It can be that we might need to unplug and move an extender if the signal isn’t good and we want to try using it somewhere else. Or we might just be moving or traveling and we want to take it with us. Or we might want to turn it off at night to save power usage.
In these cases, do Wi-Fi extenders remember any custom usernames (SSIDs) and passwords you’ve set on them if you unplug them and plug them in somewhere else? Are any custom credentials you’ve configured on them effectively “stored” on the device even when they’re turned off and moved? (kind of like a hard drive).
A Wi-Fi extender will remember any custom username/password that’s set on it even when unplugged and moved to another location. Interruptions in power supply do not delete custom configurations made on a extender.
In other words, you don’t have to worry about losing any custom usernames/password when moving a repeater – only a factory reset wipes all these settings, which we’ll cover further down.
A Wi-Fi Extender Will Retain Custom Credentials When Unplugged/Moved
Any custom settings you make on a Wi-Fi extender are stored or saved on the device like data is stored on a hard drive – they aren’t wiped when you turn off the power or unplug them and will remain there once you power it back on.
This means that there isn’t usually a big deal with unplugging an extender and moving it somewhere else to get a better signal, or perhaps turning it off at night when not in use. It’ll retain the same network name (SSID) and password. And as long as it’s still within range of the main router it’s capturing it’s signal from, it will still work as normal. I just tried it myself, and it worked fine.
There might be a brief interruption of connectivity for 10-30 seconds while the repeater reconnects once it’s plugged back in somewhere else. But as long as you have the repeater’s network set to “connect automatically” in any device’s Wi-Fi settings, the connection should just resume automatically when the repeater is back up and running. If you’ve not got auto-connect set on a device, you may need to manually re-enter it’s password to reconnect.
But all the custom credentials you’ve added, both login and network, should remain the same:
- Network – The Wi-Fi username (SSID) and password you use to connect to the repeater’s network will remain exactly the same if you’ve configured them yourself
- Login/Access – What you use to log in to the repeater to configure/change settings. These too will remain exactly the same if you changed them from what’s on the label and set them to your own values when you configured the device initially.
Another example of how a Wi-Fi repeater will retain custom settings is when I purchased a second hand one recently online. When I first plugged it in, it still had the old SSID and password that the previous user configured on it, even though it hadn’t been plugged in for quite a long time.
Obviously, I didn’t know the password to access it, and so had to factory reset it to wipe everything (more on this below).
Connecting A Wi-Fi Extender To A New Access Point (When Moving)
You might be asking this question because you’re taking the extender with you to a totally new location and connecting it to a new router/access point.
In this case, then it’s the same general idea – the extender will retain it’s old access/login credentials – but will need reconfiguring to connect it to a new router.
You’ve a couple of main ways of doing this:
Method #1 – Connect via WPS – If you can physically access the new router, just push the WPS button on it, and then push the WPS/Pair/Wi-Fi button on your repeater, and wait up to 2 minutes for them to connect. This should set your repeater up with a new cloned access point, though via WPS both it’s SSID and Wi-Fi password will change to clone the new router you’ve connected it to. The extender settings/login credentials will stay the same.
Method #2 – Device/Browser Set Up – With this method, you’d need to plug the extender in at the new location, and connect any device to it using it’s old Wi-Fi SSID/password. Then login to the extender using it’s old access username/password (if you can’t remember these, skip to the factory reset section below). Then, you’d need to progress through the setup wizard on the extender, to connect it to the new router, and from there you either set exactly the same wireless username/password as you currently have to keep it simple, or configure new ones. See our guide on browser setup for more complete steps.
How To Reset Login/Access Credentials On A Wi-Fi Extender
Sometimes, especially when moving, it’s too confusing to be dealing with old access credentials in a new location. The extender might still have exactly the same network name as your old router, but you’re now in a new house with a new router and a different SSID.
Or you might have just forgotten either the login or wireless credentials you set on the repeater yourself, and now you can’t access it at all.
In these cases, it’s best to just factory reset the extender, as this wipes all custom values set on it, and reverts them back to the defaults listed on the label on the extender itself.
To do this, push a pin or other sharp object into the reset hole on the extender, and wait a few seconds for the lights to blink or go out:
Then wait several minutes for the extender to fully re-initialize.
All login and wireless values should be restored to the values stated on the sticker on the device itself:
- Default SSID (network name)
- Default access/login/URL (eg. repeaterlogin.net)
- Username (often “admin” by default)
- Password (often “admin” by default)
Also, when you factory reset an extender, it’s wireless network becomes completely “open” again, and you can just find it’s network (eg. TP-Link-Repeater-7892) and click on it to connect immediately, without a password.
Then you can either run through the quick WPS setup on the new router again, or log into it and do the longer, more customized setup on a browser.
If you want to do it the longer way, some common default access URLs for popular extender brands are:
- TP Link – http://tplinkrepeater.net
- Netgear – http://mywifiext.net
- Linksys – http://extender.linksys.com
- Wavlink – http://wifi.wavlink.com
Type these into any browser of a device once you’ve connected it to the reset repeater’s (now “open”) network, enter the default admin username/password, then proceed through the setup steps to connect it to the new router.
