I’m pretty sure there have been numerous times when you wondered whether you could have access to your router remotely from anywhere. Isn’t that right? Let us assume that you are not at your home for some time; you are sitting in a restaurant having a quiet dinner with your friends or family. But you want to access your home router from that location for some reason, so you wonder: how to remotely access my router?
Although connecting to your home router when you are around/inside the network is pretty easy, accessing the router remotely can be a bit of a task and it requires some additional steps. But we have made the procedure rather simpler and straightforward for you. Just follow a few steps and you can then have access to your router from any location effortlessly.
We are going to provide you with the solution to your how to access router remotely problem in this article. Stay tuned to know all about it.
What Do You Mean by Remote Access?
Before getting to the procedure on how to access a router remotely, let us clearly understand what the term remote access means. Actually, it is very simple; Remote access refers to having access or being able to access your home router while being away from it. It is a feature that helps you to take control of your home router from anywhere.
You can do all sorts of activities while staying at home near your router, right? With the help of the remote access feature, you can do the same activities while being outside of your network, remotely.
This might sound too good to be true and you might think about the possible threats your router can face. Well, you are not wrong. Remotely accessing a router does have its dead weights, majorly being security risks. These risks can include if people who have little information about your router, could possibly have access to the internet through your router, if they have the access, they could alter the settings, and do so much more sneaky things.
I don’t mean to disappoint you, but these things could happen and it is best to be informed about everything. These security risks are real and to avoid them, you need to be careful; access the router remotely only when it is required and necessary, if you can avoid it, do it at all costs.
Why Would You Have to Access Your Router Remotely?
There are various reasons why you would require access to your router remotely. Let’s discuss each of them briefly.
- One of the major reasons why one would need to access the router remotely is because it is handy. A lot of parents have difficulty in understanding the technicalities of their devices such as routers, and they take the help of their children. But their children do not live with them, so it is very convenient for them to help out their parents.
- Another reason why one might find the need to remotely accessing a router is that they want to check who is using their wifi router in their absence. Whether you are a parent who wants to keep an eye on your kids’ activities in your absence or someone concerned about their neighbours’ mooching on your wifi, remote access comes in handy.
- Lastly, you might want to have access to your router because your external hard drive is connected to it. People often forget what facilities they have available with them and this is why we are here to remind them. Do not forget this great convenient trick the next time you want to access your files from an external hard drive.
How To Remotely Access My Router?
Since you are not next to your router and you cannot directly connect to it, there are some things that you would have to do to have access to your router remotely. Look at the steps we have provided below as your guide on how to remotely access my router.
Step 1: The Basics
The very basic step of accessing a router remotely is to log into it. It goes without saying that whether you are at your home or away from it, you need to log into your router first to change its settings or do anything on it.
Step 2: The Pre-Work
You cannot just have access to your router from anywhere without doing the pre-work of enabling your router to make it accessible remotely. This pre-work is nothing but usually known as remote sharing. When the feature of remote sharing is enabled or turned on, only then, later on, can you access the router remotely.
Note that you cannot enable this feature while you are on the go and away from your router. You will need to be present at your home to turn it on.
Most routers have the remote sharing feature as remote management and you can find it under the advanced settings of your router. But just for your reference here is where you will find this option under different router settings:
- Netgear: Router Settings -> Remote Management
- Linksys: Administration -> Remote Management
- TP Link: Security -> Remote Management
Step 3: Creating Dynamic DNS
The next step is probably the step that not a lot of people know clearly so before establishing the dynamic DNS, let us understand this term. Dynamic DNS or DDNS stands for Dynamic domain name system and what it does is a little complicated.
Suppose that you move a lot across the country and you do not receive your important mails/letters on time because of that. So, what you did is you gave one fixed address of yours to the mailer so that even though you are in a different city, you receive your mail at that fixed address. Now, whenever you are in the city, you can collect your mail from that address, right? This way nothing gets misplaced.
