Setting up a wireless network in an office or home is an easy task. Apart from setting up a network for Internet use and sharing information, the network must also be password protected so that neighbors and other people within the range of your network aren’t able to log in. otherwise they would be able to access your confidential and valuable information. They would also be able to use free Internet connection at your cost and in turn reduce your Internet speed too. Instructions to password protect wireless network. There are different kinds of routers and the procedure of setting up a wireless network and password may be different from each other.
However, following the below mentioned instructions are general steps which can work in the case of all wireless routers.
Step 1: Open the web browser (Internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox etc) on your desktop and click on the address bar at the top of the window. Type ‘192.168.1.1’ and then press the Enter button. However, if typing the above address doesn’t work for you, you can read your instruction manual and find out the correct address. However, if you do not have the manual with you, there are other ways to find it out. You can contact the manufacturer or go to the manufacturer’s website. Alternatively, you can click the ‘start’ button on the home screen, select ‘Run’ and type cmd in the space. A new window will appear. There look for the address corresponding to ‘Default Gateway’.
Step 2: The next step takes you to a window that requires you to enter the Username and Password. The default username and password both should be ‘admin’. However in some cases the password field is left blank and the Username remains ‘admin’. In case of any confusion, you can log on to the website ‘www.routerpasswords.com’ to find the default usernames and passwords for different routers.
Step 3: After entering the Username and Password and pressing Enter, you will be taken to the administration panel. You need to select Wireless’ and then choose ‘Basic wireless settings’. There you can find the wireless setting for ‘Wireless Network Name’ or SSID. In that field, you can choose and enter the desired username.
Step 4: Click on ‘Save changes’ after that.
Step 5: The next step involves setting up the password for the wireless network. Go to Wireless Security setting’ and choose the security mode from the drop down menu. For keeping it simple, you can choose ‘WPA Personal’.
Step 6: In the WPA shared key field, enter your password.
Step 7: The changes need to be saved once you are done with the previous steps.
After taking care of the above instructions and following them step by step, the Wireless network is secured and won’t be accessed by anyone else. However, if you want to share the network with anyone else in your family, you can give them the password you had set. It will be ensured that they wouldn’t be asked the same password again while trying to connect the second time.
