If your having problems trying to login to a Sonic wall. This is how you can reset your sonicwall and restore access.
STEP 1:
Boot your appliance into safe mode. This is done by pressing and holding the reset button with a ‘magical resetting tool’ (a.k.a. a paperclip) for about 6 seconds.
If you are using a Newer Model sonic wall you will see a tst light Flashing at this point to advise its in safe mode.
STEP 2:
If you have a static IP address on your computer, make a note of it. If you ‘obtain an IP address automatically’, move on to the next step.
STEP 3:
Change the IP address of your PC to 192.168.168.100 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0
If you have a Management Port, Change your IP to 192.168.1.10.
STEP 4:
Make sure that you are either directly connected or connected via a switch to the X0 interface of the SonicWALL.
From step 3 if you have a management port, connect to this as entering the sonic wall into safe mode disables the other ports.
STEP 5:
Open a web browser and go to http://192.168.168.168 – this should load the safe mode interface (see below)
If you have connected to the Management port you will need to go to http://192.168.1.254
STEP 6:
Find the firmware image that is called “Current firmware with factory default settings” and click the boot icon at the end of the row.
The appliance will now reboot
STEP 7:
When the appliance has rebooted you should be greeted by the usual login screen. Log into the appliance using ‘admin’ as the username and ‘password’ as the password.
Go to System – Settings in the left hand menu.
Click Import and browse to the location of your saved backup .exp file
The unit will now reboot with your saved settings.
STEP 8:
Change your IP address back to the original IP address that you noted earlier or to ‘obtain automatically’ if that is how it was configured.
STEP 9:
The firewall should now be back up and running with your previously saved settings. The crucial difference will be that the password has not been imported and you will be able to log into the appliance with ‘admin’ and ‘password’.
STEP 10:
Change the Password and ensure you can Login.
STEP 11:
If you have any sonicwall licenses eg SSL VPN these will need to be reapplied.