I have just taken delivery of a basic Cisco lab and I would like to check the routers and switches etc. are in 'working' condition before I start playing around with them.
The first hurdle is probably the most obvious – I don't know how to get console access to actually do anything on the hardware!
The first in the list is a Cisco 2516 – you can see the ports available on the following table (taken from this website:
Here is a list of the contents of the lab (provided to show you what cables I have access to):
I also have a serial to USB cable that I had before the lab arrived.
So far I have tried to connect to the RJ45 console port on the Cisco 2516, to the RJ45 port on my laptop. It would appear from everything I have read online that you have to connect to either serial or USB on the laptop – is this correct?
If so, do I need two adapters? One thats RJ45 to USB and another thats DCE/DTE to USB?
I notice that none of the equipment has the RS-232 serial connection that I expected!
Best Answer
The console port on the 2516 is indeed a serial port, but it uses an RJ45 connector and a weird "rollover cable" to connect the RJ45 console port on the hub to the serial port on your laptop. You should have got a rollover cable with the hub; last time I bought any Cisco kit, they were light blue thin ribbon-style cables with a standard 9-pin serial connector on one end and an RJ45 connector on the other. They're called rollover cables because the pins at either end are wired 1->8, 2->7, 3->6, etc.