How to Change Your WiFi Password on a BT, Sky, Virgin or EE Router (and What Breaks After)

To change your WiFi password, open the router's settings page in a browser (192.168.1.254 for BT and EE, 192.168.0.1 for Sky and Virgin), log in with the admin password printed on the hub, open the Wireless or WiFi section, type a new password, save, then reconnect every device. The reconnecting is the slow part.

Two passwords, not one

A router has two different passwords. The WiFi password (also called the wireless key) is what your phone, laptop and plugs use to join. The admin password is what the settings page asks for, and you need it to change the first one. Both are printed on the hub's label, or on the pull-out card on BT and EE hubs.

If the admin password was changed years ago and nobody remembers it, the reset pinhole on the back returns both passwords to the label values: hold a paperclip in it for about 20 seconds until the lights flash. It also wipes any settings you changed, such as a fixed channel, so note those first. There is no way to read the old password back.

Where the settings page is for each UK provider

Type the address into a browser on a device already on the WiFi. The provider apps do the same job with fewer menus.

Provider	Hub	Settings address	Default password	App
BT	Smart Hub, Smart Hub 2	192.168.1.254	Pull-out card or hub label	BT or EE app
EE	Smart Hub (older Bright Box: 192.168.1.1)	192.168.1.254	Pull-out card	EE app
Sky	Sky Hub, Sky Q Hub, Sky Broadband Hub	192.168.0.1 (username admin)	Printed on the hub; very old hubs used "sky"	My Sky app
Virgin Media	Hub 3, Hub 4, Hub 5	192.168.0.1 (192.168.100.1 in modem mode)	"Settings password" on the base	Virgin Media Connect app
TalkTalk	Wi-Fi Hub	192.168.1.1	Label on the hub	Settings page
Plusnet	Hub One, Hub Two	192.168.1.254	Label on the hub	Settings page
Vodafone	Wi-Fi Hub	192.168.1.1 or vodafone.connect	Label on the hub	Vodafone Broadband app

If the address does not load, your hub is probably in modem mode behind a mesh system, and the password lives in the mesh app instead; see mesh WiFi vs extenders.

How to change the WiFi password, step by step

1. Find the address in the table above and open it in a browser on a connected device.
2. Log in with the admin password from the label or card. Sky also wants a username: admin.
3. Open the wireless settings. BT calls it Advanced Settings then Wireless; Virgin and Sky say Wireless; TalkTalk and Vodafone say Wi-Fi.
4. Change the password. If the hub shows separate 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz sections, change both, or half your devices will carry on with the old one.
5. Save or Apply. The WiFi restarts and every device drops off, including the one you are using.
6. Reconnect your phone with the new password, check a web page loads, then work through the house.

Keep the network name the same. Devices that know the name simply ask for the new password; a new name makes every device forget the network entirely.

Making it strong but typeable

Use three unrelated words, which is also the National Cyber Security Centre's advice. CopperKettleTuesday is 19 characters, far harder to guess than a word with a 1 on the end, and possible to type into a doorbell app in one go. Avoid your surname, the house name and the street: all three are on the parcels by the door.

What breaks after you change it

Every device drops at once, and phones and laptops are the easy part. The pain is the smart kit: the doorbell, cameras, plugs, bulbs, thermostat, TV and printer, none of which has a keyboard. Some take a new password in their app; many only offer "remove the device and set it up again", which means a factory reset, pairing mode and redoing the schedules.

Plugs and bulbs are the worst, one reset each. A Ring or Nest doorbell reconnects through its app in about five minutes if it is on the right band; see why a Ring doorbell keeps going offline. Hubs cabled to the router, such as Hive, Tado and Hue, do not notice, and neither do wired cameras.

So, before changing anything, list every device on the WiFi, including the loft and the garden; most hubs show a connected-device list. Pick an hour when nobody is working from home, then reconnect in this order:

1. Phones and tablets, because the apps for everything else run on them.
2. The doorbell and cameras, so the house is watched again before dark.
3. The thermostat, before the schedule misses its evening slot.
4. Plugs, bulbs and speakers, room by room.
5. TV, consoles, printer and laptops, which ask for it themselves when next used.

If the WiFi keeps dropping, a new password fixes nothing: dropouts are a band or channel problem, covered in WiFi that keeps disconnecting. Changing the WiFi channel is a different setting on the same page, covered in our guide to improving your WiFi signal.

Three settings to change while you are in there

The admin password. Anyone on your WiFi can type the label password into the settings page. Give the admin login its own password and write both on a card inside the hub's cupboard.

WPA2 or WPA3. WPA3 is newer and stronger, but some older plugs, printers and cameras will not join a WPA3-only network, so pick the mixed WPA2/WPA3 mode if offered and plain WPA2 (AES) if not. Never WEP, never open.

The guest network. Switch it on with a simple password of its own for visitors and the children's friends. They cannot see your laptop or camera recorder from it, and you can change it whenever you like.

How we set homes up so this stops hurting

On the networks we fit, the smart devices sit on their own network name, so the family password can change as often as you like and the doorbell, cameras and plugs never know. It also keeps a cheap plug with a bad firmware update away from the computer with your bank on it. Our UniFi home network guide explains how, and our WiFi and networking service fits it across Sussex, most often around Horsham.

"I can't get into my router" is a normal part of a WiFi visit. We arrive with the default logins for every UK hub and leave you a card with the new passwords and a list of what is connected.