How to Configure Your Router to Use WPA2

There really is no downside to it

You might never have looked at your router’s encryption settings. When you ignore Wi-Fi security, though, you’re leaving it vulnerable to attacks from hackers. For example, your confidential information may be compromised when you become a victim of man-in-the-middle attacks.

Compromising the integrity of confidential client data or unknowingly sharing your credit card information with a hacker can cost you a ton of money and reputation. However, you can easily avoid this by protecting your Wi-Fi network with good security.

If you want to keep your wireless network protected, you should use the best encryption standard, which is currently WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access). WPA3 has been released, but WPA2 is still the most common setting on most routers.

What Is WPA2

WPA2 is a successor of WPA and offers enhanced wireless security compared toother protocols like WEP(Wired Equivalent Privacy), which uses an easy-to-crack 40-bit encryption key compared to WPA2 AES 128-bit key size.

The Wi-Fi Alliance introduced WPA in 2003 to replace WEP. However, the organization retained several elements of WEP in WPA to ensure compatibility with older devices. This also meant that some of WEP’s vulnerabilities were still present in WPA.

WPA2 was introduced soon after WPA in 2004. It addressed many router security loopholes that left a WPA user vulnerable.

The primary differentiating factor between WPA2 and WPA was that WPA2 uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) instead of the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) used by WPA.

AES is a military-grade security protocol that offers significantly better network security than TKIP. However, WPA2 doesn’t make your network completely immune. If someone has access to your network, they can still hack into other devices connected to the network.

Wi-Fi Alliance continues to identify vulnerabilities to improve security. The alliance announced WPA3 in 2018, but it’s still in the process of being implemented. In the meantime, WPA2 remains your best bet to secure your network.

How to Configure Router to Use WPA2

Most modern routers have the WPA2 protocol, but WPA2 might not be the default depending on which router you use.

If you want to configure your router to use WPA2, you can do so by configuring the security settings in your router.

All routers have an admin console from which you can change all router settings. You’ll need your router’s username and password to log in and use the admin console.

If you haven’t changed the login credentials, you can use thedefault combination for your router brand.

If you did change the credentials but can’t remember what they were,resetting the routerwill allow you to log in with the default credentials (though you’ll need to configure everything from scratch).

Once you have the username and password, you’re ready to configure your router to use WPA2.

Note that routers from different manufacturers use different firmware. For this reason, the process for configuring the router to use WPA2 may be different for your router.

For instance, if you look at a Linksys router’s firmware, it will look different than a Netgear router’s. While the terminology and interface may be different, you can still use the process illustrated below as a general guide.

PressEnter. You should now see a login screen for your Wi-Fi router’s firmware.

You can access the router firmware on any device with a web browser, including a Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

The WLAN security options may be in a different section of your router. Still, you can usually see if you’re in the right place by checking if the page has the network name (i.e., SSID), Wi-Fi password, and, most importantly, the encryption protocol.

Your office or home network is now more secure than the older WEP standard.

When Can You Not Use WPA2

You may not be able to use WPA2 in two cases:

Unless any of your devices—computers, access points, modem, or router—are extremely old, you’ll probably have the option to use WPA2.

You Just Improved Your Wi-Fi Security

Your network is much safer with WPA2 security. There’s no downside to using WPA2 instead of other encryption standards, but there are several benefits. It’s just a matter of spending a few minutes configuring your router to use WPA2 to solidify your Wi-Fi network’s security.

There are also other things you can do to ensure online security. For instance, you can use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to transmit internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel.

Arjun is a freelance writer based in India. After working as an equity research analyst, Arjun decided to do something that he has been passionate about – tech. He gets excited talking about and explaining how to solve everyday tech problems. His area of expertise is Windows and is a go-to for all things Excel.Read Arjun’s Full Bio

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How to Configure Your Router to Use WPA2#

What Is WPA2#

How to Configure Router to Use WPA2#

When Can You Not Use WPA2#

You Just Improved Your Wi-Fi Security#