How to secure your home Wi-Fi in 15 minutes

Most people set up their home Wi-Fi once, years ago, and never touch it again. That’s a shame, because a router left on its factory defaults is one of the easier things in your home to compromise — and everything you own connects through it. The good news is that a proper lockdown takes about fifteen minutes and doesn’t require any technical background.

Change the two default passwords

There are two, and people confuse them. The first is your Wi-Fi password — the one devices use to join. The second, more important one is the router’s admin password, used to log into its settings page. Manufacturers ship routers with well-known defaults like “admin/admin”, and anyone nearby can look yours up. Change both to something long and unique.

Use WPA3 (or at least WPA2)

In your router’s wireless settings, set the security type to WPA3 if it’s offered, or WPA2 otherwise. If you still see WEP or an open network anywhere, change it immediately — WEP is trivially broken and an open network lets anyone in. This one setting does most of the heavy lifting for keeping strangers off your network.

Update the firmware and turn off WPS

Router firmware gets security fixes just like your phone does, and out-of-date firmware is a common way in. Check for an update in the settings — many routers can do it automatically, so switch that on. While you’re there, disable WPS, the one-button pairing feature, which has a long history of weaknesses.

Set up a guest network

Turn on a separate guest network for visitors and for your smart-home gadgets — the smart bulbs, plugs and cameras that are often the least secure things you own. Keeping them on their own network means that if one is compromised, it can’t reach your laptop or phone. It also means you never have to hand out your main password.

Add a VPN for the traffic that leaves

Securing the router protects your local network. A VPN protects the traffic once it leaves your home — hiding your browsing from your ISP and your location from websites. For full coverage you can even run a VPN on the router itself, protecting every device at once, including the ones that can’t run VPN software. Once your network is locked down, our Privacy Check is a nice way to confirm what the outside world can still see.