Advanced Tweaks for Your WiFi Router

In our two previous tutorials, we have discussed the basics in tweaking some settings of a wireless router and shown some steps in customizing it so it can become unique among the other wireless networks in your neighborhood by showing how to change the network name or SSID. We’ve also gone through the steps needed in making the network more secure by changing the Username and Password for the web interface as well as the password needed to connect to it.

All of these tweaks are basically what you need to learn in making your wireless network become more secure but if you really want to learn even more then here are some advanced changes that you can do to your WiFi router’s setting and properties which will strengthen its protection against hackers and rogue users so sit back, turn on your Windows 8.1 machine and follow the steps below.

Finding Out a Router’s IP Address

The very first thing that you need to do if you want to change some settings on your router is to find out its IP address. For brand new routers, this would be “192.168.1.1” and is found printed on a sticker underneath the device but for others which have undergone some tweaking in its settings and properties, it will be a different IP address from the default one which is assigned by the network administrator.

If you happened to be connected to a wireless network which you’d like to make some changes on but you don’t know its assigned IP address then you can find out this important information using Command Prompt with administrator privileges but before doing this, you will need to ask for the Username and Password from the network administrator so you can access the web interface fully.

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Now, let’s start by pressing on the “Windows + X” keys to access a hidden menu containing a link that says “Command Prompt (Admin)”. Once you this link on the menu box that appears at the bottom-left corner of the screen, simply click on it and the Command Prompt Window will open.

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Once the Command  Prompt Window opens, you will need to type “ipconfig” on it (excluding the quotation marks) and press the “Enter” key on your machine’s keyboard to execute the command. You will then see some lines that will appear one after the other on the Command Prompt screen and from here, you will need to look for the line under find the “Wireless LAN Adapter” section which says “Default Gateway” and the IP address that is indicated on it is the router’s IP address.

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Once you have the IP address of your WiFi router, you will need to enter it into the web address box of your favorite web browser and hit “Enter”. Make sure that you are connected to the network either wirelessly or with a LAN cable. Failure to do this would mean that you can’t access the web interface in any way since you are not currently connected to the network that is given off by the router which you want to access and make changes on.

Changing the IP Address

If your WiFi router still has the default IP address which is 192.168.1.1 and the default Username and Password which is both “admin” (excluding the quotation marks) then it would be very vulnerable to being hacked by anyone who has the right knowledge in WiFi setup and networking so to make it more secure, you can change the Username and Password by following the steps detailed in this tutorial and to make security even stronger, you can also change the IP address which I will be showing here.

First, you will need to access the web interface and click on the link located on the navigation pane that says “Network”. After doing so, the options and settings under it will be shown on the main screen. In other router models, the “Network” link will expand after you click on it and will show other subsections such as LAN, WAN and MAC Clone. From these subsections, simply click on the one that says “LAN” and after doing so, you will be able to see the an input box bearing the IP address of the router device.

To change this, simply enter a new IP address inside the box but never touch the first two groups which are 192.168 and only change the last two groups of numbers. You can assign 192.168.2.1 or or 192.168.1.17 or any other IP address that you desire for as long as you only change the last two groups of numbers separated by periods.

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As you can see on the screenshot above, I changed the last two groups of numbers for my router’s IP address instead of just changing the third or the fourth group. Doing this ensures that the my router’s web interface is not easily accessible by anyone. Once you are done changing yours, simply hit the “Save” button and the router will reboot. You will then need to enter the new IP address to the web address box of your favorite browser and enter the Username and Password on a small Window that appears bearing input boxes for these credentials then hit the “Log In” button.

Saving a Backup of Your Router’s Settings

There is nothing perfect in this world except for the word “Perfect” itself and even wireless network can fail at times. This often happens after a sudden power outage. When the device turns on again after the power gets restored, you might be shocked that it already has a different SSID and the previous settings which you saved are already changed.

To save you the time of doing all the settings and tweaks again, you can backup your router’s configuration and save the resulting file in an easy to access location in your computer’s hard drive so you can use it in a later time when the device fails. To do this, simply click on the “System Tools” link and once it expands, just click again on the option that says “Backup and Restore”.

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The options under “Backup and Restore” will then appear on the main screen and from here, you should be able to see a button that is labeled “Backup” which you will need to click to initiate process. The backup configuration file will then appear as a download and as you can see on the screenshot below, it is named as “config.bin” and when I opened its folder location, I was able to locate it in the Downloads library.

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Using the Backup Configuration File

If your WiFi router gets into trouble and you don’t remember all the settings and tweaks that you did to it then you can use the “config.bin” file that was downloaded earlier when you used the “Backup” feature. To restore the device to its previous settings, simply access the “System Tools” section and click on the “Backup and Restore” option under it. After doing so, the main screen will display buttons for doing a Backup or Restore process.

Since we will be restoring the router to a previously saved backup of its settings, you will need to click on the button that says “Choose file” then navigate to the location of the “config.bin” file and once you find it, simply select it and hit the “Open” button at the bottom.

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After doing so, you can click on the “Restore” button located on the router’s web interface to initiate the process and that’s it! You will now have a perfectly working router bearing all the settings which you have assigned to it earlier. Remember! Different routers have different layouts on their web interface but all of the options and tweaks available are essentially the same so you don’t need to feel intimidated if you are using a router of a different brand because what you have seen here will definitely feel the same on your router’s web interface.