The dynamic DNS is your fixed address and note that it should be static in order to work. Dynamic DNS is the service that allows you to have access to your devices that are at your home such as a router, and it also allows you to access your devices remotely from anywhere in the world even if your IP address changes.
Now that you know what dynamic DNS is and how it can be beneficial, let’s know how it can be created to access the router remotely.
- In order to set up dynamic DNS on a router, the first thing you will do is log into your router’s web interface and then search for the dynamic DNS option on the dashboard/home page.
- There are several dynamic DNS providers so you need to select one that your router supports. Most famous DNS providers that a lot of routers support are Dyndns, No-IP, Comexe. Some are free and some are paid so you can choose according to your preference. Once you decide on which DNS provider to choose, you need to create an account on that. Just click on go to register to create your account.
- On the sign-up page, you will notice that you need to fill out some basic information such as your email address, password, and hostname. After that, you will require a confirmation from your email account and then your account will be activated on that DNS provider.
- After you have selected the dynamic DNS provider, you need to enter the domain name, username, and password. The domain name is usually found on the dashboard of the DNS service provider.
- Lastly, all you need to do is enable the DDNS and click on login. Note that the connection status will change to Success after you are done.
Step 4: Remote Access
Now that almost everything is done, here comes the last part of the process and that is remotely accessing the router. It is very easy to access your router remotely because you have made all the preparations for it and all the pre-work is done. It’s like buying something; you have done all the research, you have made all the arrangements for the money it costs, and now the last thing to do is go and purchase that item. Easy, right?
To have access to your router remotely all you have to do is connect to your personal router but since you cannot do that as you would usually do, here is what you will do:
- Open the web browser on your mobile phone.
- Type the same IP address of your router. If you don’t know the router’s IP address, you can find it out by typing ‘cmd’ and then ‘ipconfig’ for Windows in the command centre or by typing ‘terminal’ and then ‘ipconfig’ for MacOS. Press enter and you will see all the information that you want from your router. Somewhere down the lane, you will notice Default Gateway, and that is my friend, your router’s IP address.
- Now that you have your IP address, just type that in your browser.
- Next, you will notice that a login page is displayed.
- There, you will need to enter your username and password.
And you are done! Now you can access your router remotely. You can check everything that you want to, change settings and do a lot more. Remember that there are some security risks related to accessing your router remotely so it is advisable to only use this feature when it is required.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- What does it mean to access remotely?
Accessing the router remotely means having access to or doing the things you usually do on your router while being away from it. If you are a parent and are worried whether your kids aren’t completing their homework and are playing games on the internet, remote access is a great feature for you. You can use the access remotely feature on your wifi and check it on your phone, even if you are not at home.
- Can I log into my router remotely?
Anyone can log into their router remotely if you have a mobile phone with you, the IP address of your router, and an internet connection. All you have to do is follow the steps we shared in the article to have access to your router remotely.
- What is the difference between VPN and remote access?
VPN is a secure, private connection between a network system and its user. It is a well-protected and secure connection where it uses advanced encryption. Remote access, on the other hand, has security risks. VPN requires a significant amount of bandwidth whereas remote access doesn’t.
- How do I access my router admin without an IP address?
If you don’t have the IP address of your router, you can follow these steps:
-
- After connecting your cables, you can open a browser.
- Click ‘start’, type in ‘cmd’ and press enter.
- Now type ‘ipconfig’ in the command prompt window and press enter.
- Look for ‘Default Gateway’ among all the information which is your IP address.
- How do I find the username and password to my router?
It can be stressful to have forgotten the username and password of your router. But you must know that it is very easy to find it. All you have to do is look for the default username and password of your router in the manual of the router. However, if you cannot even find your manual, you can always find the information of your router’s model and manual/default password on Google.
Conclusion:
We hope that it is now clear and easy for you to access the router remotely without any trouble with the help of our guide. Do remember that you won’t have to create the Dynamic DNS every time you want to remotely access your router because it is a one time deal. Good news, right? But note that remote access has some security risks associated with it so you must use it wisely and only when it is required.