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I am a newb and misconfigures my Sonicwall Soho 250; it has two Interfaces configured: Fritzbox without any management activated, and WAN, where only ping and https management was activated. I deactivated https and now I am locked out, i.e. I cannot access and configure my Sonicwall Soho 250 through the web UI any longer :(

What is the easiest way to regain access to the configuration management?

Details:

I do have physical access to my Sonicwall.

Do I have the Sonicwall web UI iff http(s) management is activated?

Since I did not configure my Sonicwall myself, I would prefer to avoid a factory reset since I do not know how to configure it for my network, and do not know whether a backup of the configuration was made.

Do I have web UI access in safe mode, and can I reactivate http(s) management in safe mode?

If a reactivation via web UI without factory reset is not possible, can I do that via an SSH management session via ethernet? If I remember correctly, the WAN interface only had ping and https management activated (so no ssh if that is an option -- I cannot remember).

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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If you have a config saved off-device that you could cut & paste in via console, you are able to replace your Sonicwall config with the backed-up config via Safe Mode. AFAIK you can NOT edit an existing configuration from Safe Mode, and there's no internal storage of previous configs that you can access from Safe Mode. But it won't hurt to boot up Safe Mode and explore, since you can just restart there without any side effects of starting Safe Mode.

If that did not help, you can access the CLI via SSH (see 1 and 2).

If you have disabled SSH in your configuration, you'll need to use the serial console port. For that, you may need a USB-to-RS232 adapter for your computer and a cable compatible with the Sonicwall. These are pretty common items and you can find them on amazon. Expect to spend under $50.

You may also want to consider having an experienced networking professional help you. In most cases, I find when someone doesn't already know how to use a serial console, it's not a great idea to have them learn to do it for the first time on a production device without hands-on assistance to guide them.

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  • Thanks for your answer (+1). I need to use the serial console port for the CLI, right? And the only alternative is a factory reset?
    – DaveFar
    Aug 7, 2020 at 19:41
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    That's right; access the CLI via the console port. I don't know if there's any alternative since SSH is disabled. I noticed some discussion about Safe Mode, but I don't think you can edit an existing configuration from Safe Mode; only replace it with a backup (and unfortunately, I believe you indicated there's not a backup of this unit's config.)
    – Jeff Wheeler
    Aug 7, 2020 at 22:29
  • Thanks, @Jeff Wheeler (+1). One final question before I have the whole picture and can consolidate and accept your answers: If I enter safe mode, see no backup and do NO factory reset but a restart, my Sonicwall will not have changed state, right?
    – DaveFar
    Aug 8, 2020 at 8:21
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    Safe Mode's ability to replace the config with a backup-config refers to a config you already have saved off-device and could cut & paste in via console. AFAIK there's no internal storage of previous configs that you can access from Safe Mode. You're right that it won't hurt to boot up that way to explore, though.
    – Jeff Wheeler
    Aug 8, 2020 at 17:59
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SSH to WAN/LAN IP address and perform the command to Sonicwall CLI. web-management allow-http If you're not familiar with Sonicwall CLI, I'd recommend going through these steps.

[https://www.sonicwall.com/support/knowledge-base/how-to-enable-http-web-management-from-cli/170809114344804/][1]

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  • Thanks for the link (+1). I found a similar description, but it sets a slightly different configuration: sonicwall.com/support/knowledge-base/…. I wonder which one is correct/better.
    – DaveFar
    Aug 7, 2020 at 20:51
  • Does this approach work if both my FRITZBOX and WAN interfaces do not have ssh management activated?
    – DaveFar
    Aug 7, 2020 at 20:53

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