Cisco Configuration Professional Software

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The Cisco Configuration Professional (CCP) software provides a graphical user interface for configuring some Cisco routers and switches. This is especially useful for advanced security configurations such as complex firewalls, VPNs, etc. The software is provided free on the Cisco corporate website but you will need to register for a "CCO" account on that site in order to download it. The software is also a bit temperamental and takes some practice and work in order to get it functioning.

You should follow our suggestions and tips to get CCP running as smoothly as possible. If you do not follow the tips, including the time consuming and annoying ones, including building a dedicated CCP VM with the versions of software we recommend we will not help you troubleshoot CCP problems.

Tips

  • CCP does not seem to work well in Windows 8 at all. It is suggested you run it on a Windows 7 or earlier system, note that could be in a VM on your Windows 8 system.
  • Some versions of Java or Flash may not work well with some versions of CCP. We'll try to put together a table here of versions we know work together.
  • CCP uses Internet Explorer to render it's user interface and so is also particular about the version of IE you have running. In particular we have noticed some problems with IE 10 "cutting off" the user interface. If you encounter problems like this you can try enabling compatibility mode for your localhost address (see below) or running with an older version of IE in a VM.
    • Open Internet Explorer 10 and press "Alt-T" to bring up the Tools menu. Choose the "Compatibility View Settings" and add the IP address 127.0.0.1 for compatibility view.
  • No one likes to hear this but CCP really likes to run best on older systems...Windows XP, IE 6 or 7, Flash 9, etc. Obviously that is less than ideal from a security standpoint, especially the old Flash and Java and you probably don't want to run XP anymore either. Because of that we HIGHLY RECOMMEND spending a few hours setting up a VM specifically to run CCP. Yes, it takes a bunch of time, yes it's a pain to do but you will almost certainly encounter problems if you do not do this.