Setup Telnet Access on Cisco Switches

This quick lab assumes you already have an IP address for telnet assigned on the Cisco switch. Once that is setup and you are able to ping the IP address, you can setup telnet access on the Cisco switch with the following commands:

– enable
– config
– line vty 0 4
– password [password]
– login

The above commands will prompt you only for a password when you attempt to telnet to the router. Make sure you have the ‘enable’ password set or you won’t be able to do much even if you are able to telnet in.

If you want to setup a ‘username-based’ authentication system, use the ‘username’ command in global configuration mode and then to enable password checking at login use the ‘login local’command in line configuration mode. See the example below.

– enable
– config t
– username [username] password [password]
– line vty 0 4
– login local