Passwords

[Brian Ellis]

A neighbour has asked me to improve the security of her computer as non-family members will be in the house alone. I introduced a good 8-character booting password (upper and lower case alpha, numerals and punctuation signs. She doesn't use WiFi but her modem/router has the possibility and I thought that there was a possibility, if it was validly connected, that an intruder could get in with a SmartPhone or laptop without her knowing, if he knew the access password of the modem.

Bugger me if I did not find the modem password was exactly the same as mine!!!!!!!!!!!

[Umfriend]

"admin"?

[Brian Ellis]

I forgot to add there is no way of changing it, a 12 character upper case only alphanumeric 'word'. It seems to be hard-wired into WORM chip.

[cjolley]

Can you disable the wifi in the modem or might it have a "modem only" mode?
Or, maybe remove the antenna.
If so you should buy another wireless router and put it in between the modem and your home network. Use the new one for wifi.

[Brian Ellis]

Yes, the WiFi is "disableable". But I wonder what bright spark thought up the idea of making them all the same password? Maybe to ensure that everybody's WiFi became a free hotspot?

[degrub]

most likely so tech support can start from a "known" point or so they can always gain access remotely.

[KRSESQ]

Arond here the cable company programs their wireless modem/routers' wireless password to be the device mac address plus 14 zeros. Are the passwords in your case hexidecimal strings?

Are the devices identical? Is it possible the mac address/password is just one digit off on each of them?

If they are truely identical, then probably yeah, what degrub said. Shoddy policy, that. Or else someone is screwing with you.

[Tjalfe]

the better passwords

[cjolley]

Much better if you put punctuation between the words.

[Umfriend]

why?

[Brian Ellis]

Arond here the cable company programs their wireless modem/routers' wireless password to be the device mac address plus 14 zeros. Are the passwords in your case hexidecimal strings?

Are the devices identical? Is it possible the mac address/password is just one digit off on each of them?

If they are truely identical, then probably yeah, what degrub said. Shoddy policy, that. Or else someone is screwing with you.

The modem/router is that supplied free by the semi-state-owned phone company that have ~half the ADSL business in the country, probably tens of thousands of these modems. The password is 12 characters long, upper case only alpha and 4 digits (form AAAAA111AAA1) and is rigourously identical between my neighbour's and my modems.

Furthermore, when you first switch on the modem, the WiFi is active by default and it's not widely publicised how to switch it off. There are possibly thousands of users who never use WiFi who may be inadvertently supplying hotspots to other users of the same ISP. Security??? What does that mean?

I'm going to ask in a local forum whether others have the same password.

[cjolley]

why?

Because the punctuation could be easy to remember and would add non dictionary character combinations.

My office mate used that system to create his password. It's 24 characters long.
Pretty funny watching him enter it. But he does remember it.
Nobody will crack that anytime soon, using rainbow tables anyway.

[cjolley]

@Brian,
All the more reason to turn off the provider's radio and use your own wifi router.

[Fat Tone]

Question: is a password that contains repeating words any easier for a computer to crack than one with non-repeating words?

Eg: BananaBanana or BananaReason. The first is much easier to remember, but presumably no more likely to be tried?

[Marshmallowman]

and to be paranoid, if you have these settings use them

admin by LAN only.
enable MAC filtering on wireless so only know MACs are allowed..eg all disabled unless in list.
( i have had modems the filter MAC on wireless and LAN so be careful about locking yourself out)
Disable SSID broadcast and set WPA2 password even.

Also some telco only modems may require you to use there management software to change some settings.

But I would throw out a modem with password that can't be change, if its shared by so many people its just to FAT a target for trojan/hacking.