How to remotely manage a Mercury router? By binding a MERCURY ID once, you can also change your password and kick the device while you're at the office

last Wednesday at 3 p.m., my mom called and said the WiFi at home was so bad I couldn't watch the TV. At work, I took out my phone and opened the Mercury WiFi app. I saw the TV box running downloads at over ten megabytes per second, so I immediately throttled it for three minutes. The reason for this is that I had already strapped my Mercury D191G to my MERCURY ID—once you bind it, you can control wherever you are in the future. Remote management

nothing new, but Mercury's rules are different from Xiaomi and Tenda's—the web doesn't support remote management at all, only the app. The first time I tried it, I fell into quite a few assumptions. This article covers how to judge whether support is supported, how to bind it, what it can do, what it can't do, and how to check if it can't be tied up—all in one go.

check if your device supports it: look for this line at the top of the backend

Mercury officially calls it a "cloud router." Only machines connected to Mercury Cloud Services support remote management. Three-second determination: Connect your phone to the router's WiFi, enter melogin.cn in the browser's address bar (if it won't open, check the I wrote before melogin.cn the one I wrote before), log in to the backend, and check if the top page shows the text "Login MERCURY ID."

have it, congratulations, just keep reading. No, just the old model. I checked my mom's old MAC1200R, and the backend top was spotless, with no entry point at all—the batch of Mercury with the default factory password was admin's and none of them were cloud routers. Apps and remote apps had no connection to them, so don't waste time tinkering.

here's another fun fact: save you from messing around outside: cloud routers don't support remote web use. Once, at the office, I tried to log in to my melogin.cn to change my home settings, but the page just wouldn't appear. I thought the router was down. Later, I checked the official documentation and realized that Mercury only has one app on the remote route, and the browser only works in front of the router (in the local area network) when logging into the background.

binding, there are only two options. I recommend the web

web path (recommended): at home, connected to router WiFi, log in to the backend on your computer or mobile browser melogin.cn the backend, and click "Login MERCURY ID" at the top. If you don't have an account, click 'Create', receive a verification code from your phone number, register in one minute, and once logged in, you're done. Then install the Mercury WiFi app on your phone (search for "Mercury WiFi" in the app store; on iPhones, go to the App Store), log in with the same ID, and the router will be listed in the device list.

App Connection: connect to the router's WiFi, open the app, tap "Login/Register" in the top right corner. After registering or logging in with your account, click on the router, enter the administrator password, then the ID password, and the binding relationship is established.

two paths lead to the same destination. I recommend the web route: first, it saves you from entering the password once, and second, it conveniently removes the ID login step in the backend, so the app can be installed and used immediately.

one prerequisite must be emphasized: binding requires the person in front of the router, connected to its WiFi to complete the process. When you're away from home, trying to link a device you've never linked before out of thin air is impossible—this is a security design; otherwise, anyone could link your router to their account.

don't mix up the two passwords. The administrator password is the key to the backend door; The MERCURY ID password determines 'who is qualified to remotely manage the machine.' I suggest setting these two passwords differently; I'll explain this in detail in the security section later.

is secure, you can do a few things outside

turn off your phone's WiFi, open the app with data or company networks, log in with your ID, and access the router. Here are a few things you can do:

• status: routers are online and offline, and the number of connected devices is clear at a glance;
• Devices: Go to any device's detail page, you can limit speed and block internet access. It also helps with internet access. Combined with device list identification method, remote thieves work just as well;
• Change WiFi: You can remotely change your name and password. If a relative stays for a few days, you can just change a temporary password and then switch back. You don't have to go home. The specific process is in the article on changing WiFi passwords on phone.
• Guest Network On/Off: You can remotely set up an isolation network for guests, then turn it off after use. Guest Network settings I wrote about this before.

The trick I've been using most lately is speed limiting. The TV box was secretly downloaded in the background, taking up most of the bandwidth. I clicked on its details page in the app, and the downlink was limited to 50MB, yet the picture remained smooth, and other devices were relaxed too.

there's another trick I've recommended to everyone around me: bind multiple machines to the same ID. My phone is one for my mom, and one for my mom's is both logged into my MERCURY ID. In the app list, the two are lying side by side. If an elderly person's network is having issues, you can remotely check the device list and change the settings—it's much better than taking a taxi home.

there are three things you can't do remotely. Don't rush for nothing while out of town

The official documentation clearly states that the following three items are read-only in remote app mode, with visible parameters that cannot be changed:

last year, I suffered this loss: when I was away and wanted to help my family enable IPv6, I spent ages searching through the app, the settings page could be accessed, the parameters could be viewed, but I just couldn't make any changes. At the time, I thought the app version was too old, so even after uninstalling and reinstalling it, the options still turned gray. After a minute of clicking in the computer backend, I realized this wasn't a bug, but a security gate deliberately left by the official team—even those who found your phone couldn't change these deadly things.

can't bin, prompt for offline connection. Check in this order

I sorted by the order I fell into the pitfalls, starting from the most common ones:

the "local network" permission on iPhones is the pitfall I most want to complain about. The first time I installed the Mercury WiFi app on my iPhone, I couldn't find the device in front of the router. I tried uninstalling, reinstalling, and restarting the phone. Finally, I turned on the switch in Settings, Mercury WiFi, and Local Network, and the app immediately accepted it. Android doesn't have this issue; this permission was added by iOS.

prompt for offline connection, don't blame the router too quickly. Remote management requires the home network to be alive—if the broadband is cut off, the router is disconnected, and of course, only an offline shell remains in the app. First, call to confirm there's no power outage at home, then check for optical modems—don't get the order confused.

a second-hand router and two passwords, clarify them in advance to avoid disputes

Buying a second-hand Mercury is almost always linked to binding: if the seller doesn't unbind it, you can't link it no matter how hard you log in with your own ID, or you can't even see the device. The processing order is to first restore the router to factory settings; After resetting, it still prompts that the bind is being bound. Call Mercury customer service at 400-8810-500, and use the purchase proof to have the official team remotely unbind. I mentioned this number in my Mercury firmware upgrade article and it's the one that goes for brick-brick after-sales service.

Conversely, if you sell your own second-hand machine, don't reverse the order: first unbind (or log out of ID login) in the app, then resume factory delivery. Reset first and then unbind. Sometimes the binding remains and the next player can't bind it, so they come back to argue with you. I wrote about Tenda's binding pitfallApp the bindings don't work, the tricks are similar, and users from both companies can check each other.

safety can be summed up in three sentences. Set the ID password and administrator password separately, don't use one password to get anywhere; The MERCURY ID is registered with a mobile number. Before canceling your phone number, you must rebind your account in the app, otherwise the next account owner will receive your verification code. Don't leave the admin password in the admin default. If you want to ride the internet, the first thing you do after entering the internal network is to test it. the rules for the initial password I wrote this article because I was at a disadvantage before.

wrap things up and break it down into six steps: log in to the backend at home and check if there's a 'Login MERCURY ID' at the top. If not, it's the old version, and that's it; If available, create and log in ID; Install the Mercury WiFi App on your phone and log in to the same account; Turn off WiFi and try remote control with data once to confirm the connection is connected; Remember the three 'Don'ts'—internet settings, factory reset, IPv6; Set the ID password and administrator password separately; change the administrator password to default. Bind it while you're at home and spend five minutes doing it. Whenever your home network issues later, wherever you're there, you can lend a hand. Those five minutes have been one of the most worthwhile efforts I've made in recent years.