How to Reset Router’s Password

You’ve just joined a new company to be their computer technician and administrator. You need to perform troubleshooting on all computers and basic maintenance on servers. If there is an internet connection problem, you’ll need to check with your Internet Service Provider to solve the problem and get back the internet connection as soon as possible.

One day the internet connection just went dead. There is no problem with the local area network but you just can’t surf the web and check emails. Your boss is furious and you need to quickly fix the problem. You contact your Internet Service Provider and done the usual basic troubleshooting such as turning off the router for 5 minutes. The next thing is to reset your password and ask you to try the new login information.

You checked the documentation left by the previous administrator but couldn’t find anything regarding the router’s login information. What should you do? Do you need to buy a new router or send the old one to the manufacturer to reset the router? If you’ve read this article, you don’t need to because you already know how to reset your router to the default factory setting.

Before resetting your router to default factory settings, try logging in with the default username and password first. Usually it’s a combination between “admin”, “password”, “1234″, or the brand name. If you don’t want to waste your time in trying the combination, you can refer to RouterPasswords or Phenoelit for default router password list database.

If the default router’s username and password still don’t work, then go ahead to perform a hard reset for the router. Please be informed that hard resetting your router to default factory setting will remove all configuration on that router which includes port forwarding, wireless settings, connection settings and etc… Try to write down what you remember so you can immediately configure the router back when you’re able to get in.

Every router should have a small hole at the back where you can use a pin to insert it in to reset the router to factory settings. Just press and hold the reset switch for 30 seconds.

Once your router has been reset, login with the router’s default login information which can be found in the router’s manual, Phenoelit or RouterPassword website.

For security purposes, always change your default router password and also disable remote management if not using it. If you need to use remote router management, do not use port 80 or 23. Use some other uncommon ports such as 4781 or 917. I can easily hack in a few routers a day just by using a port scanner. I just scan a range of IP address for port 23 or 80. Some routers will display information when I use telnet to connect. As you can see at the image below, it shows “BCM96358 ADSL Router” when I connect using telnet. A simple google search will tell me that it’s a Belkin router.

If I did not change my router’s password, anyone can use the default password “password” to login to my router!