So I think someone stole access to my wireless network at home. I removed the password from it before I deployed, thinking that it would make things easier on my wife while I was gone, and that we wouldn’t have to worry too much about anything happening anyway because we live on a military installation full of (purportedly) honest people. Apparently I was wrong on both accounts.
She reported a few weeks ago that the wireless stopped working. I told her I’d take care of it when I got home. Today I hooked up one Ethernet cable from the wall to the router (Linksys WRT54G) and another from the router to the computer. When I put the router’s IP address into the browser, I was asked for a username and password.
Is it possible for someone to add a password requirement to my router without actually being hardwired into it? If not, how could this have happened? I know my wife didn’t add it, and I seriously doubt our toddler did it while he was banging away on the keyboard 
If it is possible for someone to do that, how can I get my router back? Bonus points for anyone who can help me find out who did it and punish them 
Some more info, just in case anyone might need it to help me out: now that I’ve got the computer hooked up through the router, I can see that I’m connected to “BomTek,” but my wife reports that once her computer started asking for a password, the “BomTek” wireless network appeared on the list of available networks for a short time only. After that disappeared, she unhooked the router. And that’s where we stand. Help me please!
Are you talking about the password to the router (not the network)? Try just putting in no user ID and “admin” as the password. If that didn’t work, follow these steps to reset your router:
Just to answer some of your questions (you should reset the access point/router to factor default as detailed by enalzi):
Certainly. You said yourself that you had taken the password off the access point, and presumably you were running your wireless network in the clear (broadcasting your SSID, or the name of your wireless network) and probably unencrypted. That means anyone could connect to your wireless network by just searching for it and connecting. They could then easily get your gateway address and then use a browser to access the device. Unless you changed the password to access the system it would be the default or nothing…something that anyone wanting to get into your system would try. You don’t need a hardwired (i.e. ethernet) connection to access the router/access point.
Simply reset the device to factory default and then reconfigure your wireless system. My advice is to turn off the SSID broadcast (IOW don’t advertise your wireless network) and use encryption (WPA is pretty standard on access points these days and it’s easy to configure…and it’s enough of a pain in the ass that most people aren’t going to bother even trying to get into your system, even if you make your pre-shared key 123456).
-XT
Re honest people.
I once configured my neighbours router to my liking thinking I was connected to my own.
“hey, there isn’t any encryption on my network, what has my roomie been up to? Wait i’ll fix that…”
“Hey, this guy’s router is unencrypted. It also tells me it is an XZY router. So obviously I just go to 168.something.something.something and key in “admin” and I’m in! Then I change it to someone else and completely fuck him over! He’s probably too stupid to know how to reset it to factory defaults too!”
Check your manual, or look it up on-line, or post the make and model here. You can reset it to factory and set the network up again. It isn’t too hard. Then change the administrator password on it to something else, and set it up as a closed(hidden) network (where it won’t show up on wifi lists and you have to know the name to type it in), with a simple name, and with WPA security.
And then just hope whoever hijacked it wasn’t using it to download kiddie porn, which may bring a few well armed night visitors to your place.
I don’t think anyone did anything to your router. Even if you turned off the need for a NETWORK password, I don’t think there is any way to turn off the password to the ROUTER ADMIN.
Those are two completely different things.
Either your browser had the admin site’s username and password stored last time you used it and you didn’t have to type it in, or you did have to type it in and don’t remember. Whatever the case, a username and password will always be required to acces 192.168.1.1.
I don’t dobut that someone may have used your wireless if it was left open, but I HIGHLY doubt that anyone was able to sneak in and change the settings on the router.
You can re-set to factory if you forget the admin username and password. It will allow you to log in with the Linksys default.
Or, if you remember the admn login you can simply unplug your router then plug it back in. That should allow all your devices to connect. I have that very same router and it poops out every couple days, and all I have to do is unplug and replug to reboot - no factory reset needed.
Why? I find that most unsecured wireless routers are left at completely default states. Try “admin” or a blank for username and either “admin” or “password” for the password and, more often than not, you’ll be in.
Because beyond the ‘fucking with someone’ factor there really isn’t much of a point to changing someones admin password (except by accident as another poster pointed out earlier). You are already in their system. That isn’t to detract from the ‘fucking with someone’ factor though…that’s the prime motivation for most hackers after all. 
-XT
Because it seems like he is conflating having removed the network password with having removed the admin password.
But you are right, if he left the login default and left the network unsecured, anyone could have changed the password. But the OP reads more like “since when is there a password to get to the admin page? I thought I removed it!”
There is a reason to do so beyond the “fucking with your mind” aspect, and that is to change the router password to something the owner doesn’t know, so that they cannot later encrypt the network unless they manually reset the router.
Won’t work unless the owner is completely clueless. All you have to do is hold down the little ‘reset’ button on most access point/routers today (or do something similarly easy) to reset the thing to the factory defaults.
-XT
Agreed, but there are a lot of clueless people in this world.
True, but most of them that would even know to try and get into the device via an HTML connection and to put in a user name and password to access it probably know enough to RTFM (or look it up online) or call tech support…or ask on an online message board like this one.
-XT
To be fair, I have 3 WRT54Gs, and at some stage, they have all spontaneously reverted to factory settings. This could easily be the case for BomTek. Installing ddwrt has helped considerably, as well as making the devices much more functional, but it is fairly tricky to do even for a geek like me.
Si
Sure there is, to prevent the legitimate user from changing the encrytion setting/password and locking out the illegitimate user (just like the OP is trying to do.)
I think turning off the SSID broadcast is false security; it will cause network problems while not improving security at all. Cite 1 , cite 2.
You probably missed the part where I also said to turn encryption on. Turning off your SSID broadcast is going to eliminate your network from the view of most people. Encrypting your wireless network is going to make your network not worth the bother to hack to most of the remaining. If someone REALLY wants to hack you then they will…but taking rudimentary steps will make your network more of a pain in the ass to hack than it’s worth, unless you have something really worth hacking your system to get at. And if you do, you will probably be able to afford better security.
Which will only work as long as the owner doesn’t simply reset the access point/router to factor defaults…as I said. As long as the owner has physical access to the device they can always reset the thing to the factory defaults, thus rendering any changes a presumed hacker would make meaningless.
-XT
As stated, the legitimate user can’t be locked out of a router he has physical possession of. Changing any passwords is a good way to alert the owner that he has been compromised, and thus prompt him to step up his security measures (which is what’s happening in the OP).
The smart moocher keeps himself unnoticed for as long as possible while using the network for free. (A sophisticated hacker finds a way to plant a rootkit.)
Exactly.
-XT
I didn’t miss it; why do you think I did? Of course you should turn on encryption. However, as is clear in the cites I gave, turning off the SSID doesn’t stop the router from broadcasting; it just has it broadcast a null SSID, which means hackers can still find it, but your devices might have connection problems.
It won’t eliminate your network from the view of people who have hacking tools (or non-Windows OSs), and hiding from the view of people who don’t have hacking tools is pointless if your network is encrypted anyway.
It’s the equivalent of having someone suggest that to improve home security you should lock your door (good!) and paint over your house number (wtf?). Only one of those things is actually improving your security.