What Is WPS on a Router, How It Works and Whether to Turn It Off

Many routers have a small button labeled WPS, sometimes with a symbol of two curved arrows. It promises to connect a device to your Wi-Fi without typing the password. The push-button version is a reasonable shortcut for printers and extenders; the PIN version that usually comes with it has been a known security hole for more than a decade. Here is how to use the first and get rid of the second.

What WPS Does

WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a standard from the Wi-Fi Alliance, around since the late 2000s, that makes joining a network easier. It has two common methods:

• Push button. You press the WPS button on the router and then on the device (or choose WPS in the device’s menu) within about two minutes. The router hands the Wi-Fi password to the device automatically.
• PIN. The device or the router shows an eight-digit PIN, which you enter on the other side. Many routers print a WPS PIN on the label and accept it at any time.

WPS does not replace your password or your security mode. It is only a way to deliver the existing password to a new device.

How to Connect With the WPS Button

1. Make sure the device supports WPS — printers, Wi-Fi extenders and some TVs and set-top boxes do.
2. Press the WPS button on the router briefly. On many routers, holding it for several seconds does something else, such as resetting the router, so check the manual if the button is shared.
3. Within two minutes, press the WPS button on the device or choose WPS / Push Button in its network settings.
4. Wait until the device reports a connection. The router’s WPS light usually stops blinking.

If it fails, the device may only support the PIN method, or the router may have WPS turned off.

Why the WPS PIN Is a Security Risk

In 2011, a security researcher showed that the WPS PIN can be guessed far faster than its eight digits suggest. The router checks the PIN in two halves and tells the attacker which half was wrong, and the last digit is only a checksum. Instead of 100 million combinations, an attacker needs at most about 11,000 attempts, which free tools can work through in hours. The U.S. CERT published an advisory about the flaw.

Once the PIN is guessed, the router gives the attacker the Wi-Fi password, however long and random it is. Many routers added lockouts after repeated wrong PINs, but not all, and some routers kept accepting PIN connections even when WPS was supposedly turned off in the settings.

The push-button method does not have this weakness, because it only works for two minutes after someone physically presses the button. The problem is that on many routers you cannot turn off the PIN without turning off WPS altogether.

Which Devices Still Use WPS

Fewer every year. Android removed WPS support in Android 9, and iPhones, iPads and Macs never supported it. Windows laptops can connect with WPS on some routers, but typing the password or scanning a QR code is just as easy.

WPS remains common on printers, which often have no keyboard, on Wi-Fi extenders and some mesh units, which use it for one-button setup, and on some smart TVs, set-top boxes and older game consoles.

If you do not use any of these with WPS, you lose nothing by turning it off.

How to Turn WPS Off

1. Log in to the router — see what is my router IP if you need its address.
2. Look for WPS under Wireless, Wi-Fi settings or Advanced → Wireless. Some routers call the PIN setting “Router PIN” or “Enable PIN”.
3. Turn WPS off, or at least the PIN method if the router allows that separately, and save.
4. If you need WPS once — for example to connect a printer — turn it on, use the push button, and turn it off again.

While you are in the settings, check the security mode as well; WPA2 vs WPA3 explains which to choose. WPS also tends not to work with WPA3-only networks, another sign that its time is over.

Easier Ways to Share Wi-Fi Without WPS

Phones join a network by scanning a QR code with the camera; our Wi-Fi QR code generator makes one from your network name and password. For TVs and consoles, an easy-to-type password helps: the Wi-Fi password generator has a mode with short groups of letters and digits. And visitors or printers you do not fully trust can go on a guest network; see how to set up a guest Wi-Fi network.