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Forum Discussion

Jchannell's avatar
Jchannell
Aspirant
Jul 07, 2022

WiFi only connecting to certain devices FIX

After 4 long years and about 10 WiFi routers later I finally figured out why my routers have all been trash. The reason? The name! All netgear routers use “netgear09” and so on…each name is different, my neighbors is “netgear64” and a few other neighbors all have netgear just different numbers at the end. After 10 WiFi devices and a new cable line from comcast it was all fixed by changing the WiFi name to something other than “netgear##” after changing the name of the WiFi all devices reconnected and even the trash now turned good netgear app is working. It’s the name! Change your name! And your WiFi will work.

4 Replies

  • FURRYe38's avatar
    FURRYe38
    Guru - Experienced User

    Um, since the beginning of WiFi time, router mfrs have setup factory SSID names as a default ONLY. These SSID names have never been meant to use fully for LONG term uses. Users have been and always recommended to CHANGE these factory names to something else. Been like this longer than 10 years. 

     

    SSID names can be ANYTHING. 

     

     

    • michaelkenward's avatar
      michaelkenward
      Guru - Experienced User

      FURRYe38 wrote:

       

      Users have been and always recommended to CHANGE these factory names to something else. Been like this longer than 10 years. 

       


      Spot on there. Although some older manuals do say:

       

      "NETGEAR recommends that you do not change the preset WiFi SSID or password."

       

      Jchannell might also like to know that they can change the default password from that on the router's label.

       

      They can also change the password for the "admin" access to the router.