Trying to setup a new Ex8000 extender and failing miserably

I am trying to setup a ex8000 range extender as an access point.  I have attached the device directly to a laptop via a cat5 cable.  As soon as I plug the cable in, the Netgear login screen pops up on the laptop asking for the user name and passord.  I tried logging in using my netgear login (works on this forum) but it is not accepted.  I  have never been on this screen so I thought it might be looking for some sort of default PW, but I tried the only one I can find anywhere in Netgear docs  (admin, password) and it does not work.  I tried a factory recet and it made no difference. 

Is there some other default pw that I don't know about?

Charlie