How do I set up a console to a Macintosh which only has usb ports? Also I have noticed many PC laptops no longer have serial ports

[admin_2]

I am looking at a new laptop and I notice that many no longer have serial ports but 2 usb's. I also have an Imac with usb ports how can I configure a router with this?

[#2]

You buy a USB-to-serial adapter from any one of several vendors (Keyspan and Belkin are two that immediately spring to mind). Note that for your iMac, you'll also want to dig up a simple terminal application, like ZTerm or MacTerminal.

[matthew.hendrickson]

I've had this exact same problem. In fact, I've resorted in the past to carrying an old Toshiba Satellite Pentium 75 around with me just for console connections. You can get USB to DB9 adapters, but I've found them to be akward, and you need drivers, which didn't come with the one I ordered, and were difficult to find. Compaq (um....excuse me, the "New HP") makes a laptop that still has DB9's on it, but off the top of my head I can't think of the model number. They are out there if you look.

[matthew.hendrickson]

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[matthew.hendrickson]

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[matthew.hendrickson]

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[matthew.hendrickson]

sorry about that, my browser hung, and I didn't realize I was quadruple posting.....I don't see a delete button anywhere.... whoops.

[jpool]

I had an old Keyspan USA-19Qi USB-serial adapter that Keyspan says works only with certain PDAs, not other serial devices. Out of curiosity, I tried it between a PowerBook G4 and a PIX 501, using ZTerm, and it works perfectly. (I put the Cisco-supplied DB-9/RJ-45 adapter and light-blue console cable between the Keyspan adapter and the firewall.) The settings in ZTerm that work for me are:

9600 baud

8 data bits

no parity

1 stop bit

Xon/Xoff flow control

hardware handshake

PC ANSI-BBS

delay between characters 1

delay between lines 20

rz

subPacket length auto

capture text by line

serial port USA19QI191P1.1

hardware hangup