Weird network detected on my mac, do i have a trojan/rat?

[macnoobie123]

Never remembered putting a network in named ''john'' even though my name is johnny.
No idea what the other one is supposed to be.

I did notice some activity peaks on my laptop that would last a few seconds after i put stuff from my old usb sticks on my laptop from a previous computer.
So i think if i got a trojan / remote control access tool etc installed. It must've gotten from that.
Normally i think the network area is always empty. But now i see 2 of them.

Will appreciate a reply.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Those actually aren't networks, those are Windows computers that the macOS Bonjour service discovered on your network. It is highly unlikely that a trojan/remote control access application has been installed.

-Is your Wi-Fi network encrypted with a password?
-Do you have any neighbors that may have PCs?

C

 

[macnoobie123]

Hi. thank you for your quick reply!

I have a brother who lives in the room next to me. He has a windows laptop and a printer.
The printer is supposed to be able to work through the wifi but it never works.

I have an old windows laptop that's unable to connect to the wifi (and is always turned off just sitting in the closet)
And an old laptop that runs on linux but is also always off.

Even though my full name is ''johnny'', i never named any of my laptops ''john''.
And strangely enough, the ''john'' computer disappeared from the detected network.
Only the ''desktop-giggle8p'' shows up now.

I'm sure a neighbor in the house next to me has a computer. Although in the past, whenever i clicked on networks, it always showed up as empty.
And because i put all those files from my old usb stick on my mac recently, that's when this suddenly appeared.
My mac was also laggy for a day so i deleted all the files again.

My wifi has a very difficult password with letters, capitals and numbers that's impossible to guess.
So i'm positive no one guessed it.

The only explanation other than a trojan/rat, is that it's my brothers laptop.
But why would it be called giggle, and especially, why would the other one be called john? (even though the john one disappeared)
And why would it never show up before?

Thank you for your fast and awesome reply. I really appreciate it a lot!

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

Network devices can appear/disappear randomly. The should disappear when you restart, and Bonjour will scan in the background again. If your Wi-Fi network security is set to WPA2, random devices may appear because they are detected, but not actually joined to your network.

The don't necessarily have to be PCs either. They could be virtual machines on other people's computers, shared disks/folders, music servers, NAS storage devices, or even a router. They could also be other devices such as printers (maybe your brother's), tablets, phones, etc. Unless you can determine what they are, there really isn't any way to know why they have those names.

Your network sounds secure, so I really wouldn't worry about it.

C