Question: Recently I had to reset my router and was unable to log into my network.

There were some networks around me when I was out of my network and had to reset my router to defaults, even though it's highly impossible that I had connected to others' networks (with coincidentally the same password and the same SSID, and possibly changed the homepage's settings because they matched). How can I absolutely confirm that I'm connected to my own network?

*I've tried* the *non-technical* way with confirming by switching the router on/off, but, **is there a more precise way** of confirming that I am connected to my own network?

Answer: 
If you have a Linux machine (I assume you can do this on Windows too), you can run `arp <gateway address>` to get the MAC address of the router (labelled HWAddress). Compare this to the MAC address that is printed on the sticker on the router (or at least, should be). E.g.

```
[root@server~]# arp 192.168.1.1
Address                  HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask            Iface
gateway.domain.com ether   XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX   C                     eth0

```

[EDIT]the Windows syntax is:

```
arp -a <ip address>

```
I guess we're talking about quite standard home setup with NAT, LAN subnet, private IPs etc.

1. Connect another computer to your router **via cable**.
2. Initiate any transfer/connectivity between the two computers **using their LAN addresses** and check if it succeeds and matches at both ends. Examples:
	* Samba/NFS sharing,
	* `ssh` from one to the other,
	* simple connection with `nc -l` and `nc`,
	* `ping` (or virtually anything) from one end and `wireshark` analysis on the other.

You may have to configure the firewall (if any) on the receiving side to allow access. The main point is: if your first computer is in another LAN (i.e. connected to another router) then all such tests will fail.