How To Edit Linksys Router Settings

How to Alter Your Router Settings

To get the near out of your router, you lot demand to larn how to change your WiFi router settings, and we are here to teach you.

David Morelo

December 21, 2022

If yous've never paid much attending to your router, you might be wondering why you should bother learning how to change router settings in the outset place. Later all, if it'due south been working fine so far, why risk breaking something?

Why Should I Learn How to Change My Router Settings?

The answer is simple: because you lot have a lot to gain and nothing to lose. Much like it'southward virtually incommunicable for you lot to physically damage your computer by clicking on a wrong link or messing with its settings, so are mod routers designed to exist fool-proof.

Probably the worst thing that can happen is you change your wireless router settings in a way that makes it easier for others to steal your personal information. A much more likely scenario is, however, that you learn how to alter your wireless router settings to protect your personal information as much as possible.

Knowing how to change your router settings also enables you lot to take full advantage of some of the more advanced features of your router, many of which yous might not even exist aware of at the moment. Don't worry: even if you consider yourself to be a computer neophyte, you'll be able to learn how to change router settings in no time.

How to Gain Admission to a Router

To play with your router's settings, you need to acquire how to access it equally an administrator. If you're on the aforementioned network as the router (i.e., you're either connected to the router with an Ethernet cable or are connected to a wireless network created by the router), you can try the unproblematic method first:

Open your favorite web browser.

I by i, enter the following IP addresses into the URL bar: 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.two.one, 10.0.1.one, 10.0.0.one, x.10.1.ane.

If you lot run across a login window or a welcome page, you're in luck and can processed to the next chapter of this article. If you lot're unable to access your router using any of the IP addresses listed above, try the next method:

Click the Windows logo located on the left side of the taskbar.

Choose Network & Internet.

Click View your network properties.

Scroll down and look for "Default gateway."

The number side by side to information technology is your router's IP address.

Blazon the address into the URL bar of your favorite web browser.

If you see a login window or a welcome page, you've successfully accessed your router.

The next step is to log in as ambassador. If you oasis't changed your router's admin countersign, there's a good chance that "admin" will work. If it doesn't, wait at the data sticker on the lesser or back of the router. Router manufacturers sometimes print the default username and password on it.

If you lot're notwithstanding unable to access your router, we recommend you lot long-printing the reset button on its back and try again. Should even this fail to grant you lot access to your router's admin interface, endeavour searching for help online. There are many websites, such as this ane, that list routers and corresponding admin login information.

How to Change Your Router's Login Data

The beginning matter you lot should do later gaining access to your router is change the default countersign to something more than secure. If you were to leave the default password as it is, someone else could just walk up to your router and mess with its settings. The person could, for example, disable your wireless security and capture your personal data without y'all knowing about it.

To alter your router's password:

Enter your router'south IP address into your favorite web browser.

Select Change Router Password or a similar choice.

Call back that a stiff countersign is at least eight characters long and consists of a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.

How to Change Router IP Address

Before we explain how to change router IP accost, we want to clarify the departure between public and local IP address.

Equally the name suggests, a public IP address is the address computers and servers exterior your network see when yous connect to them. It's also the address you encounter when you visit a website like What Is My IP?, which is a leader in providing IP address lookup services.

Your public IP address is assigned to you by your internet service provider, and you typically have no command over it. Some ISPs provide static IP addresses to their customers, but the chances are that you accept a dynamic IP address that changes from fourth dimension to time on its own or after a request.

Your local IP accost, on the other hand, is the address assigned to your router and all other devices backside it, and yous tin can change it equally you see fit. This is how to do it on D-Link routers, and routers from other manufacturers won't be much different.

Enter your router's IP address into your favorite web browser.

Blazon in the router's new IP accost nether Router Settings.

After you've changed your router's IP address, y'all will no longer be able to access it using the old accost. This is something to think equally it could throw you lot off the next time you decide to alter your router's settings.

How to Modify Your SSID

SSID (Service Prepare Identifier) is really but a fancy term for network name. As yous're probably aware of, all Wi-Fi networks are uniquely identified by a sequence of characters. If you've never changed your wireless router settings before, the chances are that your Wi-Fi has a very generic name. To change it to something more memorable, there are a couple of steps y'all must go through:

Enter your router'due south IP accost into your favorite web browser.

