Cisco ASA 5500 VPN Help please

[shakes1]

Hi all

Please forgive me if I sound like a n00b here, I have recently been thrown into the deep end at a client with this issue:

They have some sort of Cisco VPN option that allows remote users to connect to their internal network. I think that they are doing this through a Cisco ASA 5500 device.

Please help, how can I log into this router/device to change passwords, add users etc.

This is really beyond me, please oh community, help this lost soul...

 

[syntax]

Your best bet is using the Cisco ASDM.
Its GUI based, and will most likely be a fair whack easier for you than CLI.

Even so, you sound vaguely out of your depth. Perhaps consider getting someone in to do this for you.

If not, download the ASDM, and give it a bash. If you get stuck, ask some more here

/EDIT/ you may need to make some cli changes to the firewall in order to get the ASA working.
I will put together a pm for you later today with some things to do in order to get this sorted.
Again, i urge you to get someone in to do this, paying 1k for someone to fix this may seem expensive, but its a damn load cheaper than being down for a few hours because of mistakes

 

[Burny1]

Throw out the Cisco routers ;-) Seriously though ASDM is the way to go. However just be warned that sometimes even the ASDM gives hassles - hence the comment about throwing it out. we had a similiar problem and after paying someone to come sort it out we were still having hassles. In the end I got so fed up up that i chucked all of them ( R15 000 down the drain) and got billion.

 

[shakes1]

Thank you tau1lz, I am out of my depth to be honest, this is my first real play at Cisco routers. I did try the ADSM tool, only to find out that the previous admin did a brilliant job of not leaving the passwords behind. I will have to hunt him down in the morning. Thank you both for your help. In your opinion, should I just get someone to do it? Just need to create new VPN accounts and change a password.

 

[fixx]

Are you sure it uses "usernames" and "passwords" and not PSK (Pre shared keys)

The one time I setup the same thing it used IPSEC and PSK. No username / password combinations.

 

[syntax]

Thank you tau1lz, I am out of my depth to be honest, this is my first real play at Cisco routers. I did try the ADSM tool, only to find out that the previous admin did a brilliant job of not leaving the passwords behind. I will have to hunt him down in the morning. Thank you both for your help. In your opinion, should I just get someone to do it? Just need to create new VPN accounts and change a password.

Do you have physical access to the router and a rollover cable?
Password resets are pretty easy on a cisco router if you feel up for it
Here is a link, click on the password recovery procedure for the ASA

Are you sure it uses "usernames" and "passwords" and not PSK (Pre shared keys)

The one time I setup the same thing it used IPSEC and PSK. No username / password combinations.

He is talking about access to the ASA, not the VPN config at the moment.
RAS access would also most likely use usernames and passwords. Site-site tunnels would be more likely to use PSK's

 

[syntax]

Thank you tau1lz, I am out of my depth to be honest, this is my first real play at Cisco routers. I did try the ADSM tool, only to find out that the previous admin did a brilliant job of not leaving the passwords behind. I will have to hunt him down in the morning. Thank you both for your help. In your opinion, should I just get someone to do it? Just need to create new VPN accounts and change a password.

look, you can mess around, just dont save the config. If things go badly, simply reboot the device if the company allows downtime. It will restore the old config from nvram and lose your changes. Try the password recovery and use the ASDM to create the RAS accounts. If its just that, then cool. You will most likely have to put these accounts into certain access groups or allow these users specific access depending on your requirements. If the leg work and ASA has been done properly, it should'nt be too much of an issue

 

[ponder]

I did try the ADSM tool, only to find out that the previous admin did a brilliant job of not leaving the passwords behind. I will have to hunt him down in the morning.

If you can take the box down for a short period you reboot it, break the boot sequence and change the config registers to gain access and make changes. From distant memory the confreg is not the same as normal cisco routers though so google it maybe. Else get someone in to do the job for you.