Home WiFi networks normally use a pre-shared password to access, that we have a pre-shared key, means that all WiFi clients that want to connect to the WiFi network, must enter and know the same access password. Configuring a robust password is essential to protect the WiFi network from intruders, an intruder will not only steal our connection bandwidth, but could also carry out any type of attack to intercept our communications. Do you want to know the best WiFi key generators and what should we take into account?
What should we take into account to configure a good WiFi key?
The first thing we must take into account to configure a good WiFi key is the length of the password. If you use the WPA, WPA2 or WPA3 protocols, we have a minimum length and also a maximum password length, specifically, we will have to enter a minimum of 8 characters and a maximum of 63 characters . Within this range, we can put the characters that you want, although our recommendation is that you use the following:
- Uppercase letters and lowercase letters
- Numbers
- Symbols
Regarding the use of different symbols, our recommendation is that you use “common” symbols, such as the period, comma or parentheses. If we use characters such as the Ñ, the euro or dollar symbol, we may have problems connecting to the WiFi network. Some router firmwares do not support these symbols, and it is possible that your WiFi client also has a problem connecting us. As we do not know if the firmware of the router or AP supports it, we must test it, or go directly to the “safe” point of using common symbols such as a period, comma, parentheses, plus or minus symbol etc.
Online password generators
To generate a secure password for our WiFi network, it is best to use an online password generator, in this way, we can access with any web browser, either on the computer, laptop or on our smartphone with Android or iOS. This provides us with ease to generate the password, without the need to install any program or application.
All these password generators allow us to generate keys with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and even symbols. An important detail is that if we get a “rare” symbol, it would be better to change it to a more common symbol such as _ or a period.
Password
It is a super simple web page where we can choose what type of password we want to generate:
- Letters
- Numbers
- All characters
- Easy to remember
We can create passwords from 4 characters to 20 characters, to adequately protect the WiFi network, we recommend that you select the maximum length.
Avast
The Avast password generator allows us to generate passwords from 1 to 50 characters, ideal if you want greater security. The first thing we must do is select the length we want, and what characters we are willing to use, it is best to select all characters (uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols).
1password
Another interesting alternative is 1password, one of the best known and most used tools. By default it comes with 20 characters, but we can incorporate up to 100 characters. We must remember that WiFi networks allow up to 63 characters maximum, so you must limit it to 63 characters maximum.
What security protocol to use?
Currently the WiFi Alliance recommends using the WPA2 or WPA3 protocol, both in its “Personal” version with pre-shared PSK key, or in its “Enterprise” version with RADIUS server authentication. Logically, it will always be safer to use WPA3-personal than WPA, therefore, if your router has the ability to configure this protocol, it would be ideal to achieve the maximum possible security. If the router gives us the option to choose between TKIP (insecure) and AES (secure), we must always use AES, because TKIP has been canceled by the WiFi Alliance.
In ASUS routers, in the WiFi configuration section we can configure the different encryption, and just below we enter the WiFi access password. From a minimum of 8 characters to a maximum of 63 characters.
As you can see, this router supports WPA3-Personal only (most secure), and also WPA2 / WPA3-Personal to provide backward compatibility.
In AVM FRITZ! Routers, in the WiFi configuration section we can also configure WPA2-Personal, or WPA2 / WPA3-Personal, and just below we enter the PSK access password:
If we are in a professional environment with WiFi Cloud access points or with a WiFi controller, we can also configure the security and the password generated previously. In the following gallery you can see some screenshots of Nuclias Cloud, the environment in the cloud for managing WiFi access points and switches from the manufacturer D-Link:
It is also very important that, if you use a RADIUS server for client authentication, the authentication password of the APs against RADIUS is robust, for this, we can do exactly the same as in the PSK WiFi network:
As you have seen, with these WiFi password generators, and with the correct wireless security settings (WPA3 or if not, WPA2) we can correctly protect the WiFi network. Before finishing, we would like to indicate that it is always advisable to disable WPS, as it only brings security problems. In WPA3 the WPS disappears, but still all routers support WPS by having WPA2.
