Your home network is only as secure as your router, and this article will teach you how to access router settings and change your router’s default admin password to make it more secure.
The good news is that you can learn how to log into your router in just a few minutes.
Your router is the center of your network. Everything from the laptop you use to make online purchases and manage your savings account to the baby monitor in your child’s room connects to it. Cybercriminals are well aware of the central importance of routers, and they’ve created many kinds of malware to exploit weak router passwords.
Unfortunately, most users don’t even know how to log into router let alone how to change the default router password to something more secure.
Every router has an internal router IP address that’s used to access its admin interface. Some routers have this IP address written on a sticker on the bottom, but many others don’t make it nearly as easy to find. Thankfully, there are websites such as RouterIPAddress.com where you can find the router IP address information you need with just a few clicks.
For example, the most common Linksys router IP address is 192.168.1.1, Asus router IP address is also 192.168.1.1, and Belkin router IP address is 192.168.2.2. Other common router addresses are:
10.0.1.1
192.168.11.1
192.168.0.1
192.168.0.227
If you’re still not sure what your router IP address is, just send the manufacturer of your router or your internet service provider a message similar to this:
Hi, I would like to access my router’s admin panel, but I don’t know what my router IP address is. Could you please help me?
If you have some experience with routers and their management — perhaps using a professional app for wireless site survey and network analysis such as NetSpot — then you might know that most routers use 192.168.0.1 as their default IP address.
Why? Because 192.168.0.1 is used in a private IPv4 network address as the router gateway. While other IP addresses may be used as well, as you can see above, 192.168.0.1 is by far the most common default router IP address.
In some cases, you might find it impossible to access your router on the 192.168.0.1 IP address even though you know for sure the address is correct.
If you can’t access 192.168.0.1, you should first restart your router and try again. If that doesn’t help, you might need to erase your router’s settings. Most routers have a special button just for this purpose that you can press with a pointy tool, such as a pen. Simply press and hold the button for at least 10 seconds or until you see the LEDs start flashing.
The next step after discovering your router’s IP address is to find out your router login information. More specifically, you need to know your router login name and password. Some router manufacturers write this information in the manual or on a sticker, but it’s not uncommon for them to leave it out.
The good news is that the default login name and password are usually “admin.” If that doesn’t work, we recommend you Google something like “default login name and password” followed by your router’s model and manufacturer.
For your convenience, we’ve put together this handy list of login names and passwords for popular manufacturers of routers.
| Login IP | Login | Password | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netgear router | http://192.168.0.1 | admin | password |
| Linksys router | http://192.168.1.1 | admin | admin |
| Asus router | http://192.168.1.1 | admin | admin |
| Tp link router | http://192.168.1.1 | admin | admin |
| Tp link router | http://192.168.0.1 | admin | admin |
| Cisco router | http://192.168.1.1 | admin | admin |
| 3Com router | http://192.168.1.1 | admin | admin |
| Belkin router | http://192.168.2.1 | admin | admin |
| BenQ router | http://192.168.1.1 | admin | admin |
| D-Link router | http://192.168.0.1 | admin | admin |
| Digicom router | http://192.168.1.254 | user | password |
| Digicom router | http://192.168.1.254 | admin | michelangelo |
| Sitecom router | http://192.168.0.1 | admin | admin |
| Sitecom router | http://192.168.0.1 | sitecom | admin |
| Thomson router | http://192.168.1.254 | user | user |
| US Robotics router | http://192.168.1.1 | admin | admin |
To change your router’s password, go to the settings menu and look for an option titled “password.” It’s important that you select a password that is sufficiently secure.
First of all, you should always avoid common passwords like qwerty, 12345, password, abc123, 11111, 987654321, 7777777, 555555, 123123, 1234567890, 123456789, qwertyuiop and similar. You should also avoid passwords that can be guessed based on personal information about you, such as the name of your mother, your pet, or your city.
Because the longer a password is the more time it takes to crack it, you should never use a password that’s not at least 8 characters long. Unless you have super-human memory and find it easy to remember random combinations of letters, numbers, and special characters, you can make things easier for yourself and use a long passphrase.
Again, make sure the passphrase you choose is completely random. Avoid movie titles, popular catchphrases, or quotes from books. To make the passphrase harder to crack without making it much harder to remember, you can randomly capitalize a few words or replace some characters with numbers.
Your router is a gateway to your network, and you should do whatever you can to protect it from intruders. While it may be convenient to stick with the default password, doing so compromises your security and makes it much easier for cybercriminals to infiltrate your network and steal your personal information. Equipped with the information from this article, you should be able to secure your router without any major problems.
WiFi analyzer app runs on a MacBook (macOS 11+) or any laptop (Windows 7/8/10/11) with a standard 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax wireless network adapter.
If you want to get more information about Wi-Fi, check out the following articles about Wi-Fi routers, the best apps for wireless networking, WiFi signal, etc.
