Possibility to force a "weak" wifi password

[philtodd]

Is there a way to force a "weak" wifi password on Vodafone's router? Vodafone just had my 80 year old mum go crawl on the floor to hard reset her router to try & fix a VOIP problem. That reset her wifi settings to their original settings and as you'd expect, no devices will connect. It didn't fix the VOIP issue either. Trying to put in the wifi details she had, the router is telling her that the old 21 character password is too weak and won't accept it. That leaves her with Alexas, smart lights, Ring doorbell, TV, phone, & tablet all to reconfigure and at her age, it's never going to happen. I'd chuck the Vodafone router in the bin if it wasn't necessary for the VOIP line. The wifi password was accepted in the past on the same router, so either something has been updated in the router firmware, or broadband app such that it will no longer allow it.

[Cynric]

@philtodd Quick answer is "no". The router firmware was updated to a version with stricter requirements. There were discussions on here about sideloading the earlier Android apk but that is also a security risk.

You may be able to get around this router problem by disconnecting it from the internet, then do a factory reset which will load the default firmware from the chipset. Don't re-connect to the internet yet, connect to the router admin and setup your old credentials and see if they are accepted. If so, connect all your devices (as much as some may sulk with the internet being present) and then assuming they all connect plug-in the connection to the internet and cross your fingers.

[LENNO1]

Hi I tried Android 4.6.7 but also requires 12 characters. What is the likelihood of the solution working that you are describing? Anything else? I would spend a day uncovering smart switches etc. to reset passwords….

[Cynric]

@LENNO1 Using a phone to hotspot the WiFi presence has been discussed in the forum before and shown to work.

PS: If your weak password leads to an intruder, we're not responsible 🙂 

[LENNO1]

Sorry I am no expert, I tried to search but could not figure out what you mean by ‘using a phone to hotspot the WiFi presence’…

[Cynric]

@LENNO1 OK, here's the thing. 

1. Turn off the router WiFi
2. Turn on WiFi hotspot on the mobile in the 2.4GHz band, give it the same SSID and password as the router
3. Connect all those devices
4. Ensure that the router SSID and password are as you want them to be and then turn on the router WiFi
5. Turn off the phone hotspot
6. The devices should swap over to the router

[Jayach]

But that won't overcome the length restriction on the router, which is the query on this thread.

[Jayach]

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@LENNO1 wrote:

Hi I tried Android 4.6.7 but also requires 12 characters. What is the likelihood of the solution working that you are describing? Anything else? I would spend a day uncovering smart switches etc. to reset passwords….

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When I was using 4.6.7, it definately allowed 8 digit password, because I used it to set mine back after the firmware updated.

The app has since upgraded to 5.0.2, but it still allows 8 digit passwords. 

[LENNO1]

Interesting. I have no Android phone and side loaded the app in my Amazon Fire tablet at 4.6.7. It all connected fine but when I want to change password it says 12 characters required…I have an Ultra Hub. I tried to load an even earlier version of the app but on the older ones it just sents me to the Play store to update.

is it worth finding an Android phone?  I do not quite understand the logic of why it would require 12 characters on Fire tablet but not on a phone?

[Jayach]

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@LENNO1 wrote:
I have an Ultra Hub. 

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I have the THG3000, so maybe that makes a difference?