Router password changes

[#1]

Recent news about Virgin Media routers not being secure due to people not changing the passwords supplied with the router made be wonder....is it the same for all routers supplied by all ISPs? i.e. should we all be changing our router password and maybe wifi password too? Are they so insecure for some reason?

[#2]

Post should be in ROUTER thread.

[#3]

I'd say it is always worth changing passwords and wifi SIDs etc..., though I think (though don't know the Virgin Router or too much of their setup, so could be making false assumptions) that the username and password are simple ones by default, such as username admin and the password admin).  Many ISP routers (including Plusnets) have the password different for each router they send out.

[#4]

IMHO it's good practice with any piece of kit to change anything possible to be different to the default.

[#5]

Moderator Note by Dick (Strat)

Topic moved to a more appropriate board as suggested above.

[#6]

to add some context to this - as I have posted before - the Virgin Media problem was that the Wi-fi PSK password was too short and using very a limited character set thereby leaving it more open to a brute force attack which is what Which used

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/23/virgin_media_router_security_flap/

Virgin Media stickered default router password is constrained to certain characters, lowering password entropy in the process and making it easier for hackers to mount successful brute force attacks.

"It appears to be that the default Wi-fi PSK is too short. 8 char a-z. Not exactly a new story though," Pen Test Partners' Ken Munro told El Reg. "[It] seems unfair for Which to finger just Virgin, as most ISPs have had weak default PSKs at some point," he added.

Any wifi password is open to a similar attack but the Plusnet one is much harder to crack

HOWEVER

There is one big hole in this security setup  - if your router doesn't have a Guest WiFi option you are giving access to your router to whoever you allow to use your wifi and under these circumstances it is absolutely essential that you change the router admin password to a much more complex one (note that in many cases the default admin password is "admin"

[#7]

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Oldjim wrote:

had weak default PSKs at some point," he added.

Any wifi password is open to a similar attack but the Plusnet one is much harder to crack

HOWEVER

There is one big hole in this security setup  - if your router doesn't have a Guest WiFi option you are giving access to your router to whoever you allow to use your wifi and under these circumstances it is absolutely essential that you change the router admin password to a much more complex one (note that in many cases the default admin password is "admin"

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Very good to know Plusnet routers harder to crack.

Err...I don't even know what a Guest wifi option is - unless you mean when you give a visitor to your home the wifi password.

[#8]

I think guest WiFi is usually a segerated area, so say if you had friends coming over who just want to use your internet and nothing else, you could either have it with no password or better with one you give them.

Is used in companies where people have meetings and just need internet access.

I may be wrong, but is less of a risk than using their main WiFi.

[#9]

that is why I use a Billion 8800NL and have set up a completely separate guest wifi network where the users can't access the router and can't see any other connected users