Hit 1,000 unique login attempts blocked and it changed my password habits

My router logs every blocked login attempt. Last month I noticed the counter hit 1,000 and that was just on the admin panel, not even SSH. That number made it real that random bots are always knocking. I finally stopped using my dog's name plus year for the router password and made a real 20 character one. Also turned off remote admin access which felt obvious after seeing that count. Anyone else check their router logs and get spooked by the numbers?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly.charlie1mo ago

Is the counter really the scary part though? Bots hitting your router is like rain hitting your roof, it just happens no matter what. I had 4,000 attempts last quarter and honestly it was the same three IPs from China cycling through the same dictionary list. The real question is what happens when one of those guesses works, which is why I keep remote admin off and use a plain but random password. MFA on the admin panel does way more than a 20 character one if your router supports it, nobody's brute forcing that in real time. I get the appeal of the big number but it's more noise than signal, you know?

wood.eric1mo ago

so do you actually check what happens when someone GETS in, or just trust that the password will hold forever? cause i feel like most people never look past the attempt counter to the actual damage a successful one could do.