How To View My Router Settings

How to admission your router'southward settings

(Image credit: Asus)

Sometimes you demand to know how to admission your router's settings. Merely really, that moment comes along so infrequently that it's easy to forget just how to practise so.

If y'all're like most Americans with broadband Internet, you probably accept a router at home which broadcasts the Wi-Fi network that your devices use. Many people rent a modem from their Internet provider which has a Wi-Fi router built in, merely information technology's also common to buy one of the best cablevision modems and router to avoid paying your ISP rental fees. Plus, the best Wi-Fi routers offer great performance and extra security features.

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No matter what router you lot take, when y'all want to fiddle with its settings you'll about certainly need to dial into it remotely using a spider web browser on a device connected to its Wi-Fi network.

This can be a tricky process, as you'll demand to find your router'southward IP address to access it at all, and then provide the proper username and password to log in and beginning changing settings.

Post-obit the steps outlined below, which are written with the assumption you have access to a Windows PC, should make the process a little smoother. If you run into any issues, contact your router's manufacturer for help with troubleshooting.

How to access your router's settings: Check your IP address

1. To change your router's settings you'll demand to exist able to talk to it, and to practice that you demand to know its IP address. Many routers use 192.168.1.1 as their default IP accost, only yours might be different.

To detect out for sure, connect a PC to your router'due south Wi-Fi network; this is nearly easily achieved with a laptop, since many desktop PCs don't come up with Wi-Fi connectivity built in.

2. One time you take a Windows PC continued to the Wi-Fi network in question, open up the Command Prompt (most easily achieved past striking the Start button and typing "command", then selecting Control Prompt from the results) and type ipconfig into the command line.

Gyre down the results until you see a department that reads Ethernet adapter or Wireless LAN adapter; this is your connectedness to your router, and the address listed side by side to Default Gateway is your router's IP address.

Bonus: If you're running Windows 10 yous tin look up your router'south IP address without accessing the Command Prompt. Instead, open up the Network & Internet department of your Windows 10 Settings card by hitting the Offset key and typing "settings", striking Enter, and then navigating to Network & Internet > Status > "View hardware and connection properties."

Scroll downwards the Properties list until you see an entry for Default gateway — the number listed next to it should be your router'south IP accost.

How to admission your router'due south settings: Log into your router

1. Once you know your router'south IP address, logging in should be pretty easy: but blazon the IP accost into the address bar of your browser, and your router should send you to a page asking for your login and password.

Remember, you take to do this on a device continued to your router, either via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable!

2. Ideally you retrieve the login and countersign for your router, and then this role is smoothen sailing. But we alive in a world of realities, not ideals, and the truth is most of united states take a hard time remembering our router login details.

If you tin can't remember your username and password for the router, accept centre: you may never take established any, then you may be able to log in using the router's default username and password.

Many routers ship with admin and password as their default username and password, respectively; if those don't piece of work on your router, yous can also try looking it up on Router Passwords, which maintains a large database of default router logins.

3. If you can't seem to find the right username and countersign to log into your router, you lot should be able to reset it instead. Some routers offering an option to help yous recover your password, oft triggered in one case you fail to log in correctly. This often requires providing your router's serial number, which can typically be found on the dorsum or bottom of the router.

Other routers but tell y'all to reset the router if you tin't call back your login credentials, which is normally accomplished by pressing the router's reset button for ten seconds. Virtually routers have pocket-size reset buttons inset into their back or bottom, though y'all'll often demand a pen or paperclip to press and hold the push downward.

One time you've reset the router, you lot should be able to log into information technology with the manufacturer's default username and password.

How to access your router'southward settings: Change router settings

1. Once you've logged into your router via a connected browser, yous should accept free reign to modify whatever settings yous wish. Almost modernistic routers will offer an assortment of tweakable options in a simplified graphical interface, so it should be pretty straightforward to change settings like the Wi-Fi password, the Wi-Fi network name, which websites are blocked, whether in that location's a guest Wi-Fi network, and more.

Many modern routers offer automated guides to at least some of these settings, and we recommend you consult the router's documentation (or Google) before changing annihilation you don't understand.

If something catastrophic happens and your router no longer works the way you desire, you tin always reset information technology (using the afore-mentioned reset push button) back to factory default settings.

two. Once you've accomplished whatever yous came to practice, consider taking a moment to wait over your router's security settings and brand sure they're upward to snuff.

For case, if you lot're still using the router'due south default username and password, y'all should change them mail service-haste — if you lot tin can wait up your router's login details on the Cyberspace, other people could too!

Cheque out our guide to how to secure your Wi-Fi and better your router's security for more ideas on how to better your network's defenses.

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Alex Wawro is a lifelong tech and games enthusiast with more than than a decade of experience covering both for outlets like Game Developer, Black Chapeau, and PC World magazine. He currently serves equally a senior editor at Tom's Guide covering all things computing, from laptops and desktops to keyboards and mice.