Access to the Internet via Wi-Fi is used by many Russian users. Enter, connecting to the Internet, a password, often without thinking about where it came from. In many cases, users trust the settings of the home network to specialists invited from service centers. This, of course, is a paid service. And very often, it is opaque (from the point of view that the user has difficulty understanding the actions performed by the wizard).
At the same time, many owners of home computer networks want to learn more about the nuances of setting up hardware and software, learn how to work with hardware independently, without involving third-party assistants.
Such initiatives are easy to implement. At least because the process of setting up wireless networks, as a rule, consists in setting just a few key parameters. One of which, in fact, is the password.
What are the main points that you should pay attention to when setting up your home wireless network? What is the password for Wi-Fi? What are the features of setting up routers? How to change the password on WiFi in the correct way?
We will act according to a very simple instruction. It will allow us to set or change the password on the WiFi router, as well as enter the other parameters necessary for establishing an Internet connection in the settings of the router.
Why do I need a password for Wi-Fi?
If the wireless network is not protected by a password, then absolutely anyone can connect to it with a device that supports Wi-Fi standards. At his disposal will be free Internet, as well as the potential opportunity to access files on devices on the network.
What is the most secure password?
The specificity of wireless communication is that the reliability of password protection against unauthorized access to the network depends on several factors at once.
Length and complexity
The first is the length and complexity of the password. It is necessary to maximally complicate the possibility of its selection or guessing. Before thinking about how to change the password on WiFi, it is useful to get a random character generator program. On the Internet, such solutions are presented in large numbers (including in the form of online scripts that you do not even need to download).
Encryption
The second factor is password protection from decryption. The fact is that the combination of characters that you enter to use to access the network is stored in the hardware database of the router. If a hacker can penetrate it, he will read the password. He can do this by analyzing the radio traffic that the router generates.
Secrecy
The third factor is the reliability of methods for keeping a password secret. This is a critical condition for network security. The hacker only dreams of how to see the password on WiFi laid out by the owner of the router in a visible place. Although the password can be very complex, ideally you need to remember it and not write it anywhere. And do not, of course, inform everyone. There are frequent cases when a hacker, solving the question of how to find out a password on WiFi, tries in every possible way to find out from the owner a secret place to store the necessary code.
In order to prevent such actions, IT engineers have developed various encryption algorithms for Wi-Fi-connection. Consider their main varieties.
WEP Encryption
This algorithm is considered the most basic, and therefore relatively unreliable. But when there are no other options - you have to use it. WEP protection will not let a user into a Wi-Fi network without entering the correct password, but the network traffic generated by this algorithm is very easily decrypted by the simplest hacker programs that any novice user can take.
Therefore, calculating a password as part of WEP protection is very simple. Accordingly, there will be no problems with how to change the password on WiFi so that even the owner of the router could not enter the network.
WPA encryption
To increase the security level of wireless networks, IT engineers have created a new WiFi encryption protocol - WPA. It implements several different technologies at once, designed to minimize the likelihood of calculating a password by analyzing radio traffic. A feature of encryption technologies within the framework of the WPA protocol is that data in a Wi-Fi network is transmitted within a large number of packets with inconsistent content.
While with WEP protection, data is transferred in a single stream. If a hacker intercepts one packet encrypted using the WPA protocol, then he will not be able to calculate the password until he matches the data with information from hundreds or even thousands of others. He will need a lot of time for this. And therefore, if the password is quite complicated, then the probability of breaking WPA encryption will be extremely small.
WPA2 Encryption
This communication protocol represents the next step in the development of the previous algorithm for protecting wireless networks. It is optimized mainly in terms of speed and allows you to effectively encrypt data for a large number of devices connected to the same network. At the same time, the WPA2 algorithm is even more secure than WPA in terms of password calculation.
We configure a router
Before putting the password on the router, we will need to make a number of other settings. First of all, you need to correctly connect the device to the computer. And in wired mode.
The instructions below are, of course, not suitable for all routers. The user procedure regarding how to set or change the password on TP-Link, ZyXel’s WiFi router, modem released under the D-Link brand may differ. But the difference between the approaches to setting up different models is usually minimal. If they do, then in most cases the user will be able to adapt this instruction to a specific brand of router.
Router hardware setup
Most routers have three main types of ports (located at the back of the chassis). Some of them (usually one) connects to the Internet connection channel (DSL, Ethernet, “fiber”, etc.), while others are used to connect the device to a PC and a power source.
