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Not only is the power of three a photography thing it was also used in the TV series Charmed about three sister witches. I didn't really like the remake compared to the original more silly than real, but were not here to talk about TV sorry Alissa Milano Fans..
Lets get back to networking.
The three passwords in your router
When your ISP (Internet Service Provider) gives you a router as part of your package, it's likely that there will be three passwords involved, It does depend on your ISP.
The WIFI password
The most obvious, it's on the sticker on the bottom and it's the first thing you think of.
The admin password
You might not have noticed it but also on the sticker is the admin password to your router's admin interface.
The PPPoE password
This is really just a username and password that your router is using to gain access to the internet.
PPPoE stands for “Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet” and although PPPoE actually is quite involved it is really simple to use.
NOTE: Your ISP may have moved away from PPPoE in which case your life is much simpler be happy.
You can think of it as though the Admin and WIFI passwords are to do with how you connect to the router and are set by the manufacturer of your router. PPPoE is about how your router connects to your ISP, and are set by your ISP who normally pre-configures your router before they give it to you.
What's the thing?
The thing is can you answer the question - Do you know what your PPPoE username and password is?
The problem occurs if you were to ever get your own router or if your current router loses it's configuration, which while fortunately rare does happen. If your answer is no then you won't be able to access the internet until you contact your ISP.
What you can do now.
Back up your router's configuration, in my next article i will take you through doing this with a router that is common on the Isle of Man, this is the most important thing you can do, and if anything happened you would only need to restore this to recover.
But for the details themselves the good news is that you probably don't need to do anything since you can always call your ISP to get these details such as if replacing your router or you can look for the paperwork that came with your router.
So my recommendation backup and then if you ever need to get them, make sure you keep a note of them for the future.