Router password?

Question

is it ok to set a password in your router, does that stop outsiders from accessing the router? or it doesnt matter

Answer 1

Yes, it is quite alright to set a password.  In fact, it is recommended.  This will stop any hackers or random passerby's from accessing your personal network.

Answer 2

I strongly recommend setting a password on your router because if other people find out your IP address, they will be able to access your router and possibly block you from using your own network.

Put a password on as soon as possible.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

There are actually 2 places to set a password in a WIRELESS router...

A wired-only router only has a password to access the router setup.  It's best to change the password from the default "factory set" password.

A wireless router has the same password to get into the setup, and it should most DEFINITELY be changed, because if some hacker is able to penetrate the network via the wireless network, they could also make changes to the router's settings, keeping you from getting into the router without doing a factory reset.

There is also the Wireless security and associated password/passphrase which can be set.  When turning on wireless security, on most routers you will have several choices, these choices may include:

WEP

WPA (sometimes called WPA Personal)

WPA Radius

WPA2 (Again, sometimes called personal)

WPA2 Radius

You want to choose WPA2 if the devices that are connecting to it wirelessly support it. (Xbox 360 only supports WEP, Wii and PS3 both support WPA protocols.  XP/Vista can support WPA2, although you might need to download a patch from microsoft to get XP to support WPA, depending on the service pack level, and the wireless network card drivers.  Most wireless drivers for windows 2000 support WPA/WPA2)

All half-modern linux distros will support any of the above protocols.

When you pick your pass-phrase for WPA it MUST be a minimum of 8 characters.  I would suggest at least 16 characters, use upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols, and NO "words" in the pass phrase and you should be quite secure.  Something *like*  a8$FRo2(13woknv^ is not going to be broken without YEARS of processing power.  Technically, if I remember right, pre-computing the TKIP has codes for all possible passwords, of a 19 character pass phrase using upper, lower, numbers and symbols would take in the neighborhood of 5 million years on a P4 3 Ghz system.  On the other hand if you were to pick an 8 to 15 character password, all in lower case, that is based on a dictionary word or common phrase I could probably crack it in 13 seconds or less if your SSID was left at the factory default. (linksys, dlink, home, 2wireXXX etc.)

If you have to use WEP for the security protocol, the pass phrase you choose isn't very important, because regardless of how complex the pass phrase is, the security can be cracked in less than 10 minutes, usually more like 90 to 120 seconds, however, most people don't know how to do it, so WEP is better than nothing.

When picking WPA, again, depending on the router and it's firmware, you may be presented with a choice of encryption between TKIP and AES.  AES is more secure than TKIP, but again, some wireless network card drivers don't support AES, but all cards/drivers that support WPA will support TKIP encryption.

WPA/WPA2 Radius is VERY VERY secure, but requires a seperate Radius server running on your network and is not really intended for home use, and probably isn't supported by Wii or PS3 consoles, but I can't say that with certainty.

One last thing, do NOT set your router's configuration password to the same thing as the WIRELESS password.  If someone DOES crack your wireless password, they would then know the configuration password.

Answer 4

Yep and it will prevent them from changing your router configuration as well.

Answer 5

You should set password to your wireless router. Firstly, to prevent others or your neighbors use your network. Note: remember to set the encryption key, And setting password will not make your connection any slower but safer, so you should do so immediately.

Answer 6

huh...... a router doesnt require password.......

Answer 7

IS VERY IMPORTANT

DONT YOU WANNA OUTSIDERS TO COME AND

USE YOUR SPOT TO BAD ACTIVITY USE PASS ALWAYS

PC HARDWARE SUPPORT.....ALWAYS USE PASS GOOD LUCK

Answer 8

Yup, set it, but remember, the second you do, you will get disconnected from the interface. At that point you need to disconnect from the wireless, and reconnect with the new ecryption key you just made.