The port that is designed to connect the device to the global network is usually signed as "Internet". In most cases, connecting a device to a PC is via an Ethernet cable (twisted pair cable) or a USB cable. Both are fairly easy to recognize by the specific configuration of the connector, and sometimes by color. The Ethernet cable is usually yellow, and the USB cable is blue.
If possible, you should connect a “twisted pair” (in this case, we do not need to install drivers for the device). We connect one end of the cable, which is most likely to be yellow, to the router, and the other to the computer’s network card. A small clue for us will be the fact that the connectors are the same there and there, unlike a USB connection.
Connecting the router to the PC should be done when both devices are de-energized. First of all, turn on the router, make sure that the power lamp on the front panel is on. Then a computer. After loading the operating system, the indicator for connecting to the local network should appear in the right part of the bottom panel (next to the clock and the language layout).
On this, the work related to setting up the hardware can be considered completed. We pass to the stage of interaction with the device at the software level.
Software configuration of the router
We need to run the router control interface. He will allow us to carry out a large number of actions. With it, you can set, change or find out the WiFi password on the computer.
To start the interface, we open any browser and enter the following IP address on the top line: 192.168.0.1. In the window that appears, enter the username and password, which sound the same: admin (in some routers, the username is different - root).
After that, the user will go to the interface page, in which there will be options for configuring the router. We are interested in a bookmark that contains the word Wi-Fi. Having selected it, we will get to a page where you will need to enter the following data:
1. The name of the wireless network (SSID).
It can be any (in Latin letters). It is recommended to adhere to neutral and easy to remember words.
2. Select an authentication type.
We recall our mini-lecture on encryption methods. We select the most reliable type of authentication, that is, the one whose name contains the abbreviations WPA or WPA2.
3. Actually password.
Its minimum length is 8 characters. What is the password for WiFi the most reliable? Above, we partially answered this question, advising us to use random-sequence character generator programs. But if there is no access to such software, then you can do with a combination of letters and numbers. For example, one character is a letter, the other is a number.
After all operations, click on the “save changes” button (in English “save settings”), wait for the router to restart for about a minute. Done. You can disconnect the “twisted pair” connecting the router to the PC. Now Wi-Fi connection will work. You can connect from any device that supports wireless connection.
How to change the password on WiFi if necessary? In order to do this, you need to reconnect the router using the cable to the PC and enter the control interface. Then we select the now familiar bookmark with Wi-Fi settings and get to the desired page - the one on which the password will be visible. And where it can be exchanged for any other. That is, there will be no problems with how to find out the password on WiFi.
The nuances of setting up an Internet connection
In some cases, the implementation of the above operations is not enough. The fact is that this scenario reflects the process of setting up a Wi-Fi connection with a password in cases where the Internet connection options are set by the system automatically, in accordance with the standards adopted by most Russian providers.
It is possible that one or another Internet access operator works with different settings. So, for example, to use the online access services provided by the ByPly Belarusian provider, you need to perform a number of additional actions with the router. Which ones?
Before setting up a wireless network and setting a password for a WiFi modem, you need to make sure that the options governing the connection of the router to the Internet are correct. To do this, by entering the device control interface using the IP address 192.168.1.1., You need to select an option that will be called “Internet Setup” or another similar way.
On the page that opens, you need to select the correct protocol for connecting the router to the Internet: in most cases, it is PPPoE / PPPoA.
You must also set the correct values ​​for VPI and VCI. In the city of Minsk, for example, you will need to enter the numbers 0 and 33.
The provider can organize access to the network by login and password, which are also entered in neighboring fields. For ByFly customers, the username will match the contract number. The password is indicated in the text of the contract.
Depending on the modem’s configuration, you may need to select the correct options in items such as “Bridge Interface”, or, for example, “Dynamic Route”.
After entering all the necessary parameters, you can finally set or change the password on WiFi. ByFly is certainly a modern telecom operator. But some actions to configure the modems to use its services, clients still need to perform independently.
Even if there is a need to set the above settings or adjust them, in the options section related to the wireless connection, no changes are required. Technologically speaking, the Internet channel and Wi-Fi network are two different router modules. You don’t need to think about how to change the password on WiFi after adjusting the Internet connection settings. This will be required only if the user himself for some reason decided to change his secret code to enter the network.
We only note that modern providers, as a rule, try to work with the settings set in user modems by default. In general, all of the above operations are not required, but it is possible that such a need arises.
How to change the password on WiFi, we now know. We also learned some of the subtleties associated with wireless security and data encryption technologies.