What the Router Firmware Does: Three Routing Modes, Binding and Replacement, Auto-Updates, TVs and Grandparents

Open the admin address in a browser (this firmware defaults to http://192.168.11.1), enter your site account email and password, choose a route region, save. Router access is a premium-account feature; a standard account switches tier on the site first.

The factory admin and Wi‑Fi passwords are public defaults — change them first: admin page → System → Administration; Wireless → Interface → Wireless Security.

The admin page shows the account expiry. After expiry the router stops using the route but the LAN keeps working; renewing restores it without logging in again.

• Split (default): listed domains take the route, everything else goes direct. Watching Chinese content from abroad or a TV for grandparents uses this; working from inside China uses the same mode with the list direction reversed — the firmware decides from the region you chose.
• Full: all traffic takes the route. Switch to it briefly to test whether a specific site can get through at all; not for daily use, since local sites take a detour and LAN devices such as printers and NAS, while still reachable, slow down.
• Direct: the route is off and the router behaves like an ordinary router.
• If a site fails in split mode, test in full mode first: if it opens, it is not on the list — report the address to support to have it added; if it fails in full mode too, the problem is the site itself.

The first time a router logs in with an account, the server records that router under the account, and from then on only that router can use the account’s router feature. This is the usual protection against one account being resold to several households. Phones and laptops are not bound; they count toward simultaneous devices instead.

The other direction is unrestricted: one router can be used in turn by different family members’ accounts.

Replacing a router: log in to the site, click “unbind router” in the router section, then log in on the new router with the same account and it binds automatically. A broken or absent old router can still be unbound; it does not need to be online.

A “binding conflict” is usually two routers at home both logged in with one account: keep one, log the other out, then unbind and rebind once.

The route components and the split-routing list update themselves: the router checks once at boot, downloads any update, and applies it at the next boot. Route addresses changing or new sites joining the list need nothing from you.

Only a major firmware release needs a sysupgrade flash, a few times a year at most, and the site announces it.

Radio power and channel rules differ by country, so the firmware sets the country code from where the router is. Freshly flashed and not yet online, the code is empty and radio power sits at the most conservative level, so the signal is noticeably weak.

Connect the WAN cable and let the router reach the internet once; it detects its country and switches to the matching setting, after which Wi‑Fi is normal. Moving to another country works the same way — it follows automatically once online.

• TVs and boxes just join this router’s Wi‑Fi or Ethernet; Chinese-edition apps play directly. Overseas editions (iQIYI, WeTV) have different catalogues — install the Chinese editions.
• Grandparents’ phones and tablets: join the Wi‑Fi, nothing to teach. On mobile data outside they leave the route and pick it up again at home.
• A device that is connected but bypasses the route usually has its own private DNS (Android Private DNS, browser Secure DNS) — turn it off.
• To keep one device always direct (a work laptop that needs the corporate VPN), put it on the upstream router’s or modem’s own Wi‑Fi instead of this one.