We’re sure there’s a good reason you need to get on that Wi-Fi network. Here are tricks to help you connect when you don’t have login credentials.
We’ve all been there: You need fast internet and can see a Wi-Fi network with a strong signal listed on your device, but there’s a lock icon next to the network name. That indicates security is activated. Without a password or passphrase, you’re not going to get access.
Even more maddening is if it’s your own network or one you regularly access and the password has completely slipped your mind.
There are a lot of reasons people secure their Wi-Fi connections—keeping out people who use up bandwidth without paying is a big one, especially on public hotspots. But sometimes you need access no matter what.
We’ll show you how to access that locked network, starting with easy ways to recover passwords for previously accessed networks and moving on to how to reset your network. Finally, we’ll show you some tools for cracking codes that let you access networks you’ve never accessed before.Recover the Passwords Already Stored on Your System
This trick is all about getting a Wi-Fi network password (or network security key) you should probably know, but it only works when the network has been previously accessed on the device.
Most phone and computer OSes create a profile for every Wi-Fi network to which you connect. If you tell the system to forget the network, it also forgets the password, so this trick won’t work in that case. But few people ever explicitly do that.
In Windows, go to a Command Prompt with administrative privileges. Click the Start Menu, type “cmd” (no quotes), and the menu will show a Command Prompt; right-click that entry and select Run as administrator. That will open the black box full of text with the prompt inside—it’s the line with a right-facing arrow at the end, probably something like C:\WINDOWS\system32\>. A blinking cursor will indicate where you type. Start with this:
The results bring up a section called User Profiles—those are all the Wi-Fi networks (aka WLANs or wireless local area networks) you’ve accessed and saved. Pick the network you want the password for, highlight it, and copy it. At the prompt below, type the following, but replace the Xs with the network name you copied; you need the quotation marks only if the network name has spaces in it, as in “Cup o Joe Cafe.”
In the new data that appears, look under Security Settings for the line labeled Key Content. The displayed word is the Wi-Fi password or key you are missing. (If you don’t like the command line, third-party password-recovery software such as Cain & Abel or WirelessKeyView does the same thing.)
In macOS, open up the Spotlight search (Cmd+Space) and type Terminal to get the Mac equivalent of a command prompt. Type the following, replacing the Xs with the network name.
For several more tips to view Wi-Fi passwords for networks you’ve attached to before, even on a smartphone, read How to View Saved Wi-Fi Passwords.Reset the Router When There’s No Other Option
You can’t do this remotely—you need physical access to the router. Before you do a full router reset to the factory settings simply to get on your own Wi-Fi, first try to log into the router. From there, you can easily reset a forgotten Wi-Fi password or passkey.
That’s not possible if you don’t know the router’s password. (The Wi-Fi password and router password are not the same, unless you went out of your way to assign the same password to both.) Resetting the router works only if you have access via Wi-Fi (which we’ve just established you don’t) or via a physical connection with an Ethernet cable.
If you have a router from your internet service provider (ISP), check the stickers on the unit before a reset.
