How To Change Security Settings On Netgear Router

The One Router Setting Everyone Should Modify (But No I Does)

The vast bulk of home Wi-Fi users don't know the beginning thing about keeping their routers secure, a new survey finds.

Eighty-two percent of 2,205 people surveyed said they had never changed their router's default authoritative countersign. Similarly, 82 percent had never changed the default network name, 86 percent had never updated the router's firmware, 70 pct had never checked to encounter if any unknown devices were on their networks and 69 pct had never even changed the default Wi-Fi access password.

More than than half the people surveyed — 51 percentage — said they had never done any of these things, and 48 percent didn't understand why they would even need to.

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We hate to audio like fussy schoolmarms, but doing each of these things is of import, none more so than changing the default administrative password.

If you don't do at to the lowest degree that, and then chances are very proficient that hackers using lists of default router passwords can dial into your router from afar, see what y'all're doing online, redirect your web traffic to malicious sites or draft your router into a botnet zombie army.

The survey was commissioned by the British website Broadband Genie, and the respondents were all residents of the United kingdom. Merely allow'south not dismiss the results as applicable to but one country — American or Canadian broadband users aren't any smarter than their British counterparts.

When asked why they hadn't taken these basic steps, 34 percent of the respondents said they didn't know how, six percent said they couldn't empathise the instructions and three percent said the software was confusing. And these were the 52 percent of respondents who at to the lowest degree knew they should do these things.

We can't completely blame the users for their ignorance, just as we can't expect every car possessor to know how to change the oil or adjust the brakes. But at least most car owners know they should get a mechanic to practise those things for them. By contrast, ISPs and router makers have clearly not washed plenty to brainwash their customers on the basics of router security.

Some newer routers don't expect their users to know all this -- they come up with randomized administrative passwords or network names, or force you to alter the default administrative password when you set a router upwards.

Many mesh routers automatically update their own firmware, which is too skillful, though it won't do much to protect you if the administrative password is still the factory default.

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Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry melt, long-haul commuter, code monkey and video editor. He'southward been rooting around in the data-security space for more than xv years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom's Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown upward in random TV news spots and even moderated a panel discussion at the CEDIA home-engineering briefing. You lot can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.