🎯 In 30 seconds: Change your router’s admin password, use WPA3 or WPA2 encryption, turn off remote management, keep the firmware updated, and put smart gadgets on a guest network. Replace a router that no longer gets updates. On public Wi-Fi, most sites are already encrypted; a VPN helps in some cases but doesn’t stop scams.
The router checklist
Log in to the router (the address and default login are usually on a sticker or in the maker’s app) and work through this list, which follows the FTC’s home Wi-Fi guidance:
- Change the admin password and username, the one that opens the router’s settings. This is different from the Wi-Fi password.
- Set encryption to WPA3 Personal, or WPA2 Personal if WPA3 isn’t offered. If neither appears after updating, the FTC suggests replacing the router.
- Use a long Wi-Fi password and a network name that doesn’t include your name, address or router brand.
- Update the firmware, and turn on automatic updates if offered. Ask your internet provider whether it updates a router it supplied.
- Turn off remote management, WPS and UPnP unless you need them. They are conveniences that weaken security.
- Make sure the firewall is on and log out of the admin page when done.
Smart devices on a guest network
Cameras, TVs, doorbells, plugs and speakers often get fewer updates than phones and laptops. Many routers can run a guest network with its own name and password. Put smart devices and visitors there, and keep the computers you bank on on the main network. If one cheap gadget is hacked, it is cut off from the devices that hold your accounts.
For each device: change any default password, turn on automatic updates, and remove devices you no longer use from the network and from the maker’s app.
A worked example: the device count
A family of four opens the router app and finds 31 connected devices: 4 phones, 3 laptops, 2 tablets, 2 TVs, a game console, 3 speakers, 2 cameras, a doorbell, a thermostat, 6 smart plugs, a printer, a watch, and 4 devices nobody recognizes.
They move the 16 smart and entertainment devices plus the printer to the guest network, keep the 10 phones, laptops, tablets and watch on the main one, and block the 4 unknowns. Then they change the Wi-Fi password, so anything that never should have been there is off. Time: about 45 minutes.
Public Wi-Fi and VPNs, honestly
The FTC now says public Wi-Fi is usually safe for most uses, because most websites and apps encrypt the connection (look for https and the lock). But a lock only means the connection is encrypted; scammers build encrypted fake sites too.
| A VPN helps when | You don’t trust the network operator (a hotel, café or airport) and want to hide which sites you visit from them, or an app you use may not encrypt well. |
| A VPN doesn’t help with | Phishing, fake shops, malware, weak passwords or a scam call. It also moves your trust to the VPN company, which can see your traffic instead. |
| A simple alternative | Use your phone’s hotspot for banking away from home. |
More on keeping this site’s account safe is in the Security section.