Wi-Fi Password Generator
A long random network key with no symbols and no characters anyone can misread, so it holds up when it is typed on a console or read off a card.
Words are drawn from the 7,776-word EFF list, so each one adds 12.9 bits. Easier to type and remember than a random string of the same strength.
A PIN is only as safe as the device that rate-limits it. Do not reuse it as a password.
Generate a Random Wi-Fi Password
A Wi-Fi key is an unusual secret. It is typed a handful of times, always on the least convenient keyboards in the house, and then never again — but it also has to survive an attack that runs unattended for months. This page opens the generator with the settings that serve both sides of that: 24 characters long, letters and digits only, with look-alike characters removed.
The result is something you can read off a card to a guest without spelling anything twice, and still far too long for anyone to crack.
Why the network key is a special case
On a website, wrong guesses are counted and the account locks. On Wi-Fi, nothing is counted. Someone parked within range can capture a single connection attempt and then grind through candidate keys on their own hardware, for as long as they care to, with no way for you to notice. That is why a key that would be adequate for a forum login is not adequate here, and why every extra character is worth more than any clever choice of punctuation.
What the preset trades away
| Settings at 24 characters | Pool | Entropy |
|---|---|---|
| Letters, digits and symbols | 88 | about 155 bits |
| Letters and digits | 62 | about 143 bits |
| Letters and digits, ambiguous excluded, as this page opens | 57 | about 140 bits |
| Letters and digits, ambiguous excluded, 20 characters | 57 | about 117 bits |
Turning off symbols and removing five confusable characters costs about 15 bits out of 155 — a real reduction, and a completely irrelevant one. An attack that cannot reach 140 bits cannot reach 155 either; both numbers are past the top of the strength scale and past anything hardware will reach in any human timeframe. What you get back is a key that does not fail when a guest types it, and failed attempts are the problem you will actually have.
Reading it out and typing it in
With 0, O, l, 1 and I gone, there is nothing left to mistake at a glance or over the phone, which matters most in the two places a Wi-Fi key is usually handled: printed on a card by the router, and read aloud across a room. When you write it down, break it into groups of four or five with a space and say which groups are capitals; when you type it into a console or a TV, do the same in your head and check off one group at a time. Use Generate 10 if the first key happens to bunch up awkwardly — a run of six digits is harder to dictate than a mixed one, and any of the ten is equally strong.
Hand it out without anyone typing it
The cleanest way to share a key this long is not to share the characters at all. Paste it into the Wi-Fi QR code generator and print the code: phones join the network from the camera app in one scan. If your router offers a guest network, put the guests there with a key of their own, so you can change it without reconnecting every device you own, and keep the printed card for guests only — anyone who photographs it has the key.
The rest of the household secrets
The router's admin login is a separate password, and a weak one there undoes a strong network key; generate it with the strong password generator and store it in a password manager. For the codes you type from memory there are the passphrase and PIN pages, and the guide to strong passwords explains why the admin account deserves two-factor authentication if the router supports it.