You may have discovered a mysterious “WPS” button on your router after poking around for a while. To what end, though, does pressing this cryptic button to serve? Let’s dissect what “WPS” means, why there’s a Netgear orbi WPS button, and how it functions.
What exactly is WPS?
Wi-Fi Protected Setup, abbreviated as “WPS,” facilitates linking wireless clients to a wireless access point.
You have probably seen the horrors of default router passwords if you have connected a device to a router. These are often printed on the router’s rear and feature a long series of letters, numbers, and symbols. The default password is very complicated to prevent unauthorized access to the router. A hacker might easily gain access to your network if the password was something simple, like “admin.” Changing the default password was a best practice for network security long before randomly generated passwords became the norm.
Many people never update their router’s default password because they know it is secure. If your Wi-Fi password is written on the back of your device, anyone who reads it could use it to join your network.
If someone breaks into your home to read your router’s password, you have a much bigger problem on your hands than if someone were streaming Netflix via your data plan.
If it’s fair to presume that everyone near your router isn’t a bad guy, why not design a button that does the same thing? This is what how to use the WPS button on orbi is for.
Is There a Function to the WPS Button
By default, the WPS button allows any device within touching distance of the router to connect to it. This means you can connect a device by pressing a button rather than entering a long password.
You can trigger the router’s search for suitable gadgets by pressing the button. A WPS-enabled router will immediately pair with any devices trying to connect to it. After waiting for a connection for two minutes, the router will give up.
It’s important to remember that not everything is WPS compatible. Some newer devices don’t even support WPS anymore, and older ones won’t connect to it because it wasn’t around when it became popular. Whether or not a device supports WPS usually is not obvious, but if it does, the “connect through WPS” option will be available when adding the item to a new router.
The WPS button on my router isn’t working
The WPS button may look slightly different depending on the specific router model. Some models have the WPS button labeled very plainly. It needs to be in the vicinity of the machine’s rear end.
On specific models, the WPS sign, which is represented by two arrows moving in different directions within an oval, is utilized instead. It resembles the internationally recognized recycling symbol if the arrow were removed and the shape was more round than triangular.
Some people put “Wi-Fi Protected Setup,” just “WPS” typed out in full, next to the button. No worries, does the orbi router have a WPS button labeled the same way; all of the above should still function as a regular one.
Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS): How to Connect
Unfortunately, not all wireless networking hardware supports WPS. Not all newer devices have WPS support, and some older ones don’t even bother.
If you are able to set up your device using WPS, then it is compliant with the WPS standard. Once you’ve decided which router you’d like to connect to, the device will prompt you to enter a password or activate WPS.
Keep the setup page open and hit the WPS button on orbi if the second choice occurs. After that, your path will start actively seeking out potential new connections. It should be able to find yours and immediately connect it to the network once it has found it.
It’s important to remember that if you change the router’s password, any WPS-connected devices may lose connectivity. Your gadget will say its credentials are invalid if you try to reconnect.
Resetting your password to its previous value should fix the problem and allow you to reconnect. If you’d instead not do that (maybe because you’ve changed your password to something more secure), you can have your device forget the router and reconnect via WPS.
This advice is especially useful to remember if you believe an unauthorized user has connected to your network using the WPS button on the orbi router. You must change your password if someone else uses your account without your knowledge or permission after they have gained access to it.
Quick and Easy Linkup
The convenience of using WPS to link your devices to your router comes at the cost of potential security issues. After you’ve finished connecting everything, you should turn off WPS and create a guest network so visitors can access the internet securely.
Since you’ve already taken the precaution of turning off WPS, you might as well keep your wireless network secret. As obvious as it may sound, it is much more difficult for hackers to break into something they can’t see.