A home router is configured once at installation and then left alone for years. Yet it is the device all your traffic passes through, and its settings take about half an hour. Here is what to check, in order of importance.
1. La contraseña del propio router
Start not with the network password but with the one for the admin panel. On most routers it is admin/admin by default or printed on a sticker underneath — and it is the one changed least often.
Why it matters more: with access to the panel someone can change the DNS servers and quietly redirect you to fake sites. The network password does not allow that.
Open the panel (usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1) and change the admin password. Take a random sixteen-character one and keep it in a password manager.
2. El tipo de cifrado
The wireless settings offer a choice of encryption. The guidance is simple:
WPA3 if the router and devices support it. WPA2 (AES) is fine otherwise. Mixed WPA/WPA2 is acceptable with old equipment at home. WEP and the first WPA should not be used: they break in minutes rather than years.
If “TKIP” appears in the list, switch to “AES”: TKIP is obsolete and slows the network down as a bonus.
3. La contraseña de la red
Requirements differ from ordinary passwords. It is typed by hand on a television, a console and a smart speaker — with a remote, one letter at a time. So:
Length beats complexity. Twenty letters and digits are stronger than twelve with symbols and twice as easy to enter. There is a dedicated Wi-Fi key generator that already excludes characters older devices reject.
Do not dictate it to guests — make a QR code. The guest points a camera and joins; the password is never spoken and never sits in a chat.
Change it after repairs and other visits. A password the technicians knew is no longer your password.
4. Una red de invitados
The most underrated setting. A guest network is a separate access point with its own password from which the rest of the house is invisible.
Why it helps: a guest’s device may be infected, while your network holds a NAS, cameras and smart plugs whose security is usually nonexistent. Isolation removes the problem entirely.
It is also the right place for smart devices — bulbs, plugs, vacuum robots. They rarely get updates, and keeping them next to a work laptop is unnecessary risk.
5. Tres ajustes que conviene desactivar
WPS. Connection by a button or an eight-digit PIN. The PIN itself is guessable within hours because of a protocol flaw, which nullifies any network password.
Remote management. Access to the router panel from the internet. Few people need it, and router firmware vulnerabilities appear regularly.
UPnP. Lets devices open ports outward by themselves. Convenient for consoles, but it also exposes things you never meant to publish.
Con qué no perder el tiempo
Two popular pieces of advice that do not work.
Hiding the network name. The network is still visible on air, merely without a name in the list. Devices then keep searching for it and broadcast its name elsewhere — making things worse, not better.
MAC address filtering. A device address is transmitted openly and spoofing it takes one command. You gain inconvenience with every new device and no protection.
Y sobre las actualizaciones
Check the firmware section: if an update is available, install it. Router vulnerabilities are found regularly and updates rarely install themselves. If the router is more than five or six years old and updates stopped long ago, replace it rather than configure it further.