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Intro

Many times folks will buy, trade, or otherwise obtain Cisco 7940/7960 phones that have been 'locked' and they don't know the phone's password (sound familiar?).

In order to make changes using the phone's built in front-panel menus, you need to 'Unlock' it's configuration.

Before continuing, give this a try just for grins:

On your phone, if you press 'Settings', scroll to the bottom and do not see 'Unlock Config', this means that you have a very early firmware version

To 'unlock' this version of firmware just press '**#. - This uses the same method as the 7905/7912 phones use.

If you DO see 'Unlock Config', '**#' will NOT work and you'll have to enter the phone's password. - The default password from the factory is: cisco

If neither of the above work, please continue.

Please Note: - This page DOES NOT talk about loading firmware. - Please refer to our other pages which address this.

Feedback - Please send me your feedback regarding this page. - That's the only way I know if I'm helping (or hindering) folks. - Thanks!

My first 'cop-out'

I only know how to reset a phone's password if the phone has the SIP firmware installed. - Even if your phone doesn't have 'SIP' you'll probably want to change over anyway. - The first part of this mini-tutorial will at least get your phone 'talking' on your network. - Even if you don't know the phone's password, you can at least change the firmware version loaded in the phone.

To reset a phone's password, you must send this change to the phone via a TFTP server using a 'config' file. - To do this, we'll use what I call my 'TFTP Method'. - That means setting up a mini-network with a workstation running a tftp server, and possibly a DHCP server. - Then we can get the phone to request this 'config' file.

Test case scenarios

In the below, we will require our phone to be powered up. - We'll also be re-booting it (several times). - In order to keep from seeing the 'Ethernet disconnected' messages on the LCD screen and to speed things up, it's best to plug your phone into your local lan even if it doesn't work (yet).

Here is a small table using only config parameters we're currently interested in to provide us with a 'Scenario':

(Again, while there are many more network configuration parameters, but the above are the only one's we're interested right now.)

The easiest way to reset the phone's password is if you have 'Scenario A'.

Note: If you have a phone that was previously used with 'Broadvoice', it'll probably be using 'Scenario B'.

So let's get your phone to match 'Scenario A' so we'll all be on at the same starting point.

Getting a phone to match 'Scenario A'

Although you cannot change the phone's password, you can manually reset the phone back to 'factory' defaults. - During this step, you can also 'erase' it's network configuration effectively matching it up with our 'Scenario A'. - Here's how to do it:

• Reset the Phone. - You can do this by a 'power reset' or by pressing 'asterisk'-'6'-'Settings' at the same time. - Cisco's version of a PC's 'alt'-'ctrl'-'del' (three-finger salute).
  
  
• When the phone starts resetting (the 'headset' light will come on) hold down the '#' key to initiate a reset.
  
  
• When the phone detects the 'reset request', you'll see 'Reset key sequence detected' on the phone's LCD screen and the 'headset', 'mute', 'speaker' lights will start sequencing.
  
  Release the '#' key.
  
  Note: - This will 'time out' after about 30 seconds & revert to a re-boot if you don't do anything.
  
  
• Press the following keys in in order:
  
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * 0 #
  
  If you pressed the keys in the correct order, you'll now see the following question on the phone's LCD screen:
  
  Save network cfg? 1=yes 2=no
  
  
• Press '2' to erase the network configuration.
• You'll now see 'Factory reset initiated' displayed on the LCD screen then the phone will re-boot.

A mini-refresher on DHCP & TFTP - Please read.

DHCP - You should all know that the purpose of a DHCP server is to provide IP addresses (and other info) to computers and devices on the network that request it. - DHCP servers can be ran on computers and other devices within the network. - In my case, my DHCP server is my Linksys router. Hint: You never want more than one DHCP server per network.

TFTP - We're all familiar with 'FTP', but 'TFTP' means Trivial File Transfer Protocol. - This is really a scaled down version that doesn't do any login/password verification. - It just sends/receives files.

Back in my early Unix days, we used TFTP to boot Sun Sparc 'diskless' workstations. - The workstation would boot, get it's IP info from the DHCP server then request it's boot file from the DHCP server's IP address.

This same scenario holds true with the Cisco phones. - If a TFTP server is not specified, the phone will request it's files (via tftp) from the IP address of the DHCP server. - Please remember this.

Making a Min-LAN

As you can see, my 'Mini-LAN' isn't much. - Just a PC and a phone both connected to a small Ethernet Hub.

