How Do I Find Out The Password To My Router

Wi-Fi symbol hovering over a smartphone in someone's hand — antstang/Shutterstock

What's the password to your Wi-Fi network, anyway? Whether you lot've changed the default password or not, it's simple to find your Wi-Fi password. You can also look upward whatsoever Wi-Fi network password if you've previously continued to that network from a Windows PC or Mac.

This is essential for hooking up new devices to a network. Whether yous've misplaced your home network's password or you're visiting someone and don't want to enquire them for the password a 2d time, here's how you can discover information technology.

Showtime: Check Your Router'due south Default Password

Check your router's default password, usually printed on a sticker on the router.
In Windows, head to Network and Sharing Center, click on your Wi-Fi network, and caput to Wireless Properties > Security to see your Network Security Fundamental.
On a Mac, open Keychain Access and search for your Wi-Fi network name.

If your router is withal using the default username and password, it should exist easy to find. Modern Wi-Fi routers–and the combined router/modem units offered by many Internet service providers–come with a default Wi-Fi network name and countersign. Each router has its own default password, which is often random.

To notice the default password, find your Wi-Fi router and examine it. You should see a sticker somewhere on it that contains both the "SSID"–the wireless network proper name–and the countersign. If y'all haven't changed the default password however, you can use that password to connect to the router.

If you don't see a default password printed on the router itself, try looking at the documentation that came with the router for more information.

What if you don't have the manual or the password isn't on the router sticker? As we mentioned in our guide to resetting your router's password, y'all might exist able to find the countersign past using common username and password combinations (east.g., "admin" for the username and "admin" for the password) or consulting RouterPasswords.com, a database of popular routers' default logins.

Once you've continued to your router using the default countersign, make certain you change it and store the password in your countersign director so your router is secure.

How to Detect the Current Wi-Fi Network'due south Password on Windows

If you've continued to a Wi-Fi network from a Windows laptop or desktop PC, Windows will remember that Wi-Fi network's password. You tin can wait upwards the Wi-Fi countersign on any Windows computer that's currently connected to–or has previously connected to–that Wi-Fi network.

To look upwards the password for the Wi-Fi network you lot're currently connected to on Windows, we'll head to the Network and Sharing Center in the Control Console. The quickest style to do this: Correct-click on the Wireless Network icon in the taskbar and click "Open Network and Sharing Centre."

Note: Recent Windows 10 updates take changed this. Click the "Open Network & Internet Settings" choice that appears in the context menu instead. When the Settings window appears, whorl down and click "Network and Sharing Center." Y'all can too but head to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center.

open network and sharing center

Click the proper name of the current Wi-Fi connectedness.

Click the "Wireless Backdrop" push in the Wi-Fi Status window that appears.

Click the "Security" tab and activate the "Show characters" checkbox to view the hidden password.

How to Detect Passwords for Wi-Fi Networks You've Connected to Previously

Windows also stores the Wi-Fi countersign of networks you lot've connected to previously. In Windows vii and earlier, y'all tin can find these from the Network and Sharing Center, just in Windows viii and Windows 10, you'll need to apply the command prompt.

Find Passwords for Other Wi-Fi Networks in Windows 7 and Earlier

To get started, click the "Manage wireless networks" link in the left menu of the Network and Sharing Center.

Y'all'll see a list of the previous networks you've connected to. Double-click a network name to open the network's properties.

In the network properties window, go to the Security tab and check the box side by side to "Show characters" to encounter the Wi-Fi password in the "Network security fundamental" field.

Observe Passwords for Other Wi-Fi Networks in Windows eight and x

In Windows 10 and 8.1, you lot'll accept to utilize the command prompt to find a previous network's password. Right-click the Outset push and select "Command Prompt" to chop-chop open up it.

And so type in the following command:

netsh wlan show profiles

You'll go a listing of the Wi-Fi networks yous've accessed before.

To find the countersign for i of the profiles, type in the following, replacing profilename with the proper noun of the profile:

netsh wlan bear witness profile name=profilename primal=articulate

Await for the "Cardinal Content" line to find the Wi-Fi countersign for that Wi-Fi network.

How to Find the Countersign for Current or Previous Wi-Fi Networks on a Mac

If you have a Mac that's currently connected to the Wi-Fi network or previously continued to it, you tin besides look up the password on that Mac.

To observe the Wi-Fi password on your Mac, press Control+Space to open up the Spotlight search dialog, type "Keychain Access" without the quotes, and printing Enter to launch the Keychain Admission app.

Locate the proper name of your Wi-Fi network in the list, click it, and and so click the "info" button–information technology looks like an "i"–at the lesser of the window.

Click the "Bear witness Countersign" checkbox in the window that appears. Y'all'll accept to enter your username and password to proceeds access to the password. Y'all'll need an ambassador account for this. Assuming your Mac business relationship is an administrator account, just type your account's username and countersign.

After you lot do, your Mac will show you the Wi-Fi network's countersign.

How to Find a Wi-Fi Network'south Password on a Rooted Android Device

Information technology's not as piece of cake to reveal the password for a Wi-Fi network on Android or iOS, but it is possible. Your Android device would demand to be rooted, even so.

First, download an alternative root-enabled file explorer, such as ES File Explorer. Launch the app and tap the menu push in the upper left-mitt corner. Gyre down and slide the "Root Explorer" switch to "On".

Grant it superuser access when prompted.

Then, in the left menu, become to Local > Device.

From there, browse todata/misc/wifi and open the wpa_supplicant.conf file in the file explorer's text/HTML viewer.

Whorl downward or search for the SSID to find the password for information technology, next to the term "psk".

How to Find a Wi-Fi Network'south Password on a Jailbroken iPhone or iPad

The but way to reveal a Wi-Fi network's password in iOS is to jailbreak your device first.

Open up the Cydia store and search for the WiFi Passwords tweak. Tap the Install push button to install it. It's compatible with iOS half-dozen, 7, 8, and 9.

In one case installed, open the app and y'all'll exist provided with a list of every Wi-Fi network you've continued to, forth with their passwords. Yous can search for the network y'all're looking for or scroll down to information technology.

How to Find a Wi-Fi Network's Password from the Router's Web Interface

RELATED: x Useful Options You Tin Configure In Your Router's Spider web Interface

If you have access to the router's web interface, you can also endeavour to look it up in that location. This assumes that the router is either using its default username and password so yous can log in, or that you know the current username and countersign for the router.

Go to your router's web interface and sign in with the electric current username and password your router requires. Look through the router'due south interface for a "Wi-Fi" or similarly labeled section. You'll run across the electric current Wi-Fi password displayed on this screen, and you can too choose to alter it to anything you desire from here.

If All Else Fails: Reset Your Router to Its Default Wi-Fi Password

RELATED: How to Access Your Router If Yous Forget the Countersign

Can't find your Wi-Fi network's password and don't have access to your router'south spider web interface — or but don't want to bother? Don't worry. You can reset your router and force it to use the default Wi-Fi passphrase printed on the router in one case once again.

Look for a small "reset" push on the router. It's ofttimes a pinhole push you'll take to press with a bent paperclip or a similarly pocket-size object. Press the push button down for 10 seconds or so and your router's settings volition be completely erased and reset to their defaults. The Wi-Fi network name and password will be restored to the default ones on the router.

Not sure what your router's Wi-Fi network proper name — or SSID — is? Merely look at the Wi-Fi settings on whatsoever device connected to the Wi-Fi network and y'all'll run across the network proper name. If no devices are continued nevertheless, yous should see this information printed on the router itself or in the router'southward documentation.