The router is the device that allows us to connect a large number of devices to our Internet network and has long since coincided with the home modem (all modems supplied by operators work as routers). The computers in our possession are connected to the network created by the router via wireless connection or via Ethernet cable, so as to have access parameters and surf the Internet.
In any case, whatever the router you are using, it may be necessary to access the router's control settings to change for example the WiFi password, to change the frequency channel or to change the parameters with which the IP addresses are assigned (so as to reserve some addresses for particular devices).
Those who are inexperienced, who have never done so, may find it difficult to find the access address of the router; in this guide we will show you how to enter the router to access its settings.
1) Generic IP addresses
To get to the login screen of a router, you are asked to enter an IP address in the address bar of the browser used ( Google Chrome is fine but also Microsoft Edge).
This IP varies according to the modem / router used and can also be different with the same operator; the generic access IPs for the routers are as follows.
- 192.168.1.1
- 192.168.0.1
- 192.168.1.254
Try these IP addresses one at a time and press Enter until we see the login screen of the router, so as to find out the right IP address to use in the future.
2) Find out the IP of the router from Windows
If we can't access the router's IP address using generic ones, maybe the network has been configured differently.
In order to obtain the router's IP address immediately, we connect a PC via an Ethernet cable to it and, once connected, click on the Start menu and type Network status, opening the corresponding item in the new Windows settings menu.
In the window that opens, click on View network properties, scroll down to find the LAN connection and check the Default gateway item, whose IP corresponds to the router.
On all Windows (including Windows 10) this address can be obtained from a command prompt window (which we can obtain from the Start menu) by writing the ipconfig / all command and scrolling until we find our connection, so that we can check the Default Gateway entry.
To avoid going to look for this address and for those who do not know how to do it and are in a bad position with the command prompt, there is a small tool to enter the router directly called RouiterPassview which tries to find out the password to access the router if forgotten and allows you to immediately open the control panel .
To do this, press on the File menu and then on Open Router Web Interface .
3) Find out the IP of the router from Mac
If we have a Mac and we want to obtain the IP address of the router, just click on the connection icon located in the menu bar at the top right and open the Open preferences menu . Alternatively, we can access the same menu by clicking on System Preferences after turning on the Launchpad and opening the Network menu.
Select the connection in use in the left side panel and check the Router item, so as to immediately display the IP to be used in Safari to change the settings.
4) Find out the IP of the router from Android
If we have an Android smartphone and we want to find out the IP address of the router using an app like IP Tools, downloadable for free here -> IP Tools .
As soon as you open the app, the IP address of the router to which we are connected is immediately shown, under the heading Gateway .
This app works with any WiFi network, we will only have to be careful to connect directly to the home router and avoid connecting to WiFi repeaters, Powerline WiFi or network shares from PC (which would distort the result of the Gateway value).
5) Find out the IP of the router from the iPhone
If, on the other hand, we have an iPhone, we can obtain the IP address of the router by downloading the Fing - Network Scanner app, available for free from here -> Fing - Network Scanner .
Once the app is open, a scan will start of all the devices connected to the same WiFi network as the iPhone and the network router will be shown immediately, recognizable as a device with two crossed arrows (usually present at the top).
We obtain the IP and use it in the browser to access the router settings.
6) Access to the router
Once the correct IP address has been entered, the router will ask us for the username and password in order to access the configuration panel.
This information is usually available on the bottom or back of the router, on the supplied label.
If we don't find any information on the label, we can try the following combinations of credentials to try to access the router:
- admin / admin
- admin / password
- admin / empty-field (we don't insert any password)
- Administrator / admin
These are the username and password combinations used by default on a large multitude of routers and modems.
If not even so we can access the control panel, we can try to recover the specific access credentials for our router by reading the dedicated article Password and default login for all Routers .
We can't log in anymore because we changed the router password in the past and now we don't remember it anymore ">
After a few seconds the router will be restored to factory settings and we will be able to recover the access credentials using the guides that we linked to you a little while ago.
Now that we have finally gained access to the router settings, we recommend reading the following guide to find out what we can do in these menus, so as to really take full advantage of the network.
READ ALSO: 10 Main Options on the Wifi Router: web access and configuration
