Okay, so this is what happened.
My big bro, the tech wiz (har har har) graciously donated the aforementioned adsl device to me, the needy kid brother.
Unfortunately the strings attached said that he had no idea of the user name or password he had set for the device. So, I searched the web and found a site that told me to
1) unplug phone line 2) plug in RJ45 3) turn modem on 4) within 3 minutes of the SYS light coming on, go to browser and enter http://192.168.1.1 5) enter admin as user and the device Ethernet address (conveniently located below the device) as the password.Alas, no can do. The thing bounces back to the login screen. Apparently my bro (or whoever set it up for him, setting up a lightbulb is a challenge to him) changed all the passwords available.
My question therefore is, can one nuke / set fire to / manipulate the innards of the modem so that it somehow would forget its grim past life in the service of my brother and return to this benign world?
As I understand it, if I had a serial cable to the device I could fire it up and it would pop up a terminal screen where a simple 1234 would suffice as a password? But this is dreaming, since all passwords have been fiddled with.
Thank you oh gurus / guru-ettes!