Before we dive into the cleanup plan, let’s start by making sure you know your Wi-Fi password. I recently moved and needed to add a number of new smart devices to the network, including a Ring doorbell camera, an outdoor security camera and a Nest thermostat. Unfortunately, I could neither remember nor retrieve my Wi-Fi password for Google Fiber.

A quick internet search revealed that iPhone users can quickly and easily retrieve their Wi-Fi passwords on their phones. As long as you are running iOS 16, you can do it! Here’s how: Open “Settings” and then tap “Wi-Fi.” Look for the lower case letter i on your connected Wi-Fi network and tap to open it. Find the “Password” field and tap. Your phone will automatically verify your identity with either Touch ID or Face ID, depending on your iPhone mode. And voilà, your password will be revealed. Copy it and paste it somewhere safe, or just write it down and tuck it away in your desk in case you need it at a later date and are unable to connect your phone or another Apple device to the network.

You can also easily share your network password with guests as long as you both have iPhones, a feature that Apple introduced with iOS 11. For this to work, your guest must be a contact in your phone and you both must have Bluetooth turned on. Now all your guest has to do is select your home network and tap the password field, and this will open a prompt on your phone with the password to share with your guest. Of course, you have to be nearby for this to work.

With iOS 16, there is another handy feature related to your Wi-Fi network: the ability to review the Wi-Fi connections you’ve made and delete any that are no longer useful to you. Your phone will automatically connect to known networks, which can pose a risk to your device’s security. Perhaps you or your employer have come to the decision that you should only connect to secured networks, so that would eliminate most airport and other public networks. But if you haven’t removed that network form your phone, it will connect once it’s within range.

To see your connection history, open “Settings,” and like you did before, tap “Wi-Fi.” Tap “Edit” in the upper right hand corner, and your phone will verify your identity as it did when you were looking for your Wi-Fi password. A list of all of the networks you’ve connected to will come up on the screen. The list may represent years of use across multiple devices. The “more information” icon provides nothing useful to the layman, so you will have to review each network and decide to keep or delete. Tap the red circle with the minus sign to delete the ones you no longer use. If you’re not sure, it’s better to delete a network than keep it. You will always be able to join it in the future by selecting it manually as you do with any new network.

You may find yourself in a situation where you want to revoke access to your home network. Yes, you can change the password, but that may be a nuisance to you and to those you’d like to have access to your Wi-Fi. An alternative is to block a device from logging into your network. You can do this by logging into your router’s control panel, which can be a tricky process if you haven’t done it before, or by using the mobile app associated with your router, which is much easier. Once you’ve accessed your router’s settings, look for “Device Management” to see a list of all of the devices connected to your network. You should see a block button or something similar that will let you block selected devices.

Leslie Meredith has been writing about technology for more than a decade. As a mom of four, value, usefulness, and online safety take priority. Have a question? Email Leslie at asklesliemeredith@gmail.com.