Having a smart home is a wonderful experience, as all you need to do is press a button to change the temperature in your house, switch off the light or even lock the door. But it can give you nightmares too if the internet connection is not secure.
Your house can be broken into without breaking the door, or hackers could order things online through voice-activated smart Bluetooth speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home. There arises a need to change Wi-Fi password to keep hackers at bay and secure your smart home.
Most of the gadgets used in smart homes require Wi-Fi internet, as you can control them with a single device. However, smart gadgets could be at risk if a router is poorly secured. So it is very important to use a good router that protects the password and change the default password to ensure that hackers don't get access to the devices connected to the network. Make sure you change your Wi-Fi password regularly to ensure miscreants don't get access to the devices.
[READ: This is how you can transform your simple home into a smart home in 2017]
But how to change the Wi-Fi or router password? Here is a step by step guide:
- Open your router's configuration page through a computer and enter the router address (like 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1, 192.168.2.1, 10.0.1.1 and 10.0.0.1) on the address bar of your browser. If you still can't access the configuration page, open the Command Prompt (press Windows key + R, enter cmd) and type ipconfig before pressing Enter. You will see the default address, which is your router address. Enter it into your browser.
- Enter the username and password of your router. If you have forgotten the details, you have to press the reset button for about 30 seconds to reset the settings to default. This way, you can login with the default username and password, and then change them.
- Go to the Wireless section of the configuration page and change the password by entering your new password in the box that is labelled either "Password," "Passphrase" or "Shared Key." Make sure that your password is strong – with special characters and numbers.
- Save your new settings by clicking Save or Apply button.
Besides changing the username and password, you can also make your router more secure by changing the network name and change the security type from WEP to WPA or WPA2, as WEP encryption is weak.
Changing Wi-Fi passwords is just one of the measures to avoid the hacking of your smart home. There are several others like keeping emails and online account details secret, multi-authentication, selection of devices with maximum security features etc.
[READ: 15 ways to keep your smart home away from attackers and hackers]
