Any · Security

Lock down your home Wi-Fi properly

Your router's default name is a map for attackers — it tells them the make, model and which firmware bugs to try. Fifteen minutes fixes all of that.

Before you start

Medium risk. This change is reversible — you can return to the previous state without professional help or data loss.

Write the new router admin password down before you save it. Getting it wrong locks you out of your own router, and the only way back is a factory reset that undoes everything else you just did.
Renaming the network or changing the passphrase disconnects everything at once — phones, laptops, the TV, the printer, the thermostat, the doorbell, every smart plug. Budget an hour to reconnect them, and don't do it while someone's working.
Older devices don't understand WPA3. If something refuses to rejoin, set the router to mixed WPA2/WPA3 rather than dropping the whole network back to WPA2.
Plenty of smart-home gear can only see 2.4 GHz. If a device vanishes after the rename, check whether the 2.4 GHz band needs its own network name for that device to find it.

Log into your router (usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1) and change the admin password first — it's the door everything else goes through
Rename the network (SSID) to something that doesn't reveal you: no house numbers, names or 'SmithFamily'
Set a strong Wi-Fi passphrase (12+ random characters work well) and use WPA3 if your router supports it, otherwise WPA2 — never WEP or open
Turn off WPS if you can see the setting — it's been crackable for years
Create a guest network for visitors and smart-home gear so they're walled off from your PC

The router admin login uses your new password, devices reconnect on the renamed SSID with WPA2/WPA3, and a guest network is active.

You lose access to the router or devices can't reconnect — use the physical reset only as a last resort; it restores factory defaults.

Next stop: the related fixes below, or start a guided diagnosis.