At some point in time you will need to recover the password from a Cisco router. I had to reset the password on my Cisco 2600 router this morning and so I thought that I would share with you the steps that I performed.
I have Debian Linux on my old laptop. It’s the only computer that I have that I can use a console cable with (I need to get a USB adapter). Since I’m using linux I use Minicom instead of Hyperterminal to connect to my Cisco 2600 router.
You will need to configure a few things in Minicom before you can connect to a Cisco Router. From the command prompt type ‘minicom -s’ to go to minicom’s configuration setting. Under “Serial Port Setup” change the port to “/dev/ttyS0″ and the speed to “9600″. Now from the main menu save setting to DFL so that when you open Minicom again the settings you just configured will still be there.
Now you can start minicom and turn on your Cisco router. When it starts to decompress the image and you see a bunch of “###############…” that is when you need to send the break signal to get into recovery mode. In minicom to send the break signal you need to press ctrl-a then z and then f. Ya I know a little crazy. And to be honest I don’t know if I had to press them all at one time or one at a time in just he right order, but I got it to work none the less. Good luck.
If you sent the break signal correctly you should now see a prompt like this ‘rommon 1>’. You then should type these two commands:
rommon 1> confreg 0×2142
rommon 1> reset
Once the router reboots it will ask you if you want to enter the initial configuration dialog. Type ‘no’.
Now you can use the following steps to reset the password to ‘cisco’:
(This is a screen shot of what I did to reset the passwords)
(All the orange arrows indicate the commands that you will need to type yourself)
Now you can reboot the router and have some fun!
Related Topics:
ICND1 Study Guide – The Fastest Way To Get Cisco Certified Guaranteed!