[tommusic]

I really appreciate the time you took to reply, and feel like I have a much improved understanding of the landscape.

And now: a short thought on default passwords!

It feels like default passwords should not mean "operate normally". When you have the default password set on a router, it ought to keep bugging you to change it before it works as expected.

It'd need to be an industry standard to avoid companies touting theirs as "easier" because it doesn't require setting a password.

Though this would make it harder to steal a neighbor's wi-fi while one waits for one's own installation after moving into a new apartment.

Tradeoffs, tradeoffs.

[philwelch]

While that's true for consumer goods, one would hope that a power company would know well enough to change the default password.