Many internet routers have a specific button called WPS, but some people don’t know what exactly it does. It is a facilitator of the connection process between the router and your device, which does not require the use of passwords.
Using WPS can make connecting to your router easier, just press the WPS button, which means you don’t have to enter the password, and you connect your cell phone automatically.
It is important to explain what WPA is, which is the acronym for Wi-Fi Protected Access, which uses more complex encryption to develop a password, which uses uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers and special characters.
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WPS uses an internal password, created using the so-called WPA protocol, but which only uses numbers. The password is used to connect your device to your network, and when triggered it looks for the other device that is requesting access through this pattern.
Easier but more dangerous
Unfortunately, however, this internal password recorded on the router is easier to discover, precisely because it is only numeric, and cannot be changed by the user.
There are already a number of programs that use this vulnerability to be able to discover the WPS password of a router and exploit it, through the so-called brute force process — which is nothing more than trial and error — until the connection is successful. .
Thus, malicious people can end up using WPS to, once connected to the router, gain access to all files and data transmitted over the network — or just to “steal” your Internet connection.
The issue is that many routers no longer have a button to activate the feature and therefore come with it enabled from the factory. In the case of button routers, WPS works for a limited time, some allow you to permanently turn off and others do not.
Thus, it is important to assess whether, for you, it is worth turning off the function or not. To do this, you need to access the router’s internal settings and, in the “Wireless” menu or similar, turn it off there.
