Router & remote access

[ReTeMa]

i have 2 PC . both win xp pro, up-to-date, administrator account, power-on no need to type password, all disks shared.
i have cable ADSL and my ISP change IP address every day (dynamic address). my router is Allied Telesyn AT-AR220E with default factory settings and i never change router user & password.
both my pc have TCP/IP properties as ''Obtain an IP address automatically'' and ''Obtain DNS address automatically'', first has 192.168.1.11 and second 192.168.1.12. i access my router with typing 192.168.1.1 in address bar of my browser. so far so good, everything works perfect.

question is:

can bad guy break into my router and change whatever?

sorry, if i missed forum!

 

[bcastner]

If the router features a remote administration feature they would have to:

. Identify that a device is on the other end of an IP address;

. Specify a specific port, Username, and Password

. The remote administration feature must be enabled on the device

If all of these are true, the answer is that it is possible.

Now the question for you: Why not disable this feature in the router setup?

 

[Spirit]

As bcastner says if you leave the remote access open i.e. from the internet its very easy to determine your router make and model and if you don't change the default UName and PWord a quick google search reveals that:
login: roo*****
password: Bla******

Then a quick port scan will tell me what port I need to conect to to remote admin after that all I need to do is change the password and anything else I like.

However disable remote administration and Bobs your uncle and sound as a pound......

Worst case senario you have to push the wee reset button at the back to restore factory defaults and then reconfigure it again!

Iain

 

[ReTeMa]

thanks

i can't found ''remote administration feature'' but router has ''External Admin. = Disable''. is this the same?
i changed ''Username and Password'' from factory defaults.

tia

 

[bcastner]

Sounds like the same.

A decently obscure username and password should be sufficient.

 

[ReTeMa]

thanks again,

I'll sleep as a baby