Default password for Catalyst 2960-C Layer 3 Switch

[stockhacker]

Hello,

I just received a Catalyst 2960-C (WS-C2960C-8TC-L R) switch and I am unable to sign into its web GUI in order to configure it. I've tried both the Cisco Network Assistant and Internet Explorer and I am unable to log in either way. The documentation provided by Cisco states that the default password is simply cisco and that a username is unnecessary. Needless to say, it doesn't work. I've also Googled for other default passwords (such as cisco-cisco as the username-password), none of which worked either. I've also tried resetting the switch back to its factory default a few times. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You!

[siddhartham]

Can you just try to login without username, password and see if it works?

Siddhartha

[nspasov]

I haven't work much with the GUI/Network Assistant but unless you have AAA configured then the local username/password is going to be used for authentication. With that being said I have two questions:

1. What happened when you tried to do a password recovery ?

2. Can you access the switch via the shell/CLI?

[Terry Cheema]

Did you try Cisco. With capital C.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Richard Burts]

The original poster says that he just received a Catalyst switch. But he does not tell us whether he received it as a fresh out of the box switch from Cisco (or a reseller) or whether he received it from someone who might have changed something in the config which impacts login.

I am not sure if it is the case with the 2960-C but these days many IOS devices are shipped with a configuration that has a one time use ID and password configured. If someone had booted the switch and logged in but did not create a new user ID then it will not allow you to log in after that.

No matter what is the actual cause of this I believe that doing password recovery to ignore the existing configuration and start from scratch would be the best approach for this issue.

HTH

Rick

[stockhacker]

Sorry for the delay in responding everyone. The Christmas holiday kept me busy the past two days.

I have tried leaving the username and password fields blank and also tried cisco with a capital "C" for the password. Neither works. I've also tried telneting to the switch via Putty. When I try this, I get a message in the CLI that says "Password required, but none set". The CLI window then closes on it's own.

In responce to Rick's post, this is a brand new switch (fresh out of the box) that I purchased through NewEgg. After I powered on the switch and discovered I couldn't sign into it's GUI, I did a reset on the device. Not sure if that would mess up the one time password, but I have seen others recommend doing a password recovery. I'm a complete newbie to IOS and actually purchased this switch for learning purposes. Can any of you explain how to do a password recovery or provide a link that will walk me through the process? Will I need a console cable to do this?

Thanks in advance,

Corey

[nspasov]

It is very interesting that you are able to telnet to the switch even though you haven't configured anything yet. May I ask what IP address you used for the telnet session? Perhaps there was one that came pre-configured. The error that you are getting is normal as you have not configured device for remote access yet. What happens if you console to it?

On the other hand, you can use the link below to perform password recovery:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps628/products_password_recovery09186a0080094184.shtml

Thank you for rating!

[stockhacker]

Hey Neno,

I finally got a chance to attempt to console into this switch and I was unsuccessful. I used to recommended settings in the URL you provided and I get a "unable to open connection: unable to configure serial port". I'm using both a brand new Cisco branded ethernet-DB9 cable as well as a DB9-USB cable (as my laptop does not have an onboard serial port). Since I have all the correct settings in Putty and all my cables are new, I'm pretty much stuck again. As for the IP address, my router has assigned it a private address of 192.168.2.105... which is of course not the default IP that Cisco claims it should have out of the box. I know this is the IP address it has because this is what shows up when I do an IP scan on my network and I'm able to get to the GUI log in via this address.

[amikat]

Hi,

You can reset the switch to the factory default and reboot e.g. with this procedure (please note that your config will be lost):

Press and hold the Mode button. The switch LEDs begin blinking after about 3 seconds. Continue holding down the Mode button. The LEDs stop blinking after 7 more seconds, and the switch reboots.

After doing so you can run Express Setup as described in the Getting started guide (please see the link beneath):

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst2960c_3560c/hardware/quick/guide/all_languages/2960c_3560_c_gsg.html

N.B.: Please make sure that nothing but your PC is connected to the switch during Express Setup as the box acts as a DHCP server (your PC will be assigned the IP address of 10.0.0.2 via DHCP - please adjust your PC network settings accordingly). You should be OK then finishing your basic config.

Good luck!

Best regards,

Antonin

[manoel]

Hi Dear, I have the same issue , this link doesn't open

regards

[bugrit001]

Try "admin" (user) and "cisco" (password) (without the quotes)

[Ccryshna1]

it is the default behavior of the switch, just connect via console and set the password as:

enable password "type_password_here"

OR

enable secret "type_password_here"

then you are able to access the switch via putty, ssh ,xshell etc.

i had the same problem for the first time. thank you !!

[Richard Burts]

The enable password and enable secret password are both used to control access to privilege/enable mode. They will not get telnet or ssh to work. Both telnet and SSH need some kind of access level password. There are several ways to configure access level passwords that can be done depending on how the device is configured. For a new device with a bare bones configuration the simple thing would be to configure the command password <what_is_the_password> under the vty. If the vty has been configured with login local then you would need to configure user name and password on the device. If aaa new-model has been configured you would either need to configure user name and password on the device or to specify an authentication server which would have the user name and password.

Since the original post was about a new switch then the easy choice would be the password configured under the vty. Also note that while the vty need some kind of password to allow remote access the console, by default, does not require a password to access it.

HTH

Rick

[ladislao2006]

Hey Bro, if you don't have a console cable you can make snmp injection using rewrite "private" community and set the f..password using enable secret pass password_=) Make soe research about it ;)