FritzBox: That’s why you have a mysterious user “fritz1234” on your wireless router
You can create user accounts on AVM WLAN routers. But even if you have never created such an account yourself, there is a mysterious user “fritz1234”. The reason is simple.
The topic of security has also picked up speed at the FritzBox over the past few years. Unimaginable today, in the past you could access the FritzBox without a password.
Today, this requires a username and password. But most FritzBox users should not have assigned an explicit user name and when registering in the WLAN, they are only asked for the password anyway.
What many users don’t know: The FritzBox automatically creates a user account for you in the style “fritz” followed by four digits, such as “fritz1234” or “fritz5816”. You can find out what your user name is under “System” in the “FritzBox user” area.
User is generated automatically
“fritz1234” or whatever name your FritzBox has thrown together is your username for the FritzBox and is required in combination with your password for the login. So that you don’t have to type so much, the FritzBox does not ask for the user name when accessing from the local network. So if you log on to the FritzBox interface from the WLAN, the password is sufficient.
The situation is different if, for example, you log in to your FritzBox via VPN from the Internet. A user name is then required in addition to the access password. To change the settings of the automatically created user, click on the pencil icon in the overview.
You can create up to 20 users on a FritzBox, which is also very easy to do by clicking on “Add user”. You can then also specifically select what this user is allowed to do.
Don’t change users
Basically it is necessary that there is at least one user on the FritzBox. This does not necessarily have to be the automatically created account. You can theoretically delete “fritz1234” and create your own accounts. But we advise against it.
If you create several users at the same time, you can also select the user account when logging on locally. The simplified login with only a password still relies on the automatically created user. You should therefore not change its name, because then the automatic function will no longer work.
Why create more users?
For most users it is enough to know that this automatically created user exists. Additional accounts are then not necessary. They are useful if you want to share the extended functions of the FritzBox with other users.
You want a roommate to be able to change the settings as well. Then create an additional user. You can also control access to NAS shares on the FritzBox, Smart Home control or VPN access via your own users.
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