The technician arrives, sets up the router, gives you the name and password to connect to it, and does little else apart from connecting devices. There are many people whose relationship with the router is limited to what we have just mentioned. But Sooner or later problems appear (it’s the law of life): poor coverage and/or lower speed than expected, drops, intruders sucking from your Wi-Fi…
It is important to perform proper maintenance of the router and some operations They take very little time and effort, obtaining a very high return in terms of safety and performance. And as an example, these three tips.
Change your password from time to time
One of the first things to do once you change your router at home is to forget about the credentials that come on the sticker and give it a new name and its corresponding password. From that moment on, it is advisable to change the password from time to time. And not only the Wi-Fi password, but also access to its settings.
There is no recommended time period to change your password, but this is a good measure to Avoid the presence of people outside the house for various reasons: because getting the password for a Wi-Fi with default credentials is easier, because if they are already inside it is a hassle to try to get the password again and because changing the name and password shows potential intruders that we know how to do it.
When someone is looking for a nearby Wi-Fi to surf the Internet for free, they are interested in one with a good signal and unprotected. To change the password, just go to the browser and type 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. Using the manufacturer’s credentials (at least the first time), we will have access to the configuration menu of our router.
Now you have to locate the section corresponding to the Wi-Fi network, the path to which may vary depending on the brand or model, although it is usually something like ‘Wi-Fi Network’, ‘Wireless Connection’, ‘Wi-Fi Settings’, ‘Wireless Setting’ or ‘Wi-Fi’ alone. Then you have to find the name of the network or SSID (which also comes by default, referring to our operator and generally offering data on the band it works on). As for the name, it is best to think about it. one that is easily identifiable but does not attract much attention and write it in the box corresponding to the SSID.
We’re not done yet: within that tab it’s not a bad idea to choose a more recent type of encryption, as it’s more robust and therefore more secure (if it has WPA-3, it’s a great option, otherwise you’ll have to settle for WPA-2). Once selected, enter the future password and hit save for everything to take effect. The ideal is to think about a complex and robust network key, which we cannot associate with identifiable character strings (license plates, birth dates) and that uses letters, numbers and signs.
Always up to date
Like any other device, having the router with the latest version of its firmware is a guarantee of having the latest integrated functionalities, recently released security patches and fixing previously detected bugs. So having Keeping the router always up to date is key to security and proper functioning.
This is the case of detected vulnerabilities or implemented protocols and technologies. a posteriori that you will not be able to take advantage of with your newer devices if your router is not up to date or that do not allow you to take your router to its maximum performance.
There are routers that update automaticallyso there is nothing to worry about, however in other cases you will have to proceed as in the previous point and enter the router configuration. There are even some that require you to enter the manufacturer’s website and download the update file to run it. In any case, it is advisable to check and, if it is not one of those that update themselves, proceed from time to time.
Restart periodically
When I go away from home for a few days, it’s a good time to turn off the router, give it a rest and also save some electricity, but even when I’m at home I don’t forget to restart it from time to time. Of course, it’s not enough to turn it off and on suddenly, but it’s better to at least comply with the 10 second rule so that the components, and therefore the processes they carry out, are completely closed.
After all The router is a small computerwith its operations running in the foreground and background, inevitable failures in some processes, components that overheat (more so in summer, which gives us an indication that we must be more careful with this point in the summer period) and firmware with requests and updates to execute.
Although There is no clear frequency to restart the routerdoing so periodically is a good practice to achieve stable operation, better speeds and proper execution of processes and updates.
Cover | Analysis of the MSI RadiX AXE6600 router from Xataka
Via | ADSLZone
At Xataka Home | I’ve tried the craziest tricks to improve my home WiFi: these are the ones that worked for me and the ones that didn’t