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>

```
In Windows PowerShell:

```
netsh wlan show interfaces | Select-String 'SSID'

```

In the Windows Command Prompt:

```
netsh wlan show interfaces | find "SSID"

```