Password Ideas for WiFi

Your WiFi password protects every device on your home network: phones, laptops, smart TVs, cameras and baby monitors. With WPA2, an attacker who is within range can capture the connection handshake and then guess passwords offline at high speed, so a short or common WiFi password can be cracked without you ever noticing. WPA3 resists this kind of offline guessing, but many homes still run in WPA2 or mixed mode.

WPA2 and WPA3 personal networks accept 8 to 63 characters, and length is what matters. A passphrase of four or five random words (for example, the structure word word word word) gives you 20 or more characters that you can read aloud to a guest or type on a smart TV remote without mistakes. Avoid the name of your street, family or router model, and replace the default password printed on the router label, since those defaults are sometimes predictable.

While you are in the router settings, also change the router's admin password, which is a separate login, turn on WPA3 if all your devices support it, and create a guest network for visitors and smart home gadgets. Our WiFi QR code generator lets guests join by scanning a code instead of typing a long passphrase.