NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Devices know password automatically?
Orbi WiFi 6 System - AX6000 - 2 pack
Delivered and installed today. All is working fine. Was able to connect my laptop and my iPhone to the new WiFi network name using the new password I assigned.
My concern is my mom’s iPhone. Her phone connected to the new WiFi network name using the new password without me doing anything. How did her phone know the password without me entering it?!?! I’m stumped. I called the Netgear/Orbi help line and they said it wasn’t possible. I swear I didn’t touch my mom’s phone at all and neither did my mom. She’s 88 years old and doesn’t even know what WiFi is to begin with.
Any ideas as to why this is happening? I don’t want random neighbors joining my network. I don’t have an iCloud account and neither does she.
Delivered and installed today. All is working fine. Was able to connect my laptop and my iPhone to the new WiFi network name using the new password I assigned.
My concern is my mom’s iPhone. Her phone connected to the new WiFi network name using the new password without me doing anything. How did her phone know the password without me entering it?!?! I’m stumped. I called the Netgear/Orbi help line and they said it wasn’t possible. I swear I didn’t touch my mom’s phone at all and neither did my mom. She’s 88 years old and doesn’t even know what WiFi is to begin with.
Any ideas as to why this is happening? I don’t want random neighbors joining my network. I don’t have an iCloud account and neither does she.
2 Replies
Assuming that the WiFi SSID and password for the Orbi are different than the previous WiFi system, I would look to Apple for an explanation.
Are these the only WiFi devices? If there are other devices, how were they connected to the Orbi system? i.e. if that iPhone is the only device which did this, perhaps Apple has some capability for sharing network information. Having no iPhone, I have no idea what such a feature might be called.
p.s. Many users deliberately set up a new WiFi system with SSID and password that exactly match the system being replaced. This serves two purposes:
- Existing devices will connect to the new system immediately without requiring any configuration. With many Internet of Things (IoT) devices being tedious to configure, this can save substantial time and effort.
- If the user decides to "go back" to the previous WiFi system, the instant it is plugged in every WiFi device will connect automatically without requiring configuration.
If the user has made a significant number of IP address reservations (on the LAN Setup page of the web interface), the usual practice is to make all those configuration entries on the replacement system before creating the WiFi credentials. That will ensure that devices do not get IP assignments that are unwanted.
I have had the same WiFi credentials for 20 years.
Hello!
Yes, the Wi-Fi SSID and password for the Orbi are different than the previous Wi-Fi system. Thanks for the suggestion to reach out to Apple. Unfortunately, they has no explanation and were no help.
The 2 iPhones are not the only Wi-Fi devices. I connected my HP laptop only after I had entered in the password. You are correct, my mom's iPhone is the only device that automatically selected the new SSID and automatically knew what the password was.
My initial plan was to set up the new Orbi with SSID and password exactly matching the system being replaced for the reasons you listed below. However, I decided not to do that because I wanted to test the Orbi system out.
I'm not too savvy in technical language, so not sure what you mean by address reservations.
Thanks so much for helping me troubleshoot. It's annoying to me that it happened.
