HowTo: ESPEasy - ESPEasy - Set up access password, backup and restore configurations

I am not sure if ESPs can really be misused to build a botnet. Either way, security should not be neglected even with the small ESPEasy devices.

The first small hurdle that should make it difficult for potential attackers or just curious visitors to read or even change the configuration of your ESPEasy devices is the password protection.

Once this is set up, you can only access the web interface and change the configuration with the appropriate password. How you can set up this password is described in the following article.

But since you can also exclude yourself from accessing your ESPEasy device, we also describe how you can backup and restore the configuration of your ESPEasy device.

Safety instructions

I know the following notes are always kind of annoying and seem unnecessary. Unfortunately, many people who knew "better" have lost eyes, fingers or other things due to carelessness or injured themselves. Data loss is almost negligible in comparison, but even these can be really annoying. Therefore, please take five minutes to read the safety instructions. Because even the coolest project is not worth injury or other trouble.
https://www.nerdiy.de/sicherheitshinweise/

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Requirements

Helpful articles:
Additional tips on ESPEasy can be found in the following articles.

• ESPEasy - Execute commands and actions via HTTP, MQTT, UDP and directly
• ESPEasy - Compile firmware, flash and configure WLAN access data
• ESPEasy / Wemos D1 Mini - Adapt ADC to other maximum voltages

Required tool:

Required material:

Set up access password to the web interface

In order to configure the access password to the ESPEasy web interface, the ESPEasy firmware should already be installed on the ESP8266 or ESP32 and accessible. Information about this can be found in the article ESPEasy - Compile firmware, flash and configure WLAN access data.

Then open the configuration web page of your ESP8266 programmed with ESPEasy by entering its IP address into your web browser. Information on how to find out the IP address can also be found in the article Display/find out the IP address of the devices in the network summarized.

Then click on the "Config" tab to switch to it.

Now change to the "Admin Password" section.

In the corresponding text field you can now enter a password, which you will have to enter the next time you call up the web configuration in order to open the page.

Then scroll to the bottom of the Config page and save the new settings by clicking Submit.

At the latest after a reload of the page you will be asked by the browser to enter username and password.

Then enter the (fixed) user name "Admin" and the password you have set before.

If you forget this password you can change it via the serial interface. Alternatively you can reset ESPEasy to the factory settings. Unfortunately all other settings will be lost.

Save configurations

The settings of your ESPEasy can be saved and downloaded in a backup file. This has the advantage that you can easily transfer settings once made to another ESPEasy device or also save them for later restoration.

To do this, open the configuration web page of your ESP8266 programmed with ESPEasy by entering its IP address in your web browser. Information on how to find out the IP address can also be found in the article Display/find out the IP address of the devices in the network summarized.

Then click on the "Tools" tab to switch to it.

Then scroll down a little further and click on the "Save" button.

This will start a download of a file that starts with "config_...".

The downloaded file will then contain all the general settings for configuring your ESPEasy device.

Important: This file does not contain any wifi access data.

Restore configurations

As described in the previous step, the configuration of your ESPEasy device can be saved in a file. To transfer this file and the configuration it contains to an ESPEasy device, you can import it using the web interface.

To do this, open the configuration web page of your ESP8266 programmed with ESPEasy by entering its IP address in your web browser. Information on how to find out the IP address can also be found in the article Display/find out the IP address of the devices in the network summarized.

Then click on the "Tools" tab to switch to it.

Then scroll down a bit further and click on the "Load" button.

You will be redirected to a page where you can start a file selection menu.

Opens this by clicking on "Select file".

Then navigate to the backup file whose settings you want to import.

Mark the file in question and then click on "Open".

in the last step you have to download the selected file to your ESPEasy device.

To do this, click on "Upload".

The file will then be uploaded to your ESPEasy device and the settings it contains will be imported.

If this was successful, you will also be shown a suitable message.

Have fun with the project

I hope everything worked as described for you. If not or you have questions or suggestions please let me know in the comments. I will then add this to the article if necessary.
Ideas for new projects are always welcome. 🙂

PS Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do this because I enjoy it, but if you think it's cool that I share the information with you, I would be happy about a small donation to the coffee fund. 🙂