Simply put, a wireless network was set up with a network name and password in a senior community of primarily beginner users. Recently the name and password became changed to that of a community member named, let's say, "Joe". After addressing the router several times to change things back - only to find that the network name reverted to Joe - I changed the router password from admin to a unique pw and I confirmed that Remote Management was off. Next day... it was Joe again!

(Details are a Lynksys router connected to a cable company modem and with WPA2 security.)

Before approaching Joe, especially since I suspect he is no hacker but doing something innocently, I would like to know what I may have missed.

Thanks for any help.
SG

Hello SG,

Was the device reset to the default settings? As long as the user had physical access to the router they could have done so, login using
default credentials and do the change.

Cheers

Thanks for the reply. I forgot to say originally that the new router password that replaced 'admin' was still intact. Since I believe that the new password was secure, i.e. not written down or spoken about, then I don't think that the router was manually reset. Otherwise, I would have seen the default password, admin. Since we are dealing with an over 60 crowd and not youngsters attending IT school, I think I must be unaware of some setting. Otherwise I'm left with the, gulp, obvious... senior citizen hackers! (Which I realize is possible but I presented this issue to determine if there is a more innocent explanation, namely a router configuration error on my part.)
SG

Hmmm...

Sorry, please confirm the below:

1) Several times you had a new SSID for the wireless network and a new pre shared key, so nobody could connect via WiFi anymore
2) There was just one username to login to the router with a secure password and it remained intact after every change of the SSID
3) Remote management of the router is disabled
4) The security protocol you are using for wireless is WPA2

Also, is there any backdoor to get admin access to the device? Say, does it ask for credentials if someone connecting using a cable, assuming there's a build in ethernet switch?