: The unique default password is most likely printed on the sticker at the bottom or back of your router.

In online forums (especially Russian, Ukrainian, and Brazilian tech boards), users often hunt for an exclusive or engineering password for ZTE routers like the H196A. The theory is that ISPs and ZTE engineers have a universal backdoor password that works on every device, even if the user changes their WiFi password.

Out of the box, before an ISP customizes the firmware, ZTE often sets the credentials to:

If you have tried all the exclusive ZTE H196A default passwords and none work, the previous owner changed the credentials, or your ISP pushed a firmware update that overwrote the defaults. You must perform a .

On newer firmware versions (post-2022), ZTE and ISPs have moved to unique default passwords to prevent botnet attacks. In this case: