Where Is The Network Security Key On My Xfinity Router?
Introduction Xfinity Router
A Comcast supplied router is a device that allows you to access the services you have with Comcast. Some of these devices are manufactured by companies such as Arris and Technicolor, while others are designed in-house by Comcast.
The particular model we will discuss is manufactured under part number TC8717T 101 . As always if your modem has a different model number it should still have similar security measures built in so please continue reading.
We will show what each type of security looks like on your network and how to fix them when they become an issue with regards to your home network’s security.
Where Is The Network Security Key Located?
The network security key is not physically located on your Xfinity router, it is actually located in the Comcast database. When you first set up your router it should have given you a six digit pin that was used to get into your account.
This process will vary depending on what type of computer device you are using but for this article we will be assuming that you are using a laptop or desktop computer with Microsoft Windows 10 OS.
Process to Find the KEY:
-First, open the Internet Explorer browser and go to https://192.168.100.1 which should bring up the login screen for your Xfinity Router/Gateway provided by Comcast ISP (Internet Service Provider).
-At this point please enter the username “Cableguys” without quotes and then enter the default password “password” without quotes and click on login.
-You will next be prompted to change your password, please do so at this point by entering a new six digit pin that you want to use. This is only important if you plan on accessing your router from outside of your home network as it allows people that may have gotten into your house to not be able to access the modem. For those that are just going to stay on their home network it is not needed but recommended.
-The first time you access this modem you should go ahead and rename the device so that whoever is using a computer or mobile phone can identify it on their network. You can do this by clicking on status at the top of the page and then click on the network tab. After this click on advanced and you should see a screen similar to the one pictured below.
-When you first open up your modem/router you will be asked if you want to use DHCP or Static IP, for simplicity’s sake we recommend that you choose DHCP as it is easier to setup later down the line when configuring routers, computers, smartphones, etc. Next, just change your router name from “xfinitywifi” without quotes to something unique such as “John’s Xfinity Router” without quotes.
-At this point please click save settings and then go back onto status at the top of the page and now scroll down until you find Wireless Settings . On the right side of the page under ENABLE WIRELESS , click on the word OFF .
-Now you will finally be at the point where we can find your network security key under Wireless Security . Currently, some routers have it listed as WPA2 while others have it listed as WPA. Regardless of how it is labeled, just click on that word and then copy everything that is in the field below to your clipboard by highlighting with your mouse and pressing CTRL+C on your keyboard.
-Please go up to login again which should show you are back on the homepage for the modem/router at this point. You are going to want to click on the My Network icon located in between Home & Change Mode (pictures of these icons are included above). After clicking on My Network you should see a screen similar to the one pictured below.
-In the field that says Network Security Key please click on this link and it will bring up a new window asking for your network security key again with a warning about ” No Internet Access” and then click yes . If you successfully entered your six digit pin into the login prompt that was previously displayed then it should end up bringing you back to what looks like a page not found with an IP address of 192.168.0.1 or similar numbers if you are using another brand of modem/router different than Xfinity from Comcast/Xfinity . It is important to know which router you have so we can figure out how to get past this error as every router is different.
-The next step is to click on Advanced from the page that you got brought back to after inputting your password and then into the security tab as seen in the picture below.
-From here we need to change How do you authenticate wireless clients? from off (currently set as WPA2 Personal) to any .
-Now please click Save Settings and restart your computer and mobile device and try connecting again. You will still see a warning about ” No Internet Access” but if you click yes it should go through fine with no problems this time around. If it doesn’t, you may have entered something incorrectly or might be using another router besides an Xfinity Router/Gateway provided by Comcast ISP (Internet Service Provider).
Conclusion
Again, it’s no big secret that Comcast/Xfinity provides a free public wifi network for its customers. They have been doing so since the beginning of 2015 from what we can tell. A lot of people use this pin login to access wifi hotspots on their mobile devices while some even use it as their main source of internet connection on computers and smartphones. In our testing we were able to connect to the Xfinity Wifi Hotspot using just about every operating system including Linux Mint which is an Ubuntu fork .
Please note that some routers will operate more smoothly than others when it comes to switching between modes or frequencies with either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands being more reliable than the other certain cases. Please post your router model information if you are having trouble so we can figure out some workarounds for your specific router/gateway. We cannot cover internal home networks so if it works on one computer or another, but not another device this troubleshooting guide does not apply to the situation.
