Access a router's web based interface

Most people set up and forget their routers. They think that as long as it is running normally and my Internet's working, I don't need to take care of it. But it is not so. Many times, you need to change settings on the router, like setting up a network password, upgrading the firmware or even tweaking the QoS. For this, you need to log onto the router's browser based settings page.

Every router has a settings page inside it that can be accessed via a web browser. For this, you need to:

• Start a web browser.
• In the address bar, enter '192.168.1.1' or '192.168.0.1' or something similar. 
• Mostly, it's one of these two. For some routers, like Buffalo ones it may be '192.168.10.1'. You'll need to consult the documentation that came with your router, or look up online to find out what the default address is for your model.
• You'll be prompted for a password. 
• If you're using this for the first time, the password will be the default that comes with your router.
• In most cases, you need to type in admin for both the username and the password. But sometimes, for example Linksys routers, the username is left blank and the password is admin.
• To find out the default password for your router model you can check this comprehensive database.

When you're in, you can tweak around all the settings you want. You'll want to change the password of your router so that no one else can log into it and mess around with the settings.

Note that this password is not your network password. This is completely different and is the password used to access the settings interface of the router. The presence of this password doesn't mean that the network is secure. To prevent others from accessing your network and/or using your Internet connection, you should secure the network by setting up a password.

Access a router's web based interface