Here’s Everything You Should Know About the WPS Button

Here’s Everything You Should Know About the WPS Button

Do you have a Netgear WiFi router? Chances are you may have noticed a small button with the word WPS at the backside of the device. You might wonder – what exactly does this button do? The information below will help you understand everything there is to know about this mysterious button.

First, let us understand what WPS is.

What is WPS?

WPS is short for WiFi Protected Setup. It provides you instant access to the internet through the Netgear WiFi router. We all know how cumbersome it is when trying to give access of the router to a new device. The router’s default password is a combination of letters, special characters, numbers, and symbols. It makes setting up the new device a headache for many.

Moreover, remembering such a complicated password is not that easy for anyone when they want to access the internet. The WPS button takes care of this conundrum. So, if you own a Netgear N600 WiFi router, you can enable or disable it during Netgear N600 setup.

How Exactly Does WPS Do That?

Pressing the WPS button makes the WiFi router start looking for WPS-enabled devices within a short range. If it comes across any, the device would not need a passcode to connect and access the network. In other words, WPS removes the inconveniences of having to key in the passcode everytime you want to access a web page.

That said, let us now look at some of the potential benefits of this button.

Benefits of WPS Button

As stated above, the biggest advantage of using the WPS button is convenience. With this button ON, you can connect any device without the need for the WiFi router’s ID or passcode. This makes it easier to connect devices even if you forget the password.

But, using the WPS button does come at increased risk too, let us see what that is.

Risk of Using WPS Button

WPS came into being as a way to let WiFi router owners access the internet in case they forgot the network password. All you have to do is, just push the button or activate the function in the router’s admin settings to get instant access to the internet.

Unfortunately, the year 2011 brought out an easy-to-target vulnerability of the WPS button. All a hacker or data thief had to do was execute Brute Force attacks on the PIN you set for the WPS. Router manufacturers tried fixing this vulnerability with regular updates, but sometimes, even that did not help.

It leaves an average internet user wondering what other vulnerabilities the hacker can exploit through WPS.

Thus, using the WPS button comes with a significant security risk for you. With the WPS button ON, it gives cybercriminals enough time to guess the router password until they get it. Once they get the password, it is not hard for them to access any information they want to, until you reset the router’s password.

It is due to this reason that tech experts advise WiFi router owners to keep the WPS feature disabled.

So, if you have a Netgear WiFi router, then disabling this feature is possible by following the on-screen instructions after you access the router login page. However, if the WPS button is enabled on the Netgear router and you don’t know how to disable it, the information below will help.

How to Disable WPS on Netgear WiFi Router?

  • Launch a web browser.
  • In the address bar of the browser, type the IP address 192.168.1.1.
  • Enter the username and password.
  • This opens up the Basic Home Page.
  • Select Advanced Setup then Wireless Settings.
  • Under the WPS Settings select Disable Router’s Pin check box.
  • Click on the Apply button.

Using the WPS button does offer ease of accessing the internet, but one can’t simply ignore the security risk it poses.

Conclusion

All in all, using the WPS button is not something tech experts recommend. It might give offer convenience, but the question is – Are you ready to put sensitive data at risk of hacking for easy access to the internet?

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