Lately, we’ve been seeing a disturbing trend from Internet Service Providers.  We have been encountering situations where the ISP has set up a new modem for a customer without really completing the task.  Although they may change the name of the Wi-Fi and the password associated with the Wi-Fi, they are leaving the modem password set to the default password.  Why an ISP technician would log into a modem, make changes to the Wi-Fi and NOT change the modem’s password is beyond me.  It is always a bad idea to keep the modem password set to the default!

Let me explain why: there are lists of the default passwords for almost every modem out there.  A hacker or someone just fooling around might be able to log into a modem with the default password and spy on your computers or even change your Wi-Fi- passwords and lock you out.

The modem password should be changed from the default.  Be careful, though.  You need to make sure you keep a good record of the password you put into the modem; otherwise, the entire modem may have to be reset to the factory settings if you can’t come up with the new password – and this procedure is a pain!

How can you tell if your modem is using the default password?  You need to try to log into your modem.  I’ll explain how to do that in Monday’s Blog posting!