be more open-minded to a much more reasonable explanation.

You’ve already indicated the extra network only shows up on one computer. I’d be willing to bet that both networks disappear when you unplug your router. This indicates an issue with your computer causing the duplicate ID to show up.

You said it has a different MAC address. You didn’t indicate how you know that. Is it possible you are confusing the MAC address of multiple WiFi network adapters in your computer, with the BSSID of actual different wifi networks? If you want an actual detailed listing that will clearly show if you have multiple active WiFi adapters or if the two networks are different or the same, you can use the following command: netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid

The above command will list all nearby wireless networks, including which adapter sees it and the actual BSSID of the network. The BSSID is the actual, unique identifier of an individual access point. If the second network doesn’t show up here, or it does but has the same BSSID, the problem is with your computer.

It is also a good possibility this wireless network name has been used previously on a different device, and now Windows sees the BSSID is different, so it considers it a different network with the same name. You can list the wireless profiles your computer knows about with the command: netsh wlan show profiles

If you find similarly named networks delete them with the following command: netsh wlan delete profile name="[PROFILE NAME]" then reconnect to your wireless network.

Appleoddity
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