With security becoming more and more of a concern with each passing year, making sure that your Wi-Fi network password is solid is very important. Make sure you check out our guide to stay safe online, too.

All routers these days have a Wi-Fi password by default, but it may not be the most secure or memorable. In order to change it:

  1. Make sure you're connected to the right Wi-Fi network
  2. Open a web browser
  3. Enter your router's IP address
  4. Log in to the router
  5. Look for Wi-Fi settings
  6. Type in the new password

How do I change my home Wi-Fi password?

You’ll need to log in to your router’s settings for this. You do this using a web browser on your phone, PC, laptop or tablet and typing in your router’s IP address instead of a website URL. The standard address  for many routers is but this will vary depending on the make and model of your router.

If you’re having trouble accessing your router through a browser, see our separate guide on how to connect to a router.

BT routers, for example, can be accessed by entering into the address bar. Sky routers use, and some Belkin and Asus routers use

When your router's web page loads, you might be able to access certain information without logging in, but to change the Wi-Fi password you will need to enter the username and password for the administrator.

This should not be confused with your Wi-Fi password, which grants devices access to your Wi-Fi network. The administrator username and password will let you change the more sensitive settings on your router and is usually printed on a sticker on the router itself. Sometimes there's just a password and no username.

If your router uses admin / password or admin / admin like the D-Link below, the first job upon logging in should be to change these so no-one else can log in and mess with your settings!

How to change your Wi-fi password

Once you've logged into your router, look for Wi-Fi or Wireless or WLAN settings. These options differ slightly from router to router, but it shouldn't be hard to find the option to change your Wi-Fi password.

On this BT Smart Hub, the Wireless settings are right in the middle of the main page:

How to change Wi-Fi password

Usually you'll see the option to change both the password and also the network name. You can type something friendlier into both boxes if you like, but try to avoid giving away your identity in any way. 

Be sure to save your changes before leaving the page, otherwise they won't be applied. And many routers will restart themselves at this point. You'll have to reconnect all your wireless devices using the new password, too.

Some routers, like this BT Smart Hub, combine the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks so you can't choose which one to use, but you can often force it to display two Wi-Fi networks (one for each band) as you can here with the 'separate bands' toggle.

How to change Wi-Fi password

The new password doesn’t have to be hugely complicated, but if you can include a few capital letters and numbers, that will go a long way to improving the strength of the password. Here are some tips for creating a strong, but memorable password.