Question about Console Cable

[Everton1P]

Hello,

I have two 2950 Switches and am trying to connect via my laptop.  My laptop doesn't have a serial port so I am trying to connect through the ethernet port, with a straight through cable and on the end as it goes into the console port I have bought a cisco console rollover adapter.

Is it possible to connect this way?

When I turn on terra term I get nothing...just a black screen and it disconnects.  Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Aaron

[serge123]

I use a usb to serial adapter. Works great


Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

[Jeff Van Houten]

No, an Ethernet port on your laptop is not the same as a serial port. Different signaling, different pins, different everything. As suggested get a USB-to-db-9 adapter, or you can order console cables with USB on one end.

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[mhnedirli]

you can make a cable or buy it. its very simple to make a cable you just need to connect only 5 pins to the db9 converter. you can search it "rj45 to db9 pinout"

[Richard Burts]

The cable and the number and type of pins is a small and not significant part of this issue. The important part of the issue is what Jeff identifies which is that Ethernet is an entirely different thing from console and no kind of cable is going to have them communicate.

HTH

Rick

[Everton1P]

Thank you.  I just looked at the back of the 2950 switch and all that is there is a console port....if my laptop doesn't have a serial port how can I connect. 

I looked up USB to serial DB9...the link is below...but I will have no where to plug in the DB9...

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/200818644479?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla&crdt=0

Does anyone have a link for what I could use? 

[Reza Sharifi]

First you need a console cable (see link below).

As you can see in the picture the console cable comes with an RJ45 on one side and a DB9 female on the other side.

You connect the RJ45 to the back of the 2960.  Now, you connect to DB9 female side of the cable to the male side of the converter you are purchasing.  On the other side of the converter there is USB connector and that will connect to your PC.

So in summary, you need a console cable and a converter to connect the switch to your PC.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.routerswholesale.com/images/72-3382-01-large.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.routerswholesale.com/index.php?main_page%3Dindex%26cPath%3D1_3&h=286&w=363&sz=20&tbnid=jAOX3KMmykZzvM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=114&prev=/search%...

HTH