Speaker 1: The FBI says, reboot your router. I'm Rich dmiro. This
Speaker 1: is rich on Tech Daily. Well, this is an odd headline.
Speaker 1: The FBI is urging folks to reboot their Wi Fi
Speaker 1: routers to avoid running some malware that can steal your
Speaker 1: website user names and passwords. This one's kind of a
Speaker 1: head scratcher, but I put it under the file of
Speaker 1: you might as well do it. And it's a good
Speaker 1: time to kind of check up on your router in general,
Speaker 1: because lots of us buy these things and then we
Speaker 1: never think about them again, and really we are avoiding
Speaker 1: all of the firmware updates that probably need to be
Speaker 1: done on these things every once in a while. But
Speaker 1: before we get to that, let's go to the beginning.
Speaker 1: What is your router? Well, your router is that device
Speaker 1: that sits near your computer or TV and it has
Speaker 1: the connection from the cable company or your phone company
Speaker 1: into it, and then it serves up your Internet to
Speaker 1: the rest of your house. The FBI says that this
Speaker 1: VPN filter pro can steal your login information and send
Speaker 1: it to the bad guys, or worse, completely disable your router,
Speaker 1: which means you'd have no more Internet signal. In your
Speaker 1: home until you get a replacement device. Normally I would
Speaker 1: not be as concerned about something like this, but this
Speaker 1: malware really affects some big name brands of routers, Lots
Speaker 1: of routers that people have, including Linxis, neck Gear, and
Speaker 1: also tp link. Those are among some of those popular brands.
Speaker 1: There are some other brands affected as well, including microtich
Speaker 1: and q NAP, which are network attached storage devices. But
Speaker 1: if you have one of those, you probably know what
Speaker 1: you're doing when it comes to the tech department. Just
Speaker 1: looking at some of the pictures of these routers, you
Speaker 1: will recognize them. They are some of the most popular
Speaker 1: routers out there. Some of them are pretty inexpensive, which
Speaker 1: means a lot of people purchase them. I've personally owned
Speaker 1: several of these routers over the years. They go from
Speaker 1: the low end to the high end. Now, if you
Speaker 1: want the full list of affected model numbers, you can
Speaker 1: find that on my website rich on tech dot tv.
Speaker 1: But they have model names like Lynxis E twelve hundred,
Speaker 1: Netgear R six four hundred, Neckgear WNR one thousand. Again,
Speaker 1: these are all pretty popular routers, tp Link R six
Speaker 1: hundred VPN. So what do you do. If you have
Speaker 1: one of these routers, well, the first thing you want
Speaker 1: to do is follow the cord from the back of
Speaker 1: the device all the way to the power outlet and
Speaker 1: unplug it. Then wait about thirty seconds for it to
Speaker 1: fully power down. Then you can plug it back in.
Speaker 1: The Justice Department says this simple step can help you
Speaker 1: avoid a portion of the threat, and I'd recommend doing
Speaker 1: this no matter which router you have, even if it's
Speaker 1: not specifically listed above. This is a pretty easy thing
Speaker 1: to do and will only interrupt your Wi Fi connection
Speaker 1: at home for about five to ten minutes while everything
Speaker 1: boots up again. Now, after this, there are two more,
Speaker 1: much more involved steps to take if your router model
Speaker 1: is specifically mentioned on the list. This includes a factory reset,
Speaker 1: a firmware update, and also changing the default password on
Speaker 1: the device. Now, the factory reset is probably the minimum
Speaker 1: thing you want to do if you suspect that your
Speaker 1: router is a part of this problem. This involves basically
Speaker 1: bringing the router back to the way it was from
Speaker 1: the factory. And this involves a little tiny reset hole
Speaker 1: or button you'd probably never noticed on the back of
Speaker 1: the router until now. You basically put a paper clip
Speaker 1: in there and push down the button for several seconds
Speaker 1: until the router starts to blink a bunch, and that
Speaker 1: will signal that you have successfully factory reset it, and
Speaker 1: then it will take a while to boot back up. Now,
Speaker 1: if you do this, keep in mind this literally puts
Speaker 1: your router back to new So imagine taking it out
Speaker 1: of the box. You will have to set up your
Speaker 1: entire router again from scratch. You're gonna have to create
Speaker 1: a new Wi Fi network and password, and then of
Speaker 1: course reconnect all your devices. Now you can use the
Speaker 1: same network name and password that you had previously set up,
Speaker 1: and then your devices will find the new router all
Speaker 1: by themselves. But this is a less secure option, so
Speaker 1: proceed at your own risk with that one. Now, after
Speaker 1: you do the factory reset, this is the most important thing.
Speaker 1: You want to set a new login password for your router.
Speaker 1: A lot of time these routers have the same exact
Speaker 1: login and password. It's usually admin and password. That is
Speaker 1: not secure because if you're a hacker, you can literally
Speaker 1: get into all these people's devices across the nation just
Speaker 1: by using the default username and password. Not smart. Now,
Speaker 1: some of the newer routers have more unique passwords that
Speaker 1: are set from the factory, and those are printed on
Speaker 1: the bottom of them, but still it's not as good
Speaker 1: as something that you set on the device yourself. The
Speaker 1: other thing you should do, and you should probably do
Speaker 1: this once in a while anyway, is make sure the
Speaker 1: firmware on your router is up to date. This is
Speaker 1: really kind of the operating system on the router. Think
Speaker 1: of this as updating the software on your iPhone or
Speaker 1: your Android device. This is kind of involved because you
Speaker 1: have to log into your router from your computer using
Speaker 1: a special web address, which is usually something like one
Speaker 1: nine to two dot one six ' one dot one
Speaker 1: dot one or my router admin dot net or something
Speaker 1: weird like that, which most people just don't bother with.
Speaker 1: But the good news is most of the newer routers
Speaker 1: have a button once you you get to that web
Speaker 1: in or face where you can just say check for
Speaker 1: new firmware and then you can install it. So that's
Speaker 1: the good news here, But that is a little more complicated.
Speaker 1: You probably want to enlist the help of someone that
Speaker 1: knows what they're doing. Keep in mind if you have
Speaker 1: one of these newer mess style router systems like those
Speaker 1: from euro Google Wi Fi or Neckgear orby This is
Speaker 1: why I love these things. These things are so easy
Speaker 1: to update. You can update the firmware right from your
Speaker 1: phone's app, and it's much easier than going in and
Speaker 1: having to do any of this stuff from some sort
Speaker 1: of control panel using your web browser. And if you
Speaker 1: get one of these newer mess style router systems, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get way better Wi Fi coverage throughout your house
Speaker 1: and much better security overall. Hopefully this helped out when
Speaker 1: it comes to the FBI telling you to reboot your router.
Speaker 1: You can find my full write up on the website.
Speaker 1: Just go to richon tech dot tv if you want
Speaker 1: to see a list of all the routers that are
Speaker 1: affected and the step by step instructions on how to
Speaker 1: fix things. Thanks so much for listening. If you could,
Speaker 1: if you like what I'm doing here, leave a review
Speaker 1: on Apple podcasts that would be the best. I'm Rich Tomiro.
Speaker 1: I will talk to you real soon. M