How to Hack Wi-Fi

Passwords
Your intensions when cracking a Wi-Fi password are no doubt noblewe trust
youso here's how to do it.

Chances are you have a Wi-Fi network at home, or live

close to one (or more) that tantalizingly pop up in a list
whenever you boot up the laptop. The problem is, if there's
a lock next to the name, that indicates security for the Wi-Fi
network is turned on. Without the password or passphrase,
you're not going to get access to that network, or that sweet,
sweet Internet that goes with it.

Perhaps you forgot the password on your own network, or

don't have neighbors willing to share the Wi-Fi goodness.
You could just go to a caf and buy a latte and use the
"free" Wi-Fi there. Download an app for your phone
like WiFi-Map , and you'll have a list of over 2 million
hotspots with free Wi-Fi for the taking (including some
passwords for locked Wi-Fi connections, if they're shared by
any of the app's 7 million users).
But there are other ways to get back on the wireless, though
some of them require such extreme patience and waiting,
that caf idea is going to look pretty good.

Reset the Router

Before you do this, just try to log into the router first. From
there, you can easily reset your wireless password if you've
forgotten it.
The problem is when you don't know the password for the
router, either. (They're not the same thing, unless you set it
up that way). Resetting the router is about as brute force a
method as you get, and it only works if you have physical
access to the router.
Almost every router in existence has a recessed reset
button it. Push it with a pen or unfolded paperclip, hold it for
about 10 seconds, and the router will change to the factory
settings.

If you've got a router that came from your Internet service

provider, check the stickers before a resetthey might have
printed the routerand Wi-Fi passwords (sometimes called
the key) right on the hardware.
Once it's reset, you need another password (plus a
username) to access the router itself. Generally you can do
this in a Web browser of any PC attached to the router via

Ethernetyou'll need that since the reset probably killed

any potential Wi-Fi connection you had going in.
The URL to type is either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, or
some variation. Once you're asked for a
username/password, what do you do? Check your manual.
Which you probably lost or threw away. So instead, go
toRouterPasswords.com . The site exists for one reason: to
tell people the default username/password on just about
every router ever created.

You'll need the router's model number, but that's easy

enough to find on the back or bottom. You'll quickly see a
pattern among router makers of having the username
of admin and a password of password.Since most people

are lazy and don't change an assigned password, you could

try it before hitting the reset button. (But c'mon, you're better
than thatchange the password once you're in the router's
menus in your Web browser.)
Once you've accessed the router interface, go to the Wi-Fi
settings, turn on the wireless networks, and assign them
strong but easy-to-recall passwords. After all, you don't want
to share with neighbors without your permission.

Crack the Code

You didn't come here because the headline said "reset the
router," though. You want to know how to crack the
password on a Wi-Fi network.
Searching on "wi-fi password hack," or other variations, nets
you a lot of linksmostly for software on sites where the
adware and bots and scams are pouring like snake oil.
Download them at your own risk, for Windows PCs
especially. Better to have a PC that you can afford to get
effed up a bit if you go that route. I had multiple attempts
with tools I found just get outright deleted by my antivirus
before I could even try to run the EXE installation file.
Or, create a system just for this kind of thing, maybe dualboot into a separate operating system that can do what's
called "penetration testing"a form of offensive approach
security, where you examine a network for any and all
possible paths of breach. Kali Linux is a Linux distribution

built for just that purpose. You can run Kali Linux off a CD or
USB key without even installing it to the hard drive. Another
option isBackTrack Linux they're actually both from the
same developers, but Kali is the "polished" version. Both are
free and come with all the tools you'd need to crack a
network.

If you don't want to install a whole OS, then you could try
the two tried-and-true tools of Wi-Fi hackers.
Aircrack has been around for years, going back to when WiFi security was only based on WEP (Wired Equivalent
Privacy). WEP was weak even back in the day, and was
supplanted in 2004 by WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). The
latest Aircrack-ng 1.2 labeled as a "set of tools for auditing
wireless networks," so it should be part of any network

admin's toolkitwill take on cracking WEP and WPA-PSK

keys.
Aircrack-ng comes with full documentation, but it's not going
to be that simple. To crack a network you also need to have
the right kind of Wi-Fi adapter in your computer, one that
supports packet injection. You need to be comfortable with
the command line (running things using CMD) and have a
lot of patience. Your Wi-Fi adapter and Aircrack have to
gather a lot of data to get anywhere close to decrypting the
passkey on the network you're targeting. It could take a
while.
If you prefer a graphical user interface (GUI), there is
KisMAC-ng, or there was. The website was not working as
of the writing of this article. While KisMAC can crack some
keys with the right adapter installed, it's mainly known as a
"sniffer" for seeking out Wi-Fi networks. It's the kind of thing
we don't need much of these days, since our phones and
tablets do a pretty good job of showing us every since Wi-Fi
signal in the air around us. Also on the Mac: Wi-Fi Crack . To
use them or Aircrack-ng on the Mac, you need to install
them using MacPorts , a tool for installing command-line
products on the Mac.

Cracking stronger WPA/WPA2 passwords and passphrases

is the real trick these days. Reaver is the one tool that looks
to be up to the task (and it's part of the BackTrack Linux
distro). You'll need that command-line comfort again to work
with it, or you'll have to spend $65 for Reaver Pro , a
hardware device that works with Windows and Mac. After
two to 10 hours of trying brute force attacks, Reaver should
be able to reveal a password... but it's only going to work if
the router you're going after has both a strong signal and
WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) turned on. WPS is the feature
where you can push a button on router, another button on a
Wi-Fi device, and they find each other and link automagically, with a fully encrypted connection. It's also the

"hole" through which Reaver crawls. It can generally break

the code in about 24 hours.
Even if you turn off WPS, sometimes it's not completely off,
but that's your only recourse if you're worried about hacks
on your own router. Or, get a router that doesn't support
WPS.