1. Yes, I'm typing the password correctly. I tried roughly 15-20 times! Tried other default passwords like testpassword, mypassword, password.
2. Yes, I had tried getting the web admin screen - here too I'm getting the same error.
3. I installed it via USB (followed instructions from here) using an image downloaded from the VMware Academic Program (VMAP) site. Filename: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.1.0-799733.x86_64.iso.
Thanks!