Have you ever tried to login to your Verizon FIOS router, only to find out that you’ve got no idea what the password is? Here’s how to reset the password to the factory defaults and get access to your router again.
If you’re still looking for a good reason to login to the router, be sure to read our guide to changing your Wi-Fi router channel to optimize your signal, or our explanation on why hiding your wireless SSID is really not a security feature.
Logging Into Your Router
Normally all you need to do in order to login to your router is simply head to http://192.168.1.1 in your browser, and enter in the username and password to get into the settings.
On a side note, that password box is really annoying on these Verizon routers.
Resetting the Password for Your Verizon Router
Each of the Verizon routers will have a Reset button on the back side somewhere, usually with a red circle around it. To reset the router to factory defaults, press this button (using a pen or something similar), and hold it down until all the lights on the router blink and turn off, and then back on—it’ll take somewhere between 10-30 seconds.
If it doesn’t work, then try it again.
And the Default Password Is…
Once you’ve reset the password to the default, it’s going to be set to one of the following—or it might already be set to one of these, so before you reset the router, you should try each of these.
“Password” — once you reset the password on most of the routers, it should be set to simply password. “admin” — sometimes the Verizon tech will change the password to admin, though they are supposed to change it to the serial number. Serial Number — each router has a serial number on the sticker on the back, and often the password has been changed to match this number. Blank — and we’re not referring to typing Blank into the password field—on one of the routers the password field should just be ignored, by default, at least.
If you’re still not having any luck, then reset it.
Various Verizon Router Models
We’ve put together a quick little table with all the Verizon router models that we know of, and the default password for each.
Of course, once we put the table together we realized that they were all the same except for one of them, so the table isn’t very useful… but it looks nice, so we’re leaving it here.
Changing Your Router Password
Once you’re able to login the first time, you’ll be prompted to change the password on the first login—but if you were able to login without having to reset it, you should probably head down to the Quick Links section on the left-hand side, and use the Change Login User Name / Password setting.
Naturally, this might be different for your router version, but this is what we’re seeing right now.
Password Managers Like LastPass Don’t Work
If you’re having a problem logging in with a password manager like LastPass, you might not actually have a password problem as much as a password manager problem—for some reason this password box doesn’t work right with password managers.
The trick is to just use LastPass to copy the password to the clipboard, and then manually paste it in.
On a side note: if you’re using another (better) router internally for your network, you should probably disable WEP on the Verizon router.
