Core Knowledge
So you take a brand new Cisco Router or switch out of the box and the very first thing you must do prior to installing it is to put a basic configuration on it. In order to configure the basics on a Cisco device you must first Console into the device.
If you ever take a brand new Cisco device out of the box you’ll see that it comes with a blue flat cable that has a DB9 serial connector on one end and a network RJ45 connector on the other. Don’t be fooled, this is not a “next generation” Ethernet cable or some token ring cable but rather a Cisco Console Cable.
You use this cable to connect to he Cisco device via Serial Port so you can configure the device using command line.
- While Microsoft's Hyperterminal is not generally the best choice for use as a terminal emulator, you may be stuck in a situation where it's the only availabl.
- Type a name for the “HyperTerminal” connection in the “Name:” field presented in the first window, then press the “Enter” key. Click “Connect using:” In the drop-down menu that appears, select the “Com port” that connects the computer to the Cisco 1841 router, then tap the “Enter” key.
- Cisco Smart Licensing is a flexible licensing model that streamlines how you activate and manage software. Existing account. Start by getting access to your company's existing Smart Account. Don't have an account?
If you have a Cisco switch that has a corrupted IOS, you can upload a new version via XModem. Here are the steps. Download something like HyperTerminal that support sending files via XModem. Connect to the console port of the switch using the Cisco console cable and set your baud rate to 9600. Optional: you may want to 'format flash:' to make.
Because Cisco devices do not have graphics cards or the ability to use a mouse and keyboard, you must connect to the device using another computer that provides that functionality so you can configure the device via Console CLI.
In order to connect to a Cisco device via Console you’ll need to use a Terminal Emulator application.
Applications that you commonly use to perform this task can be Windows HyperTerminal which is included with Windows XP however Windows Vista and newer requires you to manually download/install this application.
An extremely popular terminal emulator is Putty which is completely free to download, you can get this by clicking the “Putty Terminal Emulator” link found in the useful links menu section in the footer.
The most popular paid terminal emulator is known as SecureCRT which is developed by VanDyke. This application at the time of writing this lab is $99 per single user license and supports SSH/Telnet/Serial and a bunch of other protocols commonly not used anymore. SecureCRT however provides extremely useful scripting functionality and logging capabilities along with the ability to save sessions in different folders so you can easily connect to existing equipment later.
Cisco Hyperterminal Software
In many situations in real life you may be required to connect to a Cisco device via console when you lock yourself out making an error in configuration such as misconfiguring an Access Control List or perhaps you peg the processor by executing a processor intensive debug command. None the less, as a Network engineer you must know how to console into a Cisco device.