Now before we look at the Cisco IOS we need to physically connect
to a Cisco router or Cisco switch.
So how do you connect to a router or a switch?
Well the first thing you’re going to need is a console cable
when you initially configure the device through the console port.
in the old days console cables used to have RJ-45 connectors on both ends
and then you used to have to get a DB-9 connector which would connect
to the serial port of your PC, these days they tends to look like this
so you have an RJ-45 connector on 1 end which you used to connect
to the console of a router or switch and then you have a DB-9 female connector
which you used to connect to the serial port of your PC
now today lots of PC's don’t have serial ports.
So you’ll need to get a USB to serial converter so that you can connect
to the USB port on your PC and then used the DB-9 male connector to connect
to the female DB-9 connector of your console cable
remember a console cable is a rollover cable with pin 1
on 1 side connected to pin 8 on the other side, pin 2 connected to pin 7
3 to 6 and so forth and so on and once again pin 8 to pin 1.
So the pins are rolled from 1 side of the cable to the other side
you then going to have a run some terminal emulation software on your PC or MAC.
There are many examples of terminal emulation software.
HyperTerminal was quite popular in the past
because it came with Windows and it was free but it’s very limited.
Putty is very popular today it’s free and works very well.
One of the issues with Putty is that it only runs on Windows.
Other software that you may be interested in using includes tera term
which is also free and SecureCRT which is very popular with networking engineers.
It runs on both Windows and Mac but it does cause money.
On a Mac you may wanna use SecureCRT or iTerm was an example
I used Royal TSX for a lot of connections on my Mac.
Find software that you prefer using.
Now as in a lot of things in life, there are various options choose what suits you.
Putty is very good if you run Windows and it’s once again free.
If you're running a HyperTerminal you could connect to a router doing the following.
The first thing that you’re going to do is open up a new HyperTerminal session
and then specify the COM port that you going to use
to connect to the Cisco routers or switch and then you need to specify
the speed data bits, parity, stop bits and flow control.
These are typically the values that you’re going to use
when connecting to Cisco router or switch.
Now don’t worry too much about what the value mean
these are typically the values that you’ll configure
when configuring a Cisco router or switch
Just remember that bits per second is 9600
data bits is 8, parity is none, stop bits is 1 and flow control is none.
Now in this video I’m using HyperTerminal, so I'd go to file new connection
I’ve specify my connection let’s say R1
I’ve specify which COM port I’m going to use so as an example COM 3.
I’ll specify that the bits per second is 9600, data bits is 8, parity is none
stop bits is 1 and flow control is none.
Now I can click on OK and I'll hit enter a few times
until I get output on the screen, and as you can see we're connected to a Cisco router.
so just to reiterate what your require
when initially configuring a router or switch you’ll firstly need a console cable
if you've got an older console cable like this, you’ll need to get a DB-9 connector
if you’ve got a newer console cable which looks like this
which has a female DB-9 connector you would connect that to your PC's serial port
or otherwise if you don’t have a serial port on your computer
you’ll need to get a USB to serial port converter
connect the USB cable to the USB port on your PC
and then connect the male DB-9 connector to the female console connector
of the console cable and then you plug the RJ-45 connector into the console
of your router or switch, now as a tip, some routers
have auxiliary ports which were used in the past for modems
don’t connect to the auxiliary port, make sure you connect
to the console port for the initial configuration of your device.