Windows 7 - Unauthorized Internet User Detection

It may not be the problem, but for the last couple of days, my available bandwidth has dropped off drastically at intervals, and shortly later returned to normal.

There was no sign of any activity on my computer, as far as processor or hard drive activity, nor did my firewall indicate anything going on either. However, checking with SpeedTest.net, instead of my usual 3.3mbps connection, it would show only .8 to .9mbps. Obviously, this severely hampered my usage during those periods.

As far as I can see, that only leaves the possibilities of cable problems, or that some unknown person was using my connection. In the past, when there was a cable company problem, it would last longer, but not be sporadic. This is what makes me wonder about the other possibility.

It would seem that if someone was using my signal, it wouldn't necessarily show up on my computer, if they found a way to hack into my router's password system, and was treated as part of the network. If this were true, how would one detect that connection and activity?

I have a remote outlet switch, that I have been thinking of plugging the router into, so that I can switch it off and on. Would that do any harm to my router?

If you are the only user of your router I would manually enter your computer in the DHCP Reservation area of the settings and limit the connections to "one" - that being you.

Unless you want to reconfigure the router every time you plug it back in I would not use the power disconnection idea. It's great from a security standpoint, but you're going to spend half your life reconnecting when you plug it back in.

If you're using the wireless connection, use the highest security level and disable the Guest account.

The router has a record of all computers that connect to it. Just review it.