IIRC, my router actually offered to change the default admin password when I first logged in. I hear a lot about Buffalo routers being junk, but this one came pre-installed with DD-WRT and has worked like a champ since I first got it.
-Edvard
Yep. Most of 'em do. But they don't let ya change the username. There's a back door built in to most hardware - and a lot of software! - so that the vendor can tell you how to recover if you have a memory lapse - read, screw things up - and maintain their pristine reputation.
Back when I was overseas - Asia, mid-sixties, combat pending - a captain in charge of our group misplaced a password,
i.e., he lost the scrap of paper it was on. He had to contact what was then the equivalent of IT today, and IT promptly got him straightened out, restored his access.
They had a back door
. (Mind, this was a radio network, not PC, but the principle ...)
I've encountered software issues where a user was locked out because of a forgotten password. In every case but one (1), the vendor was able to provide a way back in. That single case was such that no one - at that time
- could crack the database involved, not even the vendor. And it was clearly stated in the documentation that if you lost your login, your data couldn't be recovered. However, in every other instance, hardware or software, I've been able to contact the vendor, provide requisite
bona fides, and regain access for the client.
If you cannot
change the
Admin username, any hacker is halfway to cracking the system involved. Brute force and a decent dictionary can still resolve ninety percent of passwords when
Admin is still a viable username.