Peripherals Tefly Internet in Spain, denied router access by provider

My friend has requested the user/password loads of times and each time they refuse. They just keep copy/pasting them same reply saying they do not give it out.
Any thoughts ?

Resetting the router should set the username/password back to factory default root/admin. Is your mate sure he pressed the button longer than 10 seconds, anything shorter would just cause a reboot. If definitely not resetting then I can only imagine the reset has been disabled. Not sure if this can be achieved through settings but I would look for signs that it has been opened.
Best thing would be to change ISP but obviously he has a long contract left. I couldn't find Tefly with google.

sorry m8 my spelling is telfy. Yeah he def pressed it in till all the lights came on then it went through the reboot process. Thing is, it's not written on the side and I went to HUEWEI and went through every user password combo they have and tried them over teamviewer.

They responded and said they hold the user/password and ask them if you wanna change anything, how fookin wrong is that. Surely if someone has that and no doubt their IP they can do as they please.

That’s not the first ISP, I heard to lock out the router. In Ireland a company called imagine do the same thing. You have to contact them to get them to change any setting on the router.

In regards to the factory default, i changed the firmware on a Huawei HG659b to a firmware different to my ISP's as they had a lot of options missing on their firmware. I did this when it wasn’t connected to the landline.
The new firmware was running fine with no issues so I set up everything I wanted static IP's, port forwarding etc.. To my surprise after I connected the router back up the land line(ADSL). It rebooted itself and put my ISP’s firmware back on to it. I lost all the settings I applied and got stuck with their crap firmware and not to mention about 8 hours of work for nothing.

Maybe this is what is happening when you factory reset the router. The ISP is probably pushing the firmware back down to it.
Does it take longer to reboot after you do the factory reset?
If it does then that is a definite sign something else is going on.


From what I learned firmware’s for Huawei routers are impossible to find as they only provide the ISP’s with them

silverdale said:

My friend has requested the user/password loads of times and each time they refuse. They just keep copy/pasting them same reply saying they do not give it out.
Any thoughts ?

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Does your friend have the DSL sign-in details? If so he could just but a generic modem/router (you can get a decent TP-Link for about €50 from Worten) and use that. Probably be far better than the cr#p Telfy hand out anyway.

alankellyeire said:

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Does it take longer to reboot after you do the factory reset?



From what I learned firmware’s for Huawei routers are impossible to find as they only provide the ISP’s with them

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I'm not sure I'll ask

trevortron said:

Does your friend have the DSL sign-in details? If so he could just but a generic modem/router (you can get a decent TP-Link for about €50 from Worten) and use that. Probably be far better than the cr#p Telfy hand out anyway.

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As far as I know all's he he does is, plugs it in and it works, he can't even change the wifi without asking. He's asked them to explain it and why and if he doesn't he will take it to the local press and reveal all

why not just cancel the direct debit and change provider. Then everytime he gets a suspicious letter use a flash light to ee what its about before opening.
Write NO LONGER AT ADDRESS ON IT, RETURN TO SENDER on it and stick it in the post box.

all they know is your name and bank details. it will cost them too much to go after you for breaching your contract so they wont boder. I have done this in the past and never had any trouble with it. Every service provider should give you a few months to test their service before you get stuck in a contract IMHO.

alankellyeire said:

why not just cancel the direct debit and change provider. Then everytime he gets a suspicious letter use a flash light to ee what its about before opening.
Write NO LONGER AT ADDRESS ON IT, RETURN TO SENDER on it and stick it in the post box.

all they know is your name and bank details. it will cost them too much to go after you for breaching your contract so they wont boder. I have done this in the past and never had any trouble with it. Every service provider should give you a few months to test their service before you get stuck in a contract IMHO.

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In an ideal world, yes on both counts. But here in Portugal (and I am sure it is similar in Spain) every contract you sign is attached to your fiscal number and it can make things very difficult in the future if you don't 'play ball', especially if you own any property.
Providers only allow 14 days to cancel, and they keep very quiet about it.

Can you not just buy a new router with the settings you want and get them to pair the new router with the existing router, so from then on all traffic goes through both routers?

he's tied in to a 18 month contract, he got a reply saying, "I have forwarded your complaint to our Manager", that was 2 days ago and he's still waiting. I mean , what is the purpose of them owning the user password ?. They said if you want anything changing ask us, wtf is that all about ??

I suppose by doing what they have done they have tied everything down so that as an ISP they cannot be sued for Copy write infringements by user and it probably helps save the users from malware etc.

It was probably in the small print that he signed in the contract.

To some degree is must be working as he cannot now view TV from the UK.

The only think you could ask them to do is to make the settings on the router vanilla no firewall settings etc.

