Have you lost the password to your Cisco switch? If so, check out this YouTube video on how to reset your Cisco Catalyst 2950 or 2960 switch password – is is excellent!
Have you lost your Cisco ROUTER password? If so, checkout my video on how to reset your Cisco router password!
Previous post: Free Introduction to TCP/IP from Train Signal
David Davis (CCIE #9369, VCP, CISSP, MCSE) has been in the IT industry for 15+ years. He has authored over 300 articles, 6 video training courses, and co-authored one book. Learn about David's certifications, video courses, and where you can find his content on our About Us page.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I am extremely grateful to you. It was realllyyyyyyyyyyyy very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. helpfull, excellent, fantastic…………………..
Thanks a lot
Ashley
Great stuff David. Really…really great stuff. Thank you. I will look for more videos by you.
Hello there.
I am a (CCNA/CCNP/CFS) IT Manager managing a secondary school in the UK. Recently, my line manager asked if some rdp ports could be forwarded on a cisco router. I said, yes of course its possible so I purchased a 851w series router. I cannot use static NAT(ip NAT in/out) because the router is 1. surrounded by 3com switches(no routers) and 2. I cannot set ‘the gateway of last resort’ since it cannot communicate with our ISP or the core switch. Would you know how I can solve this?
Thanks for the great tips.
At 9:04 video time, the admin is Incorrect, when he said, that the enable password could be decoded by programs… The cisco enable password is MD5, and it cannot be decoded or de-hashed “YET”.
Thanks.
Hi S Khan,
MD5 passwords (Cisco type 5) passwords can be decrypted with dictionary or brute force attacks. While this isn’t “easy” like it is with type 7 passwords, it can still be done. To do it, just google “md5 password cracker” and you will find a number of applications to help you out.
Thus, the video author isn’t incorrrect.
However, in this case, as you have access to the switch console, it is easiest to just CHANGE the password instead of decrypting it.
Thanks for commenting!
-David D, HappyRouter.com
Hay man its fantastic you have spen your valuable time to teach this trick thank you and may allah help you and guid you in right path
Dear David Davis
I did the same way you showed but i got an error:
switch: dir flash
unable to stat flash/: permission denied
switch:
Pls help
dear sir,
my name is irfan khani want to ask a how to install 1800 series router can you help me please tell me step by step i will heigly oblige to you
thanks
Am very thankful for that vedio it is a helpfull one for me,
thanks again .
i used your step of recovering password in 2950 switch ,but still couldn’t recover password .in addition to the config.text file in the flash i have a file called private-config.txt
Dear Davis,
I had perform password recovry for cisco 2950 swich, I’d followed the steps after the boot command, I am expecting to setup mode and proceed for changing the enable secret but the scenario was not what Im expecting, but the switch proceed to interface checking and after wards and stops checking interfaces,then i striked enter it proceeds or asking PASSWORD for login.
Then as i descover the flash dir: there is a file config.text and config.old, so i presumed that the config.old file is conflecting the config.text file, and i attemp to delete the config.old file, But i cant.
hoping you can share to me my problem,
thanks and God bless you and your family.
orlan
Thanks a million, Grant