Change Default User Name RBR50 ORBI

[Ixmaninc]

It's easy enough to change the default ORBI user password, but is there a way to change the "admin" user name?

[FURRYe38]

No. Admin is set by default and can't be changed. 

[Utrera]

Is Netgear going to step up to the plate and allow users to change the user name? Most security guru's highly reccommend that the default user name (as well as the default password) be changed when setting up a new WiFi system.

[CrimpOn]

You are not going to be happy.  Netgear shows no interest in changing the user name from "admin".

They may feel that the user can get the same level of 'security' by specifying a sufficiently complex password.

(Mine is 25 characters long, and my calculation is that it will take about 4 billion years to try every possible combination.)

If you want to "hack" the Orbi, then it is possible to change the web login from "admin" using telnet commands.  I have never it myself, so I have no idea if it survives power restarts.  It certainly will not survive a "Factory Reset" (nothing does).

[Ixmaninc]

Absolutely. Functionally, the system is great. 

[CrimpOn]

I have considered changing mine from "admin", mostly to see what happens.  It's sort of way down my "to do list" because:

If Remote Access is not enabled, then to break into my Orbi someone has to:

• Gain access to my WiFi, which also has a 20+ character password,
• Have physical access to the Orbi (be IN my house), or
• Set up outside my house and conduct a sophisticated WiFi snooping activity to learn my WiFi password.

Even after gaining access to my LAN, they still cannot "snoop" on my use of the Orbi web interface because I use a wired connection (not WiFi).  So all they would have gained is the opportunity to hack away at my 25 character random password.  My guess is the Orbi log file would fill pretty quickly and alert me to the issue, whereupon I would promptly turn on Access Control and lock them out.

And, for what?  It's not like I am a bank or business with valuable data to protect.

[Retired_Member]

Same issue with my NETGEAR Router, but you ask "why allow a different user name than admin?" For me, a software engineer, I want complete control over settings that I need to enter to validate myself, and "admin" is just plain stupid. In a way it is insulting, it leaves an itch that cannot be scratched, it feels like it is insecure (and indeed it chops the security in half... factorial or something).

In short. why even have us supply a user name at all if it is the same for everyone in the world? That is why not being able to change it, but having to supply it, is stupid.