How do I change my wifi name and password?

How to change the network name and password without losing half the house, when it is worth doing, and the devices that always need rejoining afterwards.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 30 min
Read: 4 min

Short answer

Sign in to the router's admin page or app, find the wireless settings, and change the network name or password there. Every device then has to rejoin with the new details, so do it when you have an hour, and write the new password somewhere before you start.

Changing it is easy. The part that goes wrong is the aftermath: smart plugs, printers, doorbells and televisions all hold the old password and go quiet without complaining, sometimes days later.

Step by step

Decide whether you actually need to change it.Worth doing if the password has been shared widely, if it is still the short one printed on the router, or after anyone has had access you would rather they no longer had. Not worth doing routinely.
List the devices that will need rejoining first.Walk round the house: televisions, streaming sticks, printers, smart plugs and bulbs, doorbells and cameras, speakers, robot vacuums, thermostats, games consoles. This list is the whole job.
Get into the router.Either the provider's app, or a web address printed on a label on the router itself, using the admin password from that label. That admin password is a different thing from the wifi password.
Find the wireless settings.Wording varies — wireless, wifi, network name. You will see the network name and the password or security key. Change one or both.
Choose a long passphrase rather than a complicated short one.Three or four unrelated words is both stronger and far easier to read out to a visitor than a random string. Length matters more than symbols here.
Keep the network name boring.Do not use your surname, house number or address. A neutral name gives away nothing to anyone scanning from the street.
Leave the security type on WPA3, or WPA2 if that is all your devices support.Never select the open or WEP options, even temporarily to get an old device on. If something will only work without encryption, replace it.
Save, then rejoin your own device first.The router usually restarts. Confirm you can get back on before you start working through the rest of the house, so you know the change took.
Work through the device list room by room.Smart home gadgets are the awkward ones: some rejoin from their app, some need to be put back into pairing mode. Do these while you still remember what you changed.

Tips

Store the new password in your password manager and in the household information folder, not just in your head.
If the point is to remove one person's access, change the password rather than the name — the name is only cosmetic.
Set up a guest network for visitors instead of sharing the main password. Then you never have to do this exercise again for social reasons.

Common mistakes

Changing it just before going away — Smart heating, cameras and doorbells drop off silently and you find out when you are not there to fix them.
Using the reset pinhole to 'start again' — That returns the router to factory settings, undoing everything else you have configured, including guest networks and port settings, and it does not help with a forgotten wifi password when the printed one still works.

If it doesn't work

Devices keep trying the old password

Cause: They have the old network stored and will not prompt — Fix: On each device, forget or remove the network, then join it again. On smart home gadgets this usually means re-running setup in their app.

Cannot get into the router's admin page

Cause: Wrong address, or the admin password was changed at some point — Fix: Use the address and credentials on the router label. If the admin password was changed and is lost, a factory reset is the only way back, and that reconfigures everything.

A smart plug or bulb will not rejoin

Cause: It only supports 2.4GHz and the router now presents a combined or 5GHz-only network — Fix: Look for an option to split the bands temporarily, or to enable a 2.4GHz-compatible mode during setup, then switch back.

The printer works from one computer but not another

Cause: The printer rejoined with a new address and old entries are stale — Fix: Remove and re-add the printer on the affected computer rather than reinstalling drivers.

Questions people ask

How often should I change my wifi password?

Not on a schedule. Change it when there is a reason — wide sharing, a lost device, or moving off the short default. Routine changes cause more household disruption than they prevent.

Will changing the name break anything permanently?

No, but it forces every device to rejoin as if it were a new network, which is more work than changing only the password. If you only want to lock someone out, change the password.