cisco catalyst 2960 switch newbie questions

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BDH-Dan

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Jan 6, 2014
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the switch was here before i was hired and no one has any knowledge about it.
I have never touched a cisco switch before.
How can I find out if this switch has been programmed with any features? I believe they have not used any of the managed features but i'm not sure. vlans etc.

It seems there might be some ports that are working intermittently. Is there a self-test or any other way to test the switch?
 
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jeff-j

jeff-j

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Dec 13, 2013
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I am assuming you know very little about the switch,

First thing I would do is scan the network and find the IP address of the switch. I just Advanced IP Scanner to scan networks I am new to. Once you find the IP address of the switch try and telnet to the switch. You can telnet using the command prompt or download a program called putty. Once in if you need a password try anything you can think of. You will get 3 trys and the telnet connection will close. There are two levels in Cisco, one will allow you to run basic show commands, and another will allow you to configure the switch. If you gain access to the fist level you will see a pompt with the hostname of the switch and > symbol. From here you can run show run and this will show the running config on the switch. I would copy this to notepad to have a backup. If you want to gain access to the switch type enable, you might be prompted for another password. If you get pass the password you should get a prompt of the switch hostname followed by a #.

Now if you can't find the IP address of the switch or telnet is not enabled on the switch, or you can not get the right password. Then we will have to use a console connection. For that you will need a console cable, a laptop or desktop with a serial port or a usb to serial port adapter, and the program putty.

Let me know if you can find the ip address and telnet, if you cant get in that way we will try the console, but even the console connection might be password protected.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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You are in for lots of learning I suspect. Your first challenge is to get a cisco serial console cable and find a way to hook it to your PC since many pc no longer have serial ports. Hopefully you do not run into a password. After this you are just going to have to get used to issuing the commands.
 
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noidea_77

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Jul 28, 2012
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Maybe telnet is still the tool for professionals, but I tend to use the Cisco Network Assistant to find the switch and login to it's web interface.
 
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BDH-Dan

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Jan 6, 2014
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I like the first answer-"login and see?" that was funny considering I have no idea how.
I have been told that no one know the password. I do have the serial to ethernet cable. I will see if it is password protected also. I found a document on how to change the password. looks like I need to attempt this first. I'm assuming this is for after hours when there are no users on it?
thank you everyone for the help so far.
 
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noidea_77

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Download the manual from Cisco. I'm sure, it is still the factory set default pw. ;)
 
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jeff-j

jeff-j

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Yes this would be for an after hours, because you will have to unplug the switch. But while you have some time see if you can at lease console into the switch. Since you have never consoled before now is a good time to get some practice in. As long as you can get the password prompt on the screen then you know your console is setup correctly.
 
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BDH-Dan

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that was not fun at all. didnt know hyper terminal isnt in win 7. i got a free trial of one and was able to do most of the instructions for resetting the password. it was not exactly like the instructions and that sucks. the last step was at this prompt Sw1#write memory this didnt work-invalid command or something. so i rebooted the switch, ran advanced ip scanner and i have no idea which ip is for the switch. we have cisco phones so i have 8 cisco devices. anyway i picked 192.168.1.10 (lowest number) and it asks for username and password. i tried everything i could think of but no go. instead of have the prompt "Sw1#" instead it has something else. is that the username? because it has the initials of our company as part of it. thanks for any help.
 
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noidea_77

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Enter all IPs in question in you browser and wait for the webpage that comes up. One will be the web interface for the cisco switch. To reset the switch:
•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 then the switch reboots.
The switch now behaves like an unconfigured switch. You can enter the switch IP information by using Express Setup as described in the “Running Express Setup”
 
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BDH-Dan

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Jan 6, 2014
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cisco web page for the switch was never found. the cisco phone ips are obvious because they have a webpage. i only get a prompt for a user and a pass for the switch. still not sure how to determine the username for the switch.
 
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