It’s pretty well known now that to find a router’s login URL (eg. 192.168.0.1), the easiest way is to just check the sticker on the back of the router itself, where the login URL (plus the username and password to access the settings/admin page) should be displayed on a sticker or label.

However, we get that users can’t always access this sticker to check, so how do we go about finding this login IP when we don’t have physical access to the router to check the label, or the sticker has been removed? Sometimes the router is locked away in a room we don’t have access to, so we can’t easily find the login details. Or we might just have forgotten the router login or don’t know it.

Don’t worry, there are a couple of ways around this problem:

You can often guess your router’s login URL by trying some commonly used values (eg. 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254), or you can also use the Command Prompt on a connected computer to find it. For Windows, this means opening up Command Prompt and typing in “ipconfig” to find the router login (default gateway).

Here are the quick steps for finding a router login IP using the Command Prompt in Windows:

• Hold WIN + R or WIN + X to open up the Run box
• Type in cmd.exe or choose Command Prompt
• Type in “ipconfig” and press enter.
• Your router login URL is the default gateway

We’ll run through these steps in more detail below, but first we’ll start with the non technical, but often still feasable way of just guessing your router’s login URL, before moving onto the technically correct Command Prompt method.

Note – For all these steps, we still assume you are within the home and connected to the router by Wi-Fi or LAN cable. In other words, you don’t have physical access to the router to check, but you are still connected to it and not in a totally different place. See here for the more complex process of accessing your router settings from outside your home network.

Option #1 – Guess Your Router Login URL

One way to find your router login URL is to just keep trying common ones until you get it right. In fairness, this will work with most routers, because they use a common set of login URLs, but remember after that, you still need the username and password to login.

Here’s a list of all the different router login URLs I can remember being used, in approximate order of regularity:

• 192.168.0.1
• 192.168.1.1
• 192.168.1.254
• 192.168.2.1
• 192.168.0.2
• 192.168.20.1
• 192.168.100.1
• 10.0.0.1
• 10.1.1.1
• 192.168.1.2
• 192.168.10.2
• 192.168.254.254
• 192.168.31.1

Once you’ve put in the correct login URL, you’ll know, because that’s when the username/password boxes pop up.

However, the next hard part would be guessing the username/password if you don’t have access to the label to check. See the section further below for some common values used for the username/password.

Option #2 – Find Your Router Login URL Using The Command Prompt

However, if you’ve got access to a Windows or Mac computer, there is a more technically correct way to find the exact login URL (also known as the default gateway) for your router.

Here are the quick steps for this:

• Windows 7, 10 & Vista – Hold WIN + R to open the Run box, type in cmd.exe, hit Enter. Then type ipconfig and the default gateway should be displayed; this is your default router login IP.
• Windows 8/8.1 – Hold WIN + X, choose Command Prompt, type ipconfig and hit Enter. The default gateway should be displayed; this is your default router login IP.
• Mac – Click the Apple icon, select System Preferences….Network. Select the right connection (ethernet or Wi-Fi); if on Wi-Fi, click on Advanced….TCP/IP and the default gateway should be listed. If on Ethernet, the default gateway should be listed next to Router.

Note – by “WIN” we mean the Windows icon; it’s usually in the bottom left of most keyboards.

Windows Step 1 – Open up Command Prompt and type IP config and press enter

Windows Step 2 – The default gateway should be displayed and this is your router login IP:

Once you’ve typed in the correct login IP, you’ll know it, because then on most routers, a pair of username/password boxes should come up, and you can move to the next step:

How To Log In To Your Router

Most readers probably already know how to do this, but just need the login URL to get started, but here are the steps anyway for logging into a router settings/admin page:

• Make sure that whatever device you are using is actually connected to the router, either via a LAN cable into one of the ports on the back, or to the router’s Wi-Fi network. Without being connected to the router, you can’t login.
• On any connected device, type the login URL (eg. 192.168.0.1) into the address bar of any browser (eg. Chrome/Firefox/Opera etc).
• Once you use the correct URL, a pair of username/password boxes should pop up.
• Type in the router username/password, again displayed on the sticker on the back, as long as they haven’t been changed. See here for guessing common login details if you don’t have access.
• If the username/password have been changed, then you’ll need to do a full factory reset of it to revert all settings and login details to default.
• See here for more tips if you are struggling to access the router settings page.

Here are some commonly used values for the username/password:

• Username/Admin – The default router admin is often just admin or administrator. Try also large A at the front.
  
• Password – The default router password can sometimes be just password or password1, but is often something else nowadays for security reasons, like the router serial number. This can often be the sticking point – you can guess the router login IP and admin, but can’t guess the password. But admin and password (small case) can sometimes work.
• Sometimes the admin and password are BOTH ‘admin’ (common) or BOTH ‘password’ (less common), so you can try this as well.
• Sometimes ‘root’ is also used as the username and password, but much more rarely.
• Try also your ISP or router brand in small case for the password.
• Sometimes routers either don’t require a username or password, or require that you leave one of the two blank.

See also our router login credentials guide for the default username/password for all major router brands.

You can also try simply searching online for your router brand/model or ISP plus ‘default router login’ and you can often find it.