Most people I talk to don’t realise they can access their router and change a lot of useful settings. The default password for one! All techies know the most common default user names and passwords for wireless routers and you can bet most hackers do to! If all you do today is change your wireless routers password you have just made your home network more secure.
So how do you access your wireless router?
In the majority of home networks the wireless router is the default gateway for network. In other words all devices will go through the wireless router to get out onto the Internet. You need to know the unique address for this router, the IP Address.
To get your wireless router IP Address, press the windows key + R to open the run dialog box. Type in cmd.exe in the ‘open’ field and press ok to start the command prompt. Now type in ipconfig and press enter. In your network adaptor settings note the IP Address for the default gateway. Next open up your web browser and type in http://
You will now be prompted to enter the username and password. Default combinations are
Username: admin
Password: admin
Username: admin
Password: (blank password)
Username: (blank password)
Passowrd: admin
Username: root
Passowrd: pass
Once logged in look for the advanced or maintenance section of your router settings. This is normally where you can change the default log-in password to something more secure.
If you have a BT Wireless Router then these normally come with better protected passwords out-of-the-box. The log-in details for these are printed on a label on the back of the router.
While your logged in, check out some other useful settings you can change, your wireless password for example.