In fact, you don't even need an Ethernet Hub if you can find (or make) an 'Ethernet Cross Cable'. - With one of these cables, you can plug the phone directly into the PC's Ethernet port. - You can find instructions on making one of these cables by googling around on the Internet.

Because my PC Workstation (Windows-XP box) obtains it's network config from a DHCP server (a Linksys router in my case), my DHCP server is now out of the picture in this set up. - To get around this, I statically assign a 'fixed' IP address to my PC.

All I need now is some software to make my PC 'look' and act like a DHCP/TFTP server.

The best software (and it's free too!) for our purpose is tftpd32 - by Ph. Jounin. - I've mirrored a copy here at 'Jtech': tftpd32.301.zip

Setting up 'tftpd32'

While this is not meant to be a complete tutorial on 'tftpd32', I'll tell you how I did it and make suggestions for your own config.

1 - Write down your own PC's statically assigned IP address & netmask. - This should be something like IP: 10.0.0.55 / Netmask: 255.255.255.0

2 - Create a folder on your 'C:' drive where 'tdtpd32' will deliver files from (I use: C:/Cisco).

3 - Install 'tftpd32' - This does NOT do a typical windowz 'install', it merely extracts it's files where you want them. - Don't forget to create a shortcut on your destop to: C:/[installdir]/tftpd32.exe

4 - Run 'tftpd32' then click on 'Settings' tab at the bottom.

• Set up the 'Base Directory' to point to the folder you set up to hold your files for tftpd to send to the phone. - Note: - You must set this directory here else it won't default to this folder the next time you start 'tftpd32.
  
  
• Uncheck 'TFTP CLient'
  
  
• Accept the rest of the defaults for this screen & click 'OK' - You'll get a message that you'll have to restart 'tftpd' for these settings to take effect. - Than's fine. - We'll do it later.
  
  
• Click on the 'DHCP Server' tab.
  
  
• This screen should show you you're PC's IP address as the 'Server interface', if not, you wrote it down anyway. - Right? - Good, set the 'IP pool starting address' to the PC's IP address plus one! - Set the 'Mask' to the same as your PC's (probably 255.255.255.0). - Finally set the 'Size of pool' to something like '5'. - Click 'Save'.
• Now exit 'tftpd32' and restart it.

With 'tftpd32' running, make sure you have clicked the 'TFTP Server' tab. Now reset your phone to the factory defaults (making sure you erase the network cfg) and watch your PC's 'tftpd32' server screen. - More on why I mention doing the 'factory reset' again later.

Here's what I saw on my 'tftpd' server's window:

If everything worked, you'll see a whole bunch of messages on the screen.

The items in red are 'DHCP' messages between the phone and 'tftpd32'. - The rest are file request (and responses) from the tftp server. - Since our 'source' directory is empty, all of these file requests show a 'file not found error'. - That's okay for now. - At least the phone's 'talking' to our 'tftpd' server.

Depending on the version of firmware loaded in your phone, you will probably see a different list of files than my example. - That's expected due to the various protocols/versions/(and who know's what) Cisco has configured in your phone. - At least we can 'communicate' with the phone.

In our example on the left the items in blue pertain to the file we'll need to modify if your phone has SIP loaded.

The rest of the file(s) requested at this point is not an issue. - You don't need to worry about them. - Again, this is an example of my test phone with the SIP version 7.5 loaded.

Why did I specify to ensure you did a 'factory reset' (and erase the network config) when you rebooted the phone? - Mainly to keep the example on the left from being almost twice as long as it is. - This is due to DHCP 'caching' both on the phone and DHCP server. - This can be a pretty hairy discussion so I'll defer it to anybody who wants to take it off-line.

Non-SIP users:

For owners of phones that do not have the SIP protocol loaded, there's not much point reading beyond this (unless you know what file(s) to modify for your particular 'load'). If you wish to convert your phone to SIP, we'll be putting page(s) on-line to try and help.

the 'SIPDefault.cnf' file...

This is the file we want to modify. - Okay - Sure we could also do it the 'SIP[mac address].cnf file, but 'SIPDefault.cnf' is easy to type :-)

If using 'Windoze', fire up 'Notepad' and create one line saying:

phone_password: "cisco" ;

Don't forget the semi-colon and make sure you put a new-line/Enter at the end of the line.

Now save this file in the same folder that 'tftpd' is using to deliver files and give the the name of: 'SIPDefault.cnf

Re-boot your phone. - Your phone's password will now be: 'cisco'

I hope you got some 'milage' from this page. - If you did, please send me an e-mail. - Better yet, please remember that this is a 'donation site'.

GG - Webmaster