In a modern age of technology, every household set up at least one router, such as Linksys, Cisco, or D-Link; to access the Internet. Sometimes trouble comes, you need to configure settings in the router. If you never log into your household’s router, you should know that router brands have a different address, and each router has one default username and password.
In case you do not know anything about the router address and password, we offer the simplest solutions to you in this article.
Finding the router address
Denote the only way to determine the router’s IP address is that your device must be connected to the WiFi or by cable (Ethernet). In this section, we have two cases:
The device can connect to the router
It is easy when your laptop or computer can connect to the Internet wire or wirelessly. The following task is quite simple, Click to the icon “Start”, click “Run”, and then type “cmd” on the pop-up interface. At the command prompt, type in “ipconfig” and then press the “Enter” button.
In the next step, scroll down the interface until you get a heading of “Ethernet Adapter / Ethernet” or “Wireless LAN adapter/ Wi-Fi”. As usual, you can only see one of the headings; however, if your computer connects with WiFi and Ethernet simultaneously, you can see both of them. The IP address of the router is the IP address that appears at “Default Gateway.”
Denote that “Default Gateway” can only show the IP address of the router that connects to the Internet. In the environment that contains more than one router, the IP address that you see might be the address of the ISP router. To prevent this occurrence, you need to scan your network for devices first. We will inform a separate article about how to scan the network for devices later.
Now you have your IP address information, the final step is to type that address into your browser, and then the login page will pop-up. That is when we can go straight to the section “Finding the router password”. Otherwise, you will need to study our next section.
The device cannot connect to the router
In case your device is not connected to the router wired or wirelessly, it is difficult to figure out the router’s IP address except when the network does not operate encryption. It will be the worst when the WiFi network is set up with a password.
However, with efforts, you can still get the network’s information by third-party tools. It does not completely leak the full information about the router’s address but at least could help you figure out a hidden wireless network.
For instance, when you go to the school library and the wireless network is secured by turning off the service set identifier (SSID) broadcast. Even though it is not the most optimized way, many companies or organizations often use it to prevent outsiders from connecting to their wireless network.
In the above case, you will need a WiFi network detection tool. We suggest “XirrusWiFiinspector” support you in finding the nearby network. This program can detect wireless networks even when SSID broadcast is shut down. Denote that this program cannot be processed on Windows operating system.
For downloading and accessing the program, you have to register with tons of your information, but we think it is worth it since the program offers numerous useful functions to the users. When in processing, it will give you a list of all the networks in the vicinity of your location.
When you are successfully connected to the network, it will be able to display the Gateway, DNS server, MAC address, etc. Otherwise, the information in the middle section will pop-up to show you the SSID, signal power, network status (a/b/g/n/ac), encryption (WPA, WPA2, etc.), channel and frequency.
After all of these steps, you need to do a similar command like the above section to identify the IP address.
Finding the router password
Reset the router
For the first solution, if you see your router require a password, it means there is already a password, and you need you to reset the router back to the default settings. Just need to find and press the “Reset” button, it is a tiny hole that you have to use a paperclip to push the button inside and hold for about 10 seconds. The very first step is finished!
Check the router’s instruction manual
Make sure you always keep the manual pamphlet of your router on a shelf since it contains the default login information. One tip for you is taking a picture of the page that has general router information and saving it to your computer’s folder. Most people throw the manual paper after unboxing the router, which is understandable.
Check the router
It is quite ironic. However, many routers have the print of the default login password on itself. The manufacturer always tries their best to optimize their products for customers, but we somehow ignore it.
Denote that if you have a cable router from the internet service provider (ISP), then it is ensured to have the login password printed on the router. Also, several Verizon routers include the password into the router.
Access the router password sites
This is the solution if you have thrown the router documentation away or your router does not have the printed login information on itself. You can check out the websites below, which are the database on the Internet with the default passwords for all routers.
Routerpasswords.com has a detailed list of all the reputable router brands. From our experience, the website offers the right username and password for the router brands of Netgear, Linksys, and Cisco.
One main problem of this site is that the database is not updated daily. It still works for most of the cases, but if you have the latest router model, you may not find the router information on RouterPasswords.
The second site is https://portforward.com/, which contains a ton of specific router brands and models. From our point of view, PortForward has a more router model options than RouterPasswords, which prove that the founder of PortForward keeps the site more up-to-date.
These two websites hopefully can support you to get back the router’s username and password for later configuring.
See more: How Do I Log into My Router? Default IP Address of Your Router.
Recap
To sum up, your devices need to connect to the network via WiFi or Ethernet to figure out the IP address and password. Some simple commands are using the prompt to accomplish the task. If there is more than one router on your network area, you need to scan your network using identical tools.
When there is no connection to the network, you can still get the basic information about the wireless networks using our recommended program. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below.
