Password recovery procedure on Cisco Catalyst 3500-XL

Just got a used Catalyst 3500-XL switch and don’t have credentials? Did you forget your auth credentials or you just want to have fun? Accessing a Cisco switch when you don’t have the right credentials is hard but not impossible. If you have issues connecting the console cable, try to install the drivers first. This will work only if you have access to the box itself. If so, you’ll need to connect a rollover cable and follow the instructions:...

August 7, 2017 · 4 min · 680 words · costin

Cisco guest shell

So, it seems that finally Cisco decided to introduce a shell for their routers. I know this already exists for their FirePower plaform, but from my knowledge, they just made it available for routers. Enabling the shell To enable the feature we simply have to enable iox and then we can enter linux land with guestshell CSR01(config)#iox CSR01(config)#do guestshell [guestshell@guestshell ~]$ Dohost command dohost permits you to run IOS commands from your shell terminal....

July 7, 2017 · 2 min · 305 words · costin

Life tip

I’ve recently stumbled upon a great course on coursera which can teach you how to learn in today’s world. With all the distractions that interrupts us everyday. I wish I’d find it sooner.

May 31, 2017 · 1 min · 33 words · costin

How to configure Cisco devices remotely

So, let’s assume you are a network engineer that has to configure something on a new Cisco switch/router. You don’t have console access and just connect to the box via ssh. You either have a typo in your commands or don’t copy the whole line of your pre-tested commands and after you press enter BANG, you’ve lost connection and start sweating. You know the feeling, right? Me neither… The classic solution to this is to schedule a reload in something like 10 minutes: reload in 10...

May 4, 2017 · 2 min · 293 words · costin

New website - powered by Jekyll

I’ve recently moved my website from AnchorCMS to Jekyll. I didn’t think it was necessary to have a WordPress solution only for a personal blog that has less than 10 visits/month so I went for a static website that is not tied to mysql and php. With this change I’ve also switched from Apache2 to Nginx. I hope that with this change my tiny VPS is not going to need much resources in the future....

April 6, 2017 · 3 min · 442 words · costin