Richard804, were you responding to Goldboy, or to me?
Goldboy didn't say which router he was attempting to configure. I have read the (original) User Guide for the WRT54G v. 5 NAT router -- parts of it more than once. It does not contain any recommendations with regard to either the "user name" or the password that appear on the log-in dialog, but it does mention in the Basic Setup section that the password can be changed via the Management tab.
Goldboy also states that he specified a "SSID". An SSID is required for using the wireless network features of the WRT54G, but there is no entry to specify a password in conjunction with the SSID.
Although I've looked carefully, there is no entry in that manual which offers a way to specify a "user name" for the log-in dialog. And while configuring the router, I don't recall finding any field on any tab that would probably be used to do that. It seems to have been overlooked either by the people who created the firmware or by the people who wrote the manual, or by both.
My recommendation about the password should be common knowledge and routine practice. I have learned from hard experience what can happen when a router's default password is left unchanged, aside from whether another password chosen for use might not be particularly difficult to discover.
Personally, I really have to wonder why people who are supposed to be expert advisors, in this forum for Linksys customers, often recommend leaving, or setting, the password to the default "admin". What are they thinking? Or _are_ they thinking?
They also often recommend using WEP for encryption when everyone knows that it is fundamentally flawed and can be easily broken. Granted, there are obsolete devices still in use that have only WEP for encryption, but no one mentions that as the context for using WEP. People should be advised to use WPA2 with AES (not with TKIP) with a very long random key, and to use WEP when, and_only_when, there is no alternative, not as a matter of course.
If you don't already do so, then please subscribe to the Security Now! podcast by Leo LaPorte and Steve Gibson, and listen to it every week. Download the past episodes about passwords, which were among the first ten episodes that were podcast. Security Now! can be very useful and informative, especially regarding the use of cryptography to secure computer systems.
Message Edited by Stardance on 12-30-2008 08:20 PM
Message Edited by Stardance on 12-30-2008 08:29 PM
Stardance
nil carborundum illegitimi!
