Need help with Cisco 861 Router

[h4tt3n]

Hello everyone!

First-time poster and new to networking. I am studying networking and programming, and so one of my friends gave me a Cisco 861 router. However, I am having quite a bit of trouble accessing the setup menu. This is what I have done / achieved so far:

1. Reset the router to factory settings.

2. Found the setup menu IP address, at 10.10.10.1

3. Found the standard username/password combination cisco/cisco.

Now I am stuck at a grayish green screen telling me that I need a specific (older) version of either Internet Explorer, Firefox or Netscape Navigator(???) and Java installed to access the setup menu (see attached screenshot). I have tried a few different combinations with no success.

Could someone here please reveal to me how I get past this barrier? Also, can I update the firmware to a newer version that works with common present-day browsers, like Chrome?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[Richard Burts]

Mike

I do not think that the messages were saying that you need a specific version of those browsers but is saying that you need those or more recent versions. There is perhaps a possibility of downloading a newer version of Config Professional Express and this link has information about it

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/net_mgmt/cisco_configuration_professional_express/v3_5/guides/adminguide/CCP_admin_guide/installing_ccp_express_adminview.html

But most of the time downloading code from Cisco requires a Cisco user ID with download privileges and I suspect that is a problem in this case. 

There is perhaps another alternative that you might explore and that is to configure the router using Command Line rather than the GUI. This link has some information about that which I hope you will find helpful

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/access/800/860-880-890/software/configuration/guide/routconf.html#wp1224393

[h4tt3n]

Hello Richard, thanks for answering.

"I do not think that the messages were saying that you need a specific version of those browsers but is saying that you need those or more recent versions."

True enough, but still it wouldn't accept any version of browser I have tested it with. None of the browsers were able to run the 32 bit version of Java apparently needed by the router. In some cases, I got a message saying that I could use the browser, but no "start" or "next" button was visible for me to get on with the configration.

I have a cisco login from my school, so I will attempt to download the management software and hopefully an updated os / firmware version.

Cheers,

Mike

[Richard Burts]

Mike

Good luck with it. Hope that your school login does allow you to download more current versions of the software. If there are problems in getting the newer code it is still an option to configure the router using CLI.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

If you're studying networking, then as Rick has already suggested, you should really try to learn the CLI.

[h4tt3n]

Both of you,

Yes, configuring using CLI and a terminal program seems the best solution. I got it working with PuTTY and an ethernet cable. I've already learned some of the router setup stuff through the Cisco courses, so I think I'm good from here. Thanks for taking your time helping me out.

Cheers,

Mike

[Richard Burts]

Mike

I am glad that our suggestions have been helpful and that you are making progress in configuring the router. Keep it up, and feel free to post more questions as you get deeper into networking. This community is an excellent place to ask questions and to learn about networking. I hope to see you continue to be active in the community.