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User Manual

Restoring Keenetic router settings from a backup configuration file

Important

The information in this article is for advanced users.

Once your Keenetic router is configured, we recommend that you save a backup of your configuration. In Keenetic routers, the device configuration is a startup-config text file containing a set of instructions (commands) that the system performs at startup. Having a copy of the device working configuration, you can always restore the settings.

This may be helpful in cases, such as:

  • You forgot your device administrator's password;

    Important

    You can only reset the administrator password and then create it again. There is no way to recover the password. The administrator password is stored in the router configuration file as a hash function, and it cannot be used to determine the password.

  • Settings have been changed, and it is necessary to return the previous version;

  • The Keenetic router needs to be reconfigured.

To get a backup copy of the configuration, you need to save the startup-config.txt file to your computer on the 'General system settings' page: 'Saving the startup-config configuration file'.

Let's take an example of a configuration backup scenario when the password for the router administrator account was lost. In such a case, the password cannot be recovered, but it is possible to reset the current password and return the device settings to the previously saved state.

  1. Reset the router settings to factory defaults using the 'Reset' button on the device case.

  2. Open the startup-config.txt router settings backup file in a text editor, for example, in Notepad or Notepad++. Find the user admin line:

    user admin
 password md5 1bb437c31db80974e28e19a1cf221500
 password nt 7921563aedbe2978b89fbe8ff4b52d93
 tag cli
 tag http

    Remove the following two lines containing password md5 and password nt.

    user admin
 tag cli
 tag http

    You can comment them out with a ! (put it at the beginning of a line) to keep these strings.

    user admin
 !password md5 1bb437c31db80974e28e19a1cf221500
 !password nt 7921563aedbe2978b89fbe8ff4b52d93
 tag cli
 tag http

    Save the changed configuration file.

  3. Open the router web interface. Go to the 'General system settings' page, the 'System files' section and upload the edited configuration file to the device. The router will reboot with the settings saved earlier but without the administrator password. If you connect to a router with this kind of configuration, you will see a warning in the web interface that the administrator password is not set; set your own password.

    Important

    It is not recommended to use the router without the administrator account password. Be sure to set the administrator password.

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