How to See What's Using Your Broadband

Virgin Media puts it simply: Wi-Fi speed is shared between all the devices connected to it. So when a film buffers or a video call goes blocky, the cause can be another device quietly taking a big slice rather than a fault on the line. ISPreview adds that background software updates and other people on the home network all take bandwidth.

• Speed problems: you can see which device is busy when things slow down, rather than guessing.
• Security: Virgin Media lists unknown devices in your router's list as one sign that someone else may be using your Wi-Fi, but notes slow speeds can simply come from smart devices or heavy streaming. An unfamiliar name is a prompt to investigate, not proof of a problem.
• Household rules: once you know which device is which, you can pause a console at bedtime or schedule a child's tablet. Our guide to parental controls on home broadband covers the content filters that work alongside these controls.

For how much data you get through in a month, rather than what's busy right now, see how much data home broadband uses.

Many providers' apps talk to your router, so you don't need addresses or admin passwords. Here's what their own pages say (checked October 2026):

Vodafone says its broadband app is for part-fibre and full fibre customers, and Who's Home needs one of its latest hubs. We couldn't verify the device features of every app, including TalkTalk's, Plusnet's, NOW's and the app for Sky's newest hubs. If yours isn't listed, look in its app or help pages for "connected devices" or "Wi-Fi controls".

No app, or want more detail? Open the router's settings page (often called the admin page or hub manager). You need to be connected to your home network, and you type the address into the browser's address bar, not a search box.

On a BT Smart Hub, BT's business help for the Smart Hub (we couldn't find an equivalent consumer page) says to click the My Devices tile on the Hub Manager home page. It maps connected devices with the port or wireless band each uses, its name, MAC address, IP address and download and upload usage; connected devices show a green icon, disconnected ones grey. Newer BT hubs may lay this out differently.

Sky's steps above cover hubs other than the Sky Max and Gigafast+ Hub, which have separate instructions on Sky's help pages. If the default Sky log-in fails, Sky says to reset the hub by holding the Reset button for about 10 seconds, then switching it off and on at the mains so calls keep working. This puts both the hub admin password and the Wi-Fi password back to the defaults printed on the hub, so every device will need reconnecting. Treat it as a last resort.

• Name or hostname: what the device calls itself. eero notes this may be a familiar name or one the manufacturer assigned, so not every entry will be obvious.
• Manufacturer: some apps, including eero, identify unknown devices by maker, such as Apple, Samsung, Intel or Amazon. "Amazon" may well be the smart speaker in the kitchen.
• IP address: the device's address on your home network (eero shows both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses). Handy for searching, but it says little about what the device is.
• MAC address: the network identifier the device presents to your router. Phones and tablets often present a private one rather than their hardware MAC address, as explained below.
• Band or port: whether it's on 2.4GHz, 5GHz or 6GHz Wi-Fi, or plugged in by cable. eero also shows signal strength in bars from 0 to 4.
• Usage or activity: how much the device has downloaded and uploaded, or its live speed.

Rename devices as you identify them (BT Whole Home Wi-Fi, eero and Community Fibre's Linksys app all allow this) so the list is quicker to scan next time.

Lists often include devices that aren't online now. BT's My Devices greys out disconnected devices, and eero has a Recently Online section for offline devices seen in the last seven days, plus a Blocked section. eero says you can't delete entries by hand; they drop off after seven days unseen. A long list doesn't mean everything is using your broadband at once.

A device list shows what's connected; a usage view shows what's busy. BT's Smart Hub My Devices view shows download and upload usage per device. In the eero app, each device's Activity shows live speeds, and every customer can see live usage and a week of usage per device or profile, with the paid eero Plus adding daily and monthly views over up to three months.

The figures have limits. eero says live usage refreshes every five seconds, and because streaming services send video in bursts, a TV that's streaming may show as idle between bursts. Its figures count internet traffic only, not traffic between devices at home (from a home media server, say), and aren't available in bridge mode. If you've added your own router behind the provider's hub, our guide to using your own router explains which box does what.

• Pause: Virgin Media's Connect and MyVM apps, EE's WiFi Controls, the eero app and Community Fibre's Linksys app can all pause individual devices. toob's Wi-Fi 7 router is different: its one-press button pauses the whole internet connection, not just one device.
• Schedule: on the BT Smart Hub and Ultrafast Smart Hub, access controls block a device between set times on chosen days, such as school nights; eero profiles and Community Fibre's Linksys app also offer schedules.
• Block: BT Whole Home Wi-Fi, eero, Virgin Media's MyVM app and WightFibre's Plume Home app can block a device outright. eero says a blocked device can't rejoin even with the right password, so use pause if you only want a break.
• Prioritise: Truespeed lists device prioritisation among its router's standard features, Voneus's mesh app offers prioritisation, and Sky's optional WiFi Max add-on includes device priority, so the router looks after, say, a work laptop first when things are busy.
• Use a cable: Virgin Media says the highest speeds come from a wired connection and advises connecting consoles, laptops and desktops by Ethernet. See our guide to wiring your home with Ethernet.

Smart plugs, printers, video doorbells and TVs all connect to Wi-Fi, and phones may use private addresses, so rule out your own kit before assuming the worst:

1. Check the details: manufacturer, band and when it was last active. A device with a TV maker's name that's only online in the evening is probably the TV.
2. Turn things off one by one: Virgin Media suggests this if you're unsure which devices are yours; watch which entries drop off.
3. Block it if it's still unexplained. eero keeps a Blocked list, so you can undo it if it turns out to be the doorbell. Community Fibre's Linksys app can also alert you when devices connect.
4. Change the Wi-Fi password. Virgin Media notes this disconnects everyone, and you then reconnect your own devices. Restart the router afterwards.
5. Change the router admin password, especially if it's still the default, and keep the router's software updated.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) also advises changing any default password on smart devices, using hard-to-guess passwords such as three random words, installing updates promptly and switching off remote access you don't need. For smart cameras it suggests considering disabling UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and port forwarding, which it describes as technologies that let devices find other devices on your network and which criminals can exploit. Some routers have UPnP off already, and NCSC warns that switching it off may stop things like online gaming or media servers working. Our router and Wi-Fi security guide goes into these in more depth.

If the device list shows nothing unusual and things are still slow, the cause may be outside your home. ISPreview explains that capacity is shared across an area, so congestion is likelier at peak evening times; see why broadband slows down in the evening.

Plug one computer into the router by cable, pause other devices if you can, and run our speed test. If the wired result is fine but Wi-Fi isn't, the issue is inside the home, and our guide to mesh Wi-Fi and extenders may help. If the wired result is poor with little else running, talk to your provider.

If you're thinking of switching, compare the router and app you'd get alongside price and speed. Our UK broadband providers hub has a page for each provider we cover, and our deals pages show live packages at your postcode from our partner's comparison tool; we don't switch you ourselves or recommend a package for your circumstances. Voneus, for example, includes its app-managed mesh with its 900 package and sells it as an add-on on others.