Get router IP address from command prompt

If you're using Windows OS and need to get your router IP address the easiest way to do it is via command prompt. In Windows the command prompt lets you send instructions to the operating system without going through myriads of windows. You can run a program from command prompt much faster since you don't need to find an icon for it.

First we need to launch command prompt.

1) In Windows 7 and below click on the start menu and then click Run. Run window will pop up.

In Windows 8 you can either right click on Start button and select Run or press "Windows"+X button.

2) Type cmd.exe in Run Window and press Enter. Command prompt window will appear. From this window you can type different commands to Windows OS.

3) To get router IP address you need to type "ipconfig /all" command. Make sure to press enter after typing it in. You will get lots of useful information as a result.

Here is a snippet of what you may get from ipconfig /all command. Output from this command usually contains multiple sections corresponding to network connections you have on your computer.

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : dns.microsoft.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Acme XL 10/100Mb Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-CC-44-79-C3-AA
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.1.5
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.240.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.243.2
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.50.82

The router address that you're looking for is specified in Default Gateway line ("172.16.240.1" in our case). Once you know this IP address you can just type it in your browser and access router administration interface.

Also there are several other IP addresses which may be interested to you. DNS Servers line specifies a server which is used to translate web site names to internet IP addresses. So if you have any issues when website names are not resolving to to IP addresses you may look what DNS server is used and try to correct it if needed (see our article about changing DNS addresses on this website).

Another line that you may be interested in is IP address. This line contains your current address within your home network. If you are unable to connect to internet and your IP address is in range from 169.254.0.0 to 169.254.0.16 it means that your server was unable to automatically get IP address from DHCP server and you need to ask someone from technical support to help you with fixing it.

DHCP server line contains IP address of a server which is responsible for giving IP addresses to computers in the network. If you every receive BAD IP ADDRESS errors in browser it may mean that DHCP server is configured incorrectly and you need to contact support with this issue.

Fixing common router problems

Most common problem when configuring home network is malfunction of a router or its incorrect configuration. Even though it could look like hard task diagnosing and fixing router problems is not too tricky. You just need to follow the steps and try to figure out which component in your home network doesn't work.

Below are several useful hints which may help you diagnose problem in your home network.

Problem: no connection to internet from your device which uses wi-fi connection.

Solution: try connecting to the router using network cable. This will make sure that your problems are not caused by incorrect wi-fi configuration. If connecting with network cable fixes your internet problem then you need to check your router wi-fi network settings to make sure it is configured correctly.

Problem: wi-fi connection is slow and sometime internet stops working

Solution: try to check if wi-fi performance depends on how far your computer from your router. Lots of routers have limited range and some construction materials seriously degrade wi-fi signal.

Problem: internet connection is not working and your computer is connected to your router with network cable

Solution: check if light corresponding to network port where your cable is plugged in is blinking. If it is not there could be something wrong with network cable or router port. If cable is working fine check that you can access your router administrative interface using http://192.168.0.1/ or http://192.168.1.1/ addresses (router could also have a different IP address assigned - you can learn how to find it on this website).

Default Router Passwords

Most consumer routers are supplied with default password setting. This is done with assumption that user will login first time using default password and change it. Unfortunately many users never change default password of the router which creates security risk for the home or office network.

If you don't remember your router password you can try to check if default router password work. Most probably your router password was never changed and default password would work. If it doesn't and you don't have any other ways of getting the password you can just reset a router to a factory settings (see router manual for detailed instructions on how to do it).

Below we created a short list of most popular router passwords. It is not comprehensive since it doesn't include every router model but it covers significant number of routers on the market. If you router is not here or default password doesn't work make sure to type following query in search engine "router ... default password".

Netgear routers

Default user: admin
Default passwords: (empty password)
Netgear MR314, RT314 and certain other old models: 1234

Default IP: 192.168.0.1

D-Link routers

All D-Link routers use username: admin
D-Link DI-514 and DI-524, DI-804, DI-604, DI-704, use empty password.
All other D-Link routers use password: admin

Belkin routers

Default username: admin
Default password: none

Netgear WGR614 v4: setup
All other Netgear routers: password

Linksys routers

Possible user and password combinations:
Username: admin
Password: admin

Username: Administrator
Password: admin
Username: admin
Password (empty password)