9 Tips to Make Your Home Wireless Network More Secure

Update (August 2026): We revisited this article and updated the tips for today’s home Wi-Fi — stronger encryption guidance, guest and IoT separation, firmware hygiene, and more — while keeping the original nine-tip structure.

In a recent article on cybersecurity tips that parents should teach their kids, we highlighted how, contrary to what many people believe, home wireless networks can be highly insecure. Unfortunately, the only people who are happy about this are hackers.

Since you’re definitely not interested in making hackers happy, here are 9 tips to make your home wireless network more secure (by the way, a big THANKS to community member Scott Bowling for giving us the idea for this article!).

1. Use modern Wi-Fi encryption (prefer WPA3)

The problem: Almost every router offers encryption, but the mode that is enabled (or left over from an old setup) may still be weak. Legacy options such as WEP, or older WPA/TKIP modes, are not acceptable on a network that carries banking, work, and personal accounts.

What to do about it: In your router settings, choose WPA3-Personal when every device you care about supports it. If you still have a mix of older gadgets, use WPA2/WPA3 transition mode only as a temporary bridge, then move fully to WPA3 when you can. Avoid WEP and older WPA/TKIP entirely.

Wi-Fi Alliance designed WPA3-Personal around stronger password-based authentication (SAE), which resists offline dictionary attacks better than classic WPA2-Personal PSK. Even so, encryption alone is not enough: you still need a strong network password. That is tip 2.

2. Replace the default Wi-Fi password with a strong passphrase

The problem: Leaving the factory Wi-Fi password in place is an open invitation. So is reusing a short, guessable password you already use for email or social media. On WPA2 especially, a weak passphrase is still a practical attack surface.

What to do about it: Set a unique Wi-Fi passphrase that is long and hard to guess. Aim for something memorable to you and miserable for an attacker:

• At least 15 characters (longer is better)
• A mix of uncommon words is fine; you do not need an unreadable symbol soup
• No keyboard walks (qwerty), obvious substitutions (P@ssw0rd), single dictionary words, or personal details (names, birthdays, street address)

As we have covered before in passwords vs. passphrases, a phrase like bluepoodleParisairplanepeanuts is usually easier to remember and harder to crack than a short “complex” password.

If you do not want to memorize router secrets, store them in a password manager. For personal use, Devolutions Password Manager (and the broader free tools path) is a solid place to start so the Wi-Fi key and admin password are not living in a notes app forever.

3. Change the router’s default administrative credentials

The problem: Router admin portals often still live at addresses like http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1, and many still ship with a well-known default username/password pair (or a sticker password that never gets rotated). If someone reaches that portal, they can change DNS, open remote access, or lock you out.

What to do about it: Change the admin password to something unique and strong, different from the Wi-Fi passphrase. Prefer a password manager entry labeled clearly (Home router admin) so you are not tempted to reuse the SSID password or write it on a sticky note under the modem.

4. Turn off remote management

The problem: Some routers allow the admin interface to be reached from the public internet. Even with a password, that exposes a login page (and whatever bugs it has) to the entire world. Weak admin credentials make the risk worse.

What to do about it: Disable remote management / remote administration / WAN-side admin access in the router UI. After that, only devices already on your local network should reach the admin portal. If you truly need off-site management, use a dedicated secure remote-access approach rather than leaving the router’s admin port open to the internet.

5. Disable WPS

The problem: Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) was meant to make pairing easier with a button or PIN. In practice, many implementations have been weak for years, and PIN-based WPS in particular has a long history of brute-force abuse that can expose the network key.

What to do about it: Turn WPS off. Connecting a new device by typing the Wi-Fi passphrase once is a small inconvenience compared with leaving a known weak onboarding path enabled.

6. Keep router firmware updated

The problem: Router firmware is software. It gets CVEs, just like phones and laptops. Attackers scan for known vulnerable models; an unpatched home gateway is still a popular foothold.

What to do about it:

• Check your manufacturer’s support site for the current firmware and apply updates on a schedule
• Turn on automatic updates if your router offers them and you trust the vendor’s channel
• If the vendor abandoned your model years ago, treat that as a reason to replace the hardware, not as a reason to hope for the best

CISA’s guidance on securing wireless networks is still a useful baseline checklist for homes and small offices.

7. Change the default network name (SSID)

The problem: Default SSIDs often advertise the router brand or model (NETGEAR42, LinksysXXXX). That helps neighbors know who left the factory settings alone, and it can help an attacker guess which known vulnerabilities or default credential patterns to try. Personal SSIDs (Johns-House, 123-Maple-St) leak identity in a different way.

What to do about it: Rename the SSID to something unique and boring that does not include your name, address, phone number, or exact router model. Save the creative jokes for somewhere that is not broadcasting to the street.

8. Put guests and IoT devices on a separate network

The problem: Hiding the SSID used to be a popular “tip,” but it is mostly security theater. Capable scanners still find hidden networks, and many client devices then probe for that hidden name in the clear, which can leak it anyway. Meanwhile, the bigger modern risk is simpler: friends’ phones, smart TVs, cameras, bulbs, and other IoT gadgets share the same LAN as work laptops and personal computers.

What to do about it: Create a guest network (or a second SSID / IoT VLAN if your router supports it) and put visitors plus most smart-home devices there. Keep phones, computers, and anything that holds work or banking data on the main network. Enable client isolation on the guest side when the option exists, so a compromised smart plug is less useful as a pivot to your laptop.

This single change usually buys more real-world protection than hiding the SSID ever did.

9. Keep every connected device patched and lean

The problem: A hardened router cannot save you if a compromised phone, laptop, or camera is already inside the perimeter. Home networks now collect more endpoints than ever, and many IoT devices stop receiving updates long before you throw them away.

What to do about it:

• Keep OS and app updates current on phones, tablets, and computers
• Use reputable endpoint protection where it makes sense
• Remove devices you no longer use; an abandoned smart gadget is still an attack surface
• Prefer vendors that still ship security updates, and put everything else on the guest/IoT network from tip 8
• Review which devices are actually associated with the Wi-Fi and kick off anything you do not recognize

The bottom line

Attackers prefer easy targets: default passwords, ancient firmware, WPS left on, and one flat network full of unpatched gadgets. None of the tips above require an enterprise budget. They do require a short pass through the router settings most people never open again after install day.

Lock down encryption and passwords first, close remote admin and WPS, stay patched, rename the boring defaults, then separate guests and IoT from the devices that matter. That combination still makes your home Wi-Fi a much less attractive place to poke.

If you want a safer place to store the long passphrases these tips create, try Devolutions Password Manager.