The other problem is that the problem may not be with the router but with ISP filtering, Virgin BT Sky etc do this and it stops most Kodi addons working, it is possible here to opt out of these, so he may be able to do that, or then again his contract may not let him

I think he's more worried now about security as he works from the UK and Spain and alot of clients are on his phone and laptop. If they have access to the router with a bit of I.T know how I suppose you can access a great deal more ;-

How to secure your router and home network | PCWorld

im pretty sure all ISP have remote access to routers. i know 4 ISP in ireland that i have used all did.

alankellyeire said:

im pretty sure all ISP have remote access to routers. i know 4 ISP in ireland that i have used all did.

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Surely if you change the password to your router no ISP can enter your settings, that's the reason why some default it "changeme". For me, no one bar the user should have access full stop. Who's to say your not a multi million pound company with outside access allowed, sorry but for me it's wrong just about on every level

Has he checked his contract?

Not sure if you change the password on all of them will it stop them accessing the router but with Vodafone broadband here in Ireland. After changing the password they are able to access the router remotely or at least able to push out factory resets
sky broadband are also able to access routers(non Huawei), but I didn’t change the password in that case. From all I could tell they just did a factory reset, so deleted all the settings I applied. It is possible the client may have done a factory reset in this case but I doubt it.

The Vodafone router also had ALC's build into the router that could not be deleted. These allowed certain IP's in a range to remotely access the router. The router was a Huawei router and I was only able to see the ALC’s when I was logged in using a higher privileged user credentials and not the user credentials that were written on the back of the router. Even logged in as the higher privileged user I wasn’t able to delete the ALC or add my own ALC for remote management. When logged in using the credentials on the back of the router, there is no ALC option available. Many other options are also hidden.

Most of the routers I have dealt with are Huawei. For all I know these have built in ALC's that can only be accessed when using a higher privileged users than what is given with the router. At the end of the day I would be shocked if the other ISP’s couldn’t access your router remotely. Huawei make the firmware for the ISP’s so I bet they have ALC’s and ports open etc.. for remote access build in from day 1.

To test, why not change your password on your router and ring your ISP and ask can they set up port forwarding or set a static IP for you.
I use a router not provided by my ISP so can’t test the theory.

alankellyeire said:

Not sure if you change the password on all of them will it stop them accessing the router but with Vodafone broadband here in Ireland. After changing the password they are able to access the router remotely or at least able to push out factory resets

To test, why not change your password on your router and ring your ISP and ask can they set up port forwarding or set a static IP for you.
I use a router not provided by my ISP so can?t test the theory.

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I'm sure they can send out updates to the routers but enter and change settings ?, I have never personally heard of that.


And when you say change your password on your router ?, there is no password on the router the reason why I started this thread

I think you need to be honest with us as to what you are trying to achieve then we may be able to help.

In the OP you stated the issue was with IPTV.

Latter when I said that stopping copy righted may be the reason why the ISP are doing what they are doing, you changed tact and said it was to do with security.

If its security then just tell the ISP how you want the router set up (if you do not trust them, then you should not be using them full stop).

If its to do with the IPTV then you could are the ISP to put the router into modem only mode then buy your own router where you can set up VPN DNS setting etc.

The ISP have done nothing wrong if its in their contract, I understand that you friend may not be fluent in spanish so not understand the details of the contract but that is not the ISPs fault.

As I say let us know what you are trying to do and what errors you get and we will see what we can come up with

I've been honest, I will explain once again then,

My m8 lives in Spain, he had an Openbox worked fine then he changed ISP providers and they gave him a new router, this was at the same time Sly with t!ts up so the Openbox wasnt been used, it was unplugged for a few weeks made redundant.

I suggested a firestick and just add Perfect Player and and type a URL in it. So he bought a stick and tried to download Perfect Player and it would download, it just hung.

He took the firestick to a friends who are with a different provider and it downloaded straight away. He took it home, added the URL and nothing. I said jump on teamviewer and I'll have a nosey in your router security. He sent me a pic of the router sticker and this is no username or password for the router access, only the wifi user/password.

I tried all the default HUAWEI router user passwords so I said send them an email and ask and this is were it ended up. The provider said it's private and they do not give out the router log in details.

So basically, he started off trying to get a firestick working and failed which lead him to start getting worried about the router security and not been able to access it. He works from aboard a few months at a time and all his customer data base and details are on his laptop that's why he's worried and for me a dam good reason as well.

I don't know what you mean with been honest, "change tact" ??, I explained in the thread probably in a round about kind of way. Yes there are work arounds but should you have to buy routers and VPN's ?.
Slightly off topic but more the reason why we should be in charge of our router security-
TalkTalk and Post Office routers hit by cyber-attack - BBC News
I will let you know how he gets on

His contract is in Spanish so another friend is going to translate it for himp.