Your computer is synchronized with the Wi-Fi wireless network, but you do not remember the password that was previously used to establish the connection. What to do in this case? How to find out the password from my Wi-Fi network?
Most people try to write down a password somewhere or just look at the router every time a new connection occurs. However, if you already have a computer that is connected to your Wi-Fi network, you can easily view the password in it.
Try to find it in the router
If you are still using the username and password assigned by the provider, it is very easy to find. Modern Wi-Fi routers and combined router / modem modules offered by many Internet service providers include these default settings. Each router has its own password, which is often random. Where can I see the Wi-Fi password on my computer?
To find it, take your router and study it. You should see a sticker on it containing the SSID - the name of your wireless network, as well as the password for it. If you have not changed the default settings, you can use this data to connect to the network.
If you do not see such information printed on the router itself, try referring to the documentation that came with it for more information.
What should I do if you do not have a manual or if the password is not on the sticker of the router? You can try to pick it up using common combinations (e.g. admin). If these attempts fail, you should try other ways to find out the password from your Wi-Fi.
To implement them, you can send a password request to the network administrator or open a terminal on your computer and get the saved data with one command. This technology works both on Mac computers and on Windows.
Where can I see the Wi-Fi password on a Windows computer?
To view the Wi-Fi access code on your Windows device, you need to make sure that you are already connected to the network or have previously connected to it. If synchronization has taken place, click the mouse (right-click on it) on the Wi-Fi icon located on the taskbar and select "Open Network and Shared Center."
Now go and click "Change adapter settings" in the menu on the left. Find the icon for Wi-Fi, click on it with the mouse (right button) and select “Status”. This will display a Wi-Fi status report in which you can see basic information about your wireless network connection.
Click on the “Wireless Network Properties” tab, then go to the “Security” sub-item. Here you will see a text box called "Network Security Key". Go and check the "Show Symbols" field, and now you can see the access code you are looking for. Please note that this is just the password of the currently connected network.
What to do if you want to see the access code for networks to which your computer was previously connected?
Fortunately, this is also pretty easy to do on Windows 7. On OS versions 8 and 10, you'll have to use a command line that looks pretty confusing. If using Windows 7, find the "Network and Sharing Center," then click "Manage Wireless Networks." Now you can view a complete list of all the wireless connections your PC or laptop has ever synchronized with. Where can I see the Wi-Fi password on a computer?
Just double click on the name you are interested in. Then enter the “Security” sub-item and check the “Show Symbols” field again to see the password.
On Windows 8 and 10, you must apply the command line functionality by selecting Start and entering CMD. When it opens, enter the command below as follows:
netsh wlan show profile name
You will find all wireless profiles listed in the User Profiles section. The network name is on the right. Now, to see the password for a specific profile, enter the command below as follows:
netsh wlan show profile name = profile_name key = clear
Replace “profile_name” with the actual wi-fi network name specified in the previous command. You do not need to use quotation marks anywhere in command input.
When you run the second command, you will get a lot of results, but you are interested in finding exactly the line that starts with the key content. The search password will be displayed on the right.
We learn the password from your Wi-Fi quickly at the command line
Open a command prompt in administrator mode. Enter cmd in the “Run” field, click (right-click) the command line icon and select “Run as administrator”. Then type the command below and press enter to see the password:
netsh wlan show profile name = search_profile_name key = clear
Do not forget to replace the words “search_profile name” with the name of your wireless SSID (this is the name of the Wi-Fi network that your computer synchronizes). The password will appear in the "Security Settings" section.
If you want to see only the password and not other information, use the findstr command:
netsh wlan show profile name = profile_name key = clear | findstr key
If your password does not appear after executing the above command, you may not have opened the command prompt window as an administrator. Make the appropriate settings and repeat the above step.
If you use this technique to get a Wi-Fi password on a Windows platform but get the error message “Wireless Auto Configuration Service (wlansvc) is not working”, this can be fixed.
Click "Start" and type services.msc in the "Run" field. This is required to access Windows services. Go to the Autoconfig WLAN service and verify that the status is running. Once again, click the mouse (right click) on the above designation, select “Properties” and go to “Connections”. Check all settings to make sure they are all running.
Using app
In addition to the official method, there are utilities that can display all passwords from connections that took place on the computer. One such tool is Wireless Key View. To use it, just download it to your device and run it. A list of all connections with passwords will be displayed automatically.
How to do this on Mac computers
How to find out the password from your Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi) network if you use an Apple computer? To do this, press Command + Space at one point to open the Spotlight search dialog box. Enter “Keychain Access” without quotes into it and press Enter to launch the application.
Find the name of your network in the list, click on it, and then click on the info button - it looks like the letter “i” at the bottom of the interface. Check the box "Show password" in the window that appears. You will need to enter a password and your username from the OS “admin panel” in order to give you access to the network password. To do this, you will need an administrator account. After that, your Mac will show you the Wi-Fi network access code.
In Mac Terminal
How to see the password for Wi-Fi (“wifi”) on a Mac using the command line? As noted above, every Mac OS X installed uses Keychain to store network configuration data, and you can use the BSD “security” command to request something stored in this directory. This can be done using the following method.
Open Spotlight (Cmd + Space) and enter the terminal request to open its window. At the command prompt, type the following command (replace the “name” with your Wi-Fi connection name), then enter the Mac admin admin credentials to access the OS X keychain. The network password appears in plain text on the screen. The contents of the command line should be as follows:
security find-generic-password -wa name
What should Linux users do?
Where can I see the Wi-Fi password on a Linux computer? The above method can also be applied on Linux. In any distribution of this OS, the required actions are the same. Download the command line, enter the command below, replacing the “name” with the name of the SSID (your network). In the displayed results, the value of the psk field also indicates the password for wi-fi.
sudo cat / etc / NetworkManager / system-connections / name | grep psk =
How to see the Wi-Fi password on a Linux computer if you don’t know the network name? In this case, use the following command:
sudo grep psk = / etc / NetworkManager / system-connections / *
How to see the network password using the web interface of the router?
Another way to see the Wi-Fi password on your computer is to access the web interface of your router’s settings. This method assumes that the router uses either its own default username and password so that you can log in, or you know these current settings for it.
The configurations for each router are different, but access to it through a computer browser is approximately the same. Open any browser on your PC or laptop and type in its address 192.168. and then 0.1. either 1.1. In the window that opens, you can see the login and password request. Enter this data, after which you can go to the web interface of your router. Log in using the current access information. The interface may have a different look, but menu items or subsections will be displayed in any case.
Scroll through the menu and find its “Wi-Fi” item or a similarly marked section. By visiting it, you will see the current Wi-Fi access code displayed on the screen, and you can also change it immediately.
If all of the above methods do not work, you can reset your router to the default settings.
How to get access to the router without input data?
How to find out your Wi-Fi password if for some reason you cannot apply the methods mentioned above, and at the same time do not have access to the browser interface of your router? Under such circumstances, the situation can also be remedied. This method is undesirable, but it can be applied in the absence of an alternative.
You can reset your router and force it to use the default Wi-Fi passphrase. To do this, find the small reset button on it. This is often a key with holes that you must press with a bent paper clip or similar small object. Press the button for ten seconds or so, and your router settings will be completely erased and reset to default values. The wifi network name and password will be simultaneously restored as well.
How to find out the network name?
What if you don’t know what your router’s network name or SSID is? To find out, just look at the Wi-Fi settings on any of the devices connected to the network, and you will see this name. In addition, you can see this information without connecting, as it is usually indicated on the router itself or in the documentation for it.