Cull Wireless Settings.

Save the new settings and wait for your router to restart.

When choosing a proper noun for your Wi-Fi network, stay abroad from anything that might be interpreted as offensive. We also recommend you don't try to brand it seem as if your network is a public hotspot. Using a fake name for your Wi-Fi really doesn't exercise anything for your privacy and security, but information technology can dramatically wearisome down your download and upload speeds.

How to Configure Multi-SSID and Guest Wi-Fi

Many modern wireless routers can broadcast multiple access points at the same time. Typically, i accessed point is used to connect known devices to the network, and a completely split access point is created for guests. The master benefit is that you don't need to share your main Wi-Fi password with strangers and promise they won't publish it anywhere.

To create a guest Wi-Fi with a Netgear router, follow the instructions below. The process should exist very like for routers from other manufacturers.

Enter your router's IP accost into your favorite web browser.

Enter the router user name and password.

Ensure that the Enable SSID Circulate cheque box selected.

Give the guest network name.

Select a security option.

Click the Utilise button to salve your settings.

How to Alter the Wireless Channel and Ring

Wireless routers back up unlike 802.11 standards, which provide several singled-out radio frequency ranges, also called bands, for use in Wi-Fi communications, with each ring being split into multiple channels.

If yous accept a newer router, the chances are that it supports the ii.four GHz and 5 GHz bands. Because the 5 GHz band is less common than the 2.4 GHz ring, it tends to be less crowded, making it a bang-up pick for densely populated urban areas where Wi-Fi networks are nowadays in massive concentrations.

When information technology comes to choosing the almost suitable Wi-Fi channel, a network analyzer such as NetSpot can provide y'all with the information y'all need to make an informed decision.

Download and install NetSpot.

Launch the application and activate Discover style.

Look a curt while for NetSpot to collect information near surrounding Wi-Fi networks and present wireless data as an interactive table.

Click the "Channels 2.4 GHz" header to see where Wi-Fi channels are overlapping.

Look for the aqueduct with the least number of networks present on it.

If y'all're selecting a channel in the 2.4 GHz band, effort to cull the aqueduct i, vi, or 11. These are so-called non-overlapping channels, which means they don't overlap with one another.

How to Prepare Up Parental Controls

Parental controls are features that assist yous reduce the risk of your child existence exposed to inappropriate content online. These controls can be divided into two wide categories: filtering and monitoring. With filtering, you can limit access to age inappropriate content and place time-limits on usage. Monitoring allows you to see exactly what your child is doing online, so you can intervene in time if you sense that it might be in danger.

Parental controls are typically located under router settings, merely they may also take their ain category. Because children volition go above and beyond to circumvent any content restrictions you put in place to protect them, it's highly recommended to gear up a PIN for parental controls.

How to Activate Remote Management

If yous have a capable router, yous don't even need to exist at home to monitor its activity. Cheers to remote management functionality, you can monitor information technology from anywhere using your smartphone or computer.

To access your router from an outside network:

Enter your router's admin panel.

Go to settings and look for Remote Management.

Plough on Remote Management and save your settings.

The reason why remote management is turned off past default is that it represents a certain security risk. Hackers might try to pause your router password and apply remote management to compromise your security. That'due south why we recommend y'all plough remote management off when you know you lot won't be using it for a while.

How to Encounter Who Is Continued to My Router

Have yous noticed that your cyberspace speeds fluctuate up and down regardless of your activity? In that location'due south a run a risk that someone else besides you is connected to your router and stealing your bandwidth. To find out if that'southward really the case, you lot need to go to your router's administrative console:

Detect out your router's IP address.

Blazon in that IP accost in a browser window.

Look for an option chosen "My Network" or "Attached Devices" or something similar.

If you lot come across a device that shouldn't be connected to your router, kick it off your network and ban its MAC address.

Conclusion

Routers are intricate machines with a plethora of different settings that you can play with and customize to your liking. In this article, we've explained how to access router and alter router settings, including wireless router settings. Of course, information technology's impossible for us to talk virtually all router settings, merely the crucial ones are covered in this commodity.