Wi-Fi Password and WPA2/WPA3 Encryption: How to Protect Your Home Network and Why Old Devices Stop Connecting

The Wi-Fi password is the first and most important line of defence for a home network. It decides whether a neighbour can use your internet, and whether an outsider can see your cameras, printer and shared folders. But protection depends not only on the password itself but on the encryption method chosen in the router. Many routers, especially older and provider-supplied ones, still run in outdated modes. Let's look at which encryption to choose, how to create a strong yet convenient password and what to do if some devices stop connecting after you change the settings.

Types of Wi-Fi encryption

• Open network — no password and no encryption. Anyone nearby can connect and see unencrypted traffic. Unacceptable for a home network.
• WEP — the oldest standard, cracked in minutes. If your router uses WEP, it needs reconfiguring or replacing.
• WPA (first version, TKIP) — also outdated and vulnerable, and it limits Wi-Fi speed as well.
• WPA2 (AES) — the main standard of recent years. With a long, complex password it's reliable. Its weak point is short, simple passwords: by capturing the moment a device connects, the password can be guessed offline.
• WPA3 — the modern standard. It protects even a relatively simple password from offline guessing, uses stronger encryption, and protects traffic even if the password becomes known later. It needs support from both the router and the devices.
• WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode — new devices connect with WPA3, old ones with WPA2. A good compromise for most homes.

What to choose

If the router and all your devices support WPA3, use it. If you have old laptops, printers, TVs and smart home devices, use WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode. If the router only supports WPA2, choose WPA2 with AES encryption (not TKIP, and not an "auto" setting that includes TKIP) and a long password. A router that supports nothing beyond WEP or WPA is due for replacement.

What the password should be like

• Long — at least 12 characters, preferably 16 or more. Length matters more than "complex" characters.
• Unrelated to you — not your phone number, birthday, flat number, surname or company name. Those are the first to be tried.
• Easy to type — the password will be entered on TVs, set-top boxes and guests' phones. A good option is a phrase of several unrelated words in Latin letters with a number, such as four random words. Avoid characters that are hard to enter with a TV remote.
• Unique — not the same as your email or bank password.

If old devices won't connect

After enabling WPA3 or changing settings, some devices stop connecting: old laptops, printers, TVs, cameras and smart plugs. The options are:

• Enable WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode instead of "WPA3 only".
• Update the laptop's Wi-Fi driver or the device firmware — WPA3 support is often added in updates.
• Create a separate network for legacy and smart home devices — a guest or IoT network with WPA2, isolated from the main one.
• Check that the password doesn't contain characters the old device can't enter.

Other security settings

• WPS — turn it off: on many routers the WPS PIN can be cracked, cancelling out any password.
• The router admin password — change the factory default, or anyone who connects can change the settings.
• Firmware — update it regularly; old versions can have vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi itself.
• Remote management from the internet — turn it off if you don't use it.

How often to change the password

There's no need to keep changing a good password. But you should change it if people you no longer trust knew it — former tenants, neighbours, ex-employees — if unknown devices appear in the router's list, or if the password was kept somewhere visible, such as on a sticker that guests have seen. For guests it's better to use a guest network, whose password can be changed without affecting your own devices.

What our technician does

1. Checks the router's current security settings and the list of connected devices.
2. Sets up the best encryption — WPA3 or WPA2/WPA3 — and a strong, convenient password.
3. Turns off WPS, changes the admin password and updates the firmware.
4. Creates separate networks for guests and legacy smart home devices.
5. Reconnects all your devices, including TVs, printers and cameras.

A real example

A small dental clinic in Vake had a Wi-Fi password that matched the clinic's phone number — it was printed on their business cards. The router ran in WPA/WPA2 mode with TKIP, and the computers holding patient records and the X-ray station were on the same network. Our technician updated the firmware, moved the main network to WPA2/WPA3 with a long password known only to staff, and created an isolated guest network for patients with its own password at the reception desk. As a bonus, Wi-Fi speed increased — TKIP mode had been limiting it.

Where should you keep the password? Ideally in a password manager on your phone, so you don't have to remember it when you need to connect a new device. A password on a sticker on the router itself is convenient, but every guest can see it. If the router is in plain view, remove the sticker with the factory password once you've changed it.

Call a technician

If you want to secure your home or office Wi-Fi properly, we'll come to any district of Tbilisi around the clock. Learn more on our Wi-Fi setup, router setup and local network setup pages.