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I am very new to this field and I want to ask a quick question about IP/Device HTTPS.

When we type in the IP address of the device (cisco switch, router, firewall, etc), we can access to the web interface and see settings, etc.

How does this happen? Do I only have to configure the IP address and will I be able to access the interface via browser? The reason why I am asking this is because I was unable to access to devices that already had IP addresses in it like (https://172.x.x.x)

Can anyone walk me through how to access the web browser of a network device?

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  • You need to check the configuration to see that ip http server and ip http secure-server is enabled. After that it should be straight forward as you wrote, put the IP address in a browser and hit enter. If you need any further help, please add your full configuration to this question. Remember to sanitize it and remove all passwords etc.
    – user36472
    Jun 10, 2018 at 16:05
  • "Can anyone walk me through how to access the web browser of a network device?" What is the device model and configuration? Many network engineers disable web access to the devices for security reasons, and they use the CLI because you can do more things with it.
    – Ron Maupin
    Jun 10, 2018 at 17:56

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You cannot access every device around through a web browser. The device has to have a running web server for that and needs to accept your HTTP request.

Typing a plain IP address into your browser's location bar tries to connect to a web server listening on that IP address on the default TCP port 80.

Many devices don't have a web interface or even a local IP address (e.g. unmanaged switches). There are various other methods interfacing with a given device: HTTPS web interface, text consoles over SSH, telnet, HTTPS, serial console, USB, ...

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  • In addition to the device supporting HTTP (on default port 80), it also has to be reachable via IP. For this to work, it either needs to be on the same logical subnet as the browser, or else an IP network needs to be set up with IP routers configured properly. Logical Ethernet subnetworks are Ethernet lines connected by bridges (a.k.a. Ethernet switches), or repeaters (which are uncommon these days.) Jun 11, 2018 at 20:10
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    Agreed - there are numerous preconditions for HTTP to work, yours included.
    – Zac67
    Jun 12, 2018 at 11:02

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