If you have a Cisco router that you forgot the administrative password for (or a router which has a pre-existing, unknown admin password), recovering or resetting the administrative password can be tricky and confusing. Cisco password recovery or password reset methods on a Cisco router will vary depending upon the Cisco router series and model. You’ll need a few items in place before you begin to attempt a Cisco password reset on your Cisco router:
- A PC, Laptop or Tablet PC with a DB9 port or USB port
- A Cisco compatible console cable (DB9 > RJ45 interface or with a DB9/USB converter).
- A Terminal Emulation program, such as Hyper Terminal or Tera Term.
Once you have obtained the necessary PC hardware, cables and software, and have installed your terminal emulation program on your PC, simply attach one end of your console cable to your PC or laptop, and attach the other end of the cable to the console port on your Cisco router. Next, fire up your terminal emulator (be sure to select the correct COM port in the setting of your terminal emulator, typically COM1 or COM2). In order to communicate with your Cisco router, your terminal emulator program will need to be configured with the below connection settings to allow you to see the configuration dialogue in the window of your terminal emulator software:
- Bits per second (baud): 9600
- Data bits: 8
- Parity: None
- Stop bits: 1
- Flow Control: Xon/Xoff
Next, refer to the PDF document below for step-by-step instruction on how to reset and recover the password on your Cisco router. This document describes the password recovery procedure for many popular Cisco router series, including the Cisco 1800, 2800 and 3800 Series routers.
