Router Password
liveandlearn1
Enthusiast - Level 2

When I opened Vz In-Home Agent on my netbook, why was there a notification requiring me to reset my router password.  To the best of my knowledge, we have always had a WEP key on our Actiontec router but never a password for it.

Re: Router Password
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

I believe the In-Home Agent is asking about the key used to manage the router, not your WEP key. If you visit http://192.168.1.1/ what do you use to log in to the router?

admin/password ?

admin/password1 ?

admin/admin ?

admin/admin1 ?

admin/Router serial number ?

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Re: Router Password
liveandlearn1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thank you for your response.  Since using Verizon FIOS (for well over 3 years) I've never had occasion to log into the router.   So as an experiment ,.  I clicked  the link in your post and tried to do so.  But in the password field, every one of my key strokes resulted in 2 spaces filled (i.e. 1 keystroke = **, 2 keystrokes = ****, etc.).  So  that didn't work.  Anyway, I've no idea why i would want to log into my router.  I just like having In-Home Agent up-to-date so that in case we have a problem with one of our Verizon services, Verizon can fix it remotely.

Re: Router Password
somegirl
Champion - Level 3

@liveandlearn wrote:

Thank you for your response.  Since using Verizon FIOS (for well over 3 years) I've never had occasion to log into the router.   So as an experiment ,.  I clicked  the link in your post and tried to do so.  But in the password field, every one of my key strokes resulted in 2 spaces filled (i.e. 1 keystroke = **, 2 keystrokes = ****, etc.).  So  that didn't work.  Anyway, I've no idea why i would want to log into my router.  I just like having In-Home Agent up-to-date so that in case we have a problem with one of our Verizon services, Verizon can fix it remotely.


This is normal. It's a "security feature" that is supposed to fool anyone looking over your shoulder while you type. (Silly, if you ask me.) Just ignore the characters that are appearing and type the password.

You want to log into your router at least once to change the default password. This way if your network becomes compromised the hacker can't just use the default password to change router settings.

Re: Router Password
Justin46
Legend

Back to the original question for a moment.

In my not-so-humble opinion Verizon's In-Home Agent is worthless. I have installed it multiple times on my Windows 7 system, every time I do I get an error message that some module could not be found, when I start it up it takes what seems forever to gather some information and then gives me some notifications that need my attention. Here are two that I routinely get every time I run it, and just got again today:

image

Now you should know that this Actiontec router has been installed for maybe 3 years, I changed the password within 30 minutes of getting it, I changed the user name also, plus I changed the wireless encryption to WPA2 (I am used a wired connection right now). So why would I get this message? My answer: because this program is worthless.

image

OK, from Verizon's viewpoint this may actually be true, because every time I have tried to run Verizon's optimizer on my Windows 7 64-bit system it has failed! In addition, I have what is supposed to be 25/15 service, I routinely get 30/24 on Verizon's speed test site and Speedtest.net. So what optimization do I really need? My answer: None, and this program is worthless.

Seriously, I think In-Home Agent is a seriously flawed program. I would not trust it to do anything on my network or computer.

Just my $.02 worth.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, Internet, and phone user
QIP7232
Keller, TX 76248

Re: Router Password
liveandlearn1
Enthusiast - Level 2

I found your answer helpful, so I went back and had another pass at logging into my router by typing in my user name and password.  Since my Verizon user name didn't work, I tried the SSID for the router, then typed the router password that I had established last night (maybe very early this morrning) -- the password "change" that was accepted by Verizon In-Home Assistant.  I still cannot log into the router. ('User name and/or password incorrect' -- no matter what I do, I get words to that effect.  I'm thinking maybe I should just forget about it??

Re: Router login failed
liveandlearn1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Correcting my last post:  No matter what I do when I try to log into my router, the message I get is "Login failed , please try again." 

Re: Router Password
Justin46
Legend

@liveandlearn wrote:

I found your answer helpful, so I went back and had another pass at logging into my router by typing in my user name and password.  Since my Verizon user name didn't work, I tried the SSID for the router, then typed the router password that I had established last night (maybe very early this morrning) -- the password "change" that was accepted by Verizon In-Home Assistant.  I still cannot log into the router. ('User name and/or password incorrect' -- no matter what I do, I get words to that effect.  I'm thinking maybe I should just forget about it??


Two things:

1) Unless you changed it, the user name should be admin

2) You can always use the reset button on the rear of the router to set it back to the factory defaults and then, using your browser, go to http://192.168.1.1 to set your name and password. The router should work just fine with the factory defaults, probably has been if you have not ever logged in and changed anything. But if you use wireless I strongly suggest you consider changing the wireless encryption method from WEP to WPA or WPA2, assuming your PC wireless adapter supports WPA. And really, you should just take a look around in the router settings, you might find something you want to set (and if you screw something up, a reset will always get back to the factory default settings).

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, Internet, and phone user
QIP7232
Keller, TX 76248

Re: Router Password
liveandlearn1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thank you, all.  I had changed the password while the FIOS technicians were here doing the initial installation but had never updated it since.  I did not realize that the user ID was still "admin," so I was trying everything else.  I have a full page of security warnings to document my attempts.  . . . BTW, I just opened In-Home Assistant again and received notification that my router password needed to be changed -- something I thought had been accomplished via In-Home-Assistant during the past 24 hours.  So I changed the password to what I thought I had already changed it to -- and now everything works (for the moment).