Cisco Roll Over Adapter Help!!?

[kishan6313]

Hi,

I got Cisco Roll Over Adapter from online store that make standard Cat5e Ethernet cable into roll over cable. But how do you configure that on your computer? Does anyone have idea how does that work? Basically I connected my roll over adapter on my laptop and then from the adapter I connected Ethernet cable to the back of router in console port. Does anyone know if I'm doing it right?

I have Cisco 2621XM routers and 3550 switches.

Thank you

[Richard Burts · Accepted solution]

There is not anything that you configure on your computer specifically for the roll over adapter. You do need to configure the terminal emulator software on your computer (hyperterm, or PuTTy, or SecureCRT, or TeraTerm are commonly used terminal emulators). They will use the adapter but there is not anything that you configure just for the adapter.

How are you connecting the adapter to your laptop? I hope it is not just plugged into an Ethernet interface of the laptop.

HTH

Rick

[kishan6313]

Thanks for the reply.

I connected the adapter to the laptop ethernet spot and from there I'm running straight through cable from the adapter to the router. Is that right? How can I open my router interface if I dont need anything to configure. 

Im attaching my setup picture.

[kishan6313]

I talked to Startech support and they sent me the pinout diagram if it helps understand the problem I'm having. I'm trying to console into my switch via putty. It doesnt show my COM port. 

Im attaching the pinout diagram of Rollover cable. HTH! :)

[Richard Burts]

Connecting to the router console can be confusing because the cable that you use can be cat5. But the router console is not an Ethernet connection. The router console uses a serial protocol for communication.

I have been working with Cisco gear for a long time and I can remember when a PC or a laptop had a serial interface (which internally accessed a COM port) and this serial port was where the roll over cable connected. But laptops no longer have the serial port. So we need to do something different to connect to the router console. Most of us who use laptops and need to establish console connections use a different adapter which uses a USB port and provides the serial connection that way.

If you are using putty and are connected to the Ethernet of the laptop then putty will do telnet or SSH connections (to an Ethernet of the router). If you want putty to establish a connection to the router console then you have to tell putty to use a serial connection and at that point putty will look for a COM port.

HTH

Rick