Netgear DGN1000 ISP password retrieval

[TheKLF99]

We have a Netgear DGN1000 router which we're currently replacing with a more modern BT Home Hub.  We're staying with TalkTalk however we have a slight problem.

After spending hours on the phone to TalkTalk asking them for our broadband username and password and just getting the same old response that "I'm sorry but we don't actually support the BT Home Hub router and so we can't set it up for you" - I'm not asking them to set it up I'm asking for the simple username and password - well we've got the username we just need the password but these guys at TalkTalk are about as useless as a chocolate teapot (I have a HND in Software Engineering - I should know how to setup the router myself I just need the password!!)

We also have a phone number to phone talktalk support to get the password - however since joining talktalk our phone number has been changed and yet the router login is still under the old phone number, and so when calling that all we get is a message saying that talktalk don't recognise our phone number and please call back on the talktalk line - we're like this is the talktalk line - it doesn't give us any option to put the phone number in or anything - absolutely useless.

We though we'd check the existing router and we noticed the password was dotted out for the ISP login (well no surprises there).  So we exported the data to the backup file to see if we could get access to the password (I wasn't being hopeful but you never know!) and erm yeah the password is encrypted.  Great!  

I have found a tool called RouterPassView - which seems to do nothing with the file so I guess it can't decode it and I searched in numerous places to try and find out how to decode this password for these routers and have come up totally empty handed.

Obviously the router must be able to decode this data when restoring a backup, so surely there must be something that can decode it outside of the router.  Is there any tool I can get that can decode this data?  I heard it was Base64 but I tried to put it in a base64 decoder and it come back with nothing, so I guess it's encrypted even more?

[antinode]

> After spending hours on the phone to TalkTalk [...]

   Competition is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

   I know nothing about the DGN1000, but, talking to the Telnet
command-line interface on my D7000, I can see my DSL credentials in a
couple of places (here, redacted):

find /tmp -xdev -exec /sbin/grep <my_dsl_password> {} \; -print
pppoa_password=<my_dsl_password>
/tmp/nvram
pppd_cmd_1=/var/w/pppd_1 unit 1 ipparam 1 info_file /tmp/w/info_1
 lcp_file /tmp/w/lcp_1 pppd_fail /tmp/w/pppd_fail_1 demand_file
 /tmp/w/demand_1 plugin pppoa 0.32 vc-encaps user "<my_dsl_user_name>"
 password "<my_dsl_password>" mru 1458 mtu 1458   nodetach nodefaultroute
 usepeerdns maxfail 0   lcp-echo-failure 12 lcp-echo-interval 10
/tmp/nv/wan

   So, if your DGN1000 responds appropriately to one of the Netgear
Telnet Enable programs floating around out there (I use the one I've
modified: http://antinode.info/nte), then you might be able to find your
credentials that way.  I'd suggest a command like:

      grep -e name= -e word= /tmp/nvram

But, of course, things could differ on a DGN1000.

[michaelkenward]

First bit of advice, get rid of TalkTalk. The UK's, possibly the world's, worst ISP. The only good news is that they have fired their CEO Baroness "useless" Dido Harding.

Unfortunately, password encryption is, as it should be, pretty secure. I wouldn't waste time trying to crack it.

It is a pity that you can't remember the TalkTalk password. Are you sure you don't have it squirreled away somewhere?

Try this as a tactic. Ring them and tell them that your have forgotten the password, can't login and need them to reset it and to tell you the new one. They probably can't get the old one.

Sadly, this may land you in an offshore call centre, another of TalkTalk's crimes against humanity.

I bet you will get a response if you threaten to cancel your account.

As another tactic, there are one or two sane fellow TalkTalk users on their forum who may be able to help devise a "get me me password" strategy.

By the way, what possessed you to buy a BT modem? Useless and overpriced piece of junk. (I have a spare lying around as well as the one on my second line.) The user interface is dire and you can give the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wifi bands with separate SSIDs.

Good luck, you have my sympathy. After many years with TalkTalk, and its predecessors, I must say that I will never regret the day when I ditched them for BT. Yes, you got that right BT, probably the only ISP that TalkTalk makes look like a bunch of geniuses.

Bitter? Me?