How to share a Wi-Fi password safely

Start with the best option: do not share it at all

If your guests only need internet access, a guest network is better than sharing your main password:

• It keeps visitors away from your printer, laptop and smart-home devices.
• You can use a simple password, or change it as often as you like, without disconnecting your own devices.
• Many routers can turn the guest network off with one switch when the visit ends.

Look for “Guest network” in your router’s settings. If you do not know how to open them, the address and login are usually on a label on the router itself.

Share in person with a QR code

If your phone is next to the other person’s phone, the built-in options are the neatest:

• iPhone to iPhone: when the other person tries to join the network, your iPhone offers to share the password with them. Tap the prompt to send it.
• Android: open the Wi-Fi settings, tap the connected network and look for a Share option. It shows a QR code the other phone can scan with its camera.

Nobody has to read out or type the password, and it is never copied anywhere.

Share remotely with a short-lived clip

Sometimes the person is not in the room: a relative visiting tomorrow, a flatmate arriving later, a colleague at a different desk. In those cases, a short-lived online clipboard keeps the password out of chat history.

1. Copy the password from your router’s label or your password manager. If you type it, check each character carefully.
2. Open this site and paste it into the Send text box. If you want the other person to know which network it belongs to, add the network name on the line above.
3. Set the expiry to 10 minutes and switch on Delete after the first view.
4. Tap Save to clipboard and send the person only the 6-digit code, or let them scan the QR code.
5. They enter the code on the Receive text tab, copy the password and paste it into their Wi-Fi settings.

Because the clip disappears after the first view, someone who finds the code later gets nothing. If you can, give the code over a call or in person, and tell them to open it when they are ready to use it.

Tips that make the password easier to share

• Make it readable. A password of three or four unrelated words is easier to type than a short string of random symbols, and is just as strong when it is long enough.
• Avoid look-alike characters. Letters and numbers such as l, I, 1, O and 0 are a common cause of “it says the password is wrong”.
• Keep a copy in your password manager. Then you are never reading it off a sticky note.
• Write the network name too. Many homes have two or three similar names, such as one for each frequency band.

What not to do

• Do not post it publicly, even in a “temporary” story or a photo of the router label.
• Do not leave it in a shared document or a group chat that many people can read.
• Do not reuse the same password that you use for email, banking or other accounts.

If you think it got out

Change the password in the router settings, then reconnect your own devices. It takes a few minutes and ends access for everyone who had the old one. If you use a guest network, you can do this without touching your main devices.

Troubleshooting

The other person’s phone still says the password is wrong. Check for look-alike characters, make sure they selected the right network, and ask them to paste the password rather than type it.

The code has stopped working. If you used delete after the first view, a clip can only be opened once. Create a new one.

Their phone cannot reach the website to read the clip. They need some connection first. If they have mobile data, they can use that, or you can share via the QR code on the phone settings instead.