Setup Linksys Router

One of the more efficient ways of stopping a hacker from accessing your network is to create a password that must be entered before connecting. Router’s actually have two passwords, first one is the internet password and the second one is the web interface password.

Internet Password

You can slow a hacker from accessing your internet by simply setting up a password. The password should be something difficult to guess, and only you and the people you tell should know (Its important to know that there are password cracking machines out there, but this will slow them down).

The first thing you need to do is login to your web interface, if you do not know how to do that then you can follow our tutorial on how to find your routers IP and login.  After you have successfully logged in go over to the Wireless menu and then Wireless Security tab.

You should see 4 options here, 2 drop down menus and then 2 fields. The first option should be Security Mode.

Security Mode

Under security mode there is a list of possible encryption types, the one we are going to select is WPA Personal. With the WPA Algorithm set to TKIP.

WPA Security Key

You should now see a field called WPA Security Key, this is the password that will be required to access your internet. Some simple rules to keep in mind is make it alphanumeric, consisting of letters and numbers, and you should use a mixture of uppercase and lowercase. Don’t make it obvious like your street name, your last name, your router’s name, or anything that someone can simply guess.

Group Key Renewal:

Group Key Renewal creates a new algorithm every specified seconds (We have set ours to 600 seconds or every 10 minutes), every 10 minutes the key will change and it is one way (Combined with other security features) that will keep the hacker at bay!

Router Password

This is the second password option, and this controls access to who can login and edit your router’s settings, you should change these as soon as your get your router out of the box! Once your logged into the web interface go to Administration then Management.

You should see a field called Router Password, simple type in a new password and then save the settings, you’ll be asked to enter your new password to log back into the Router Web Interface.

Good luck on setting up and securing your router, we’ll be posting more tutorials soon.

You might also want try searching for: password, router password