Accessing Cisco 836 via console cable

dschiavon

Hello everybody,

I am starting to study for the CCNA exam and I got myself a small second hand Cisco 836. Unfortunately, I can find no way to logon to it via the console cable.

After a few attempts with hand-made cables, I figured out that my wiring skills are maybe not up to speed, so I got myself a Cisco rolled cable. I connected it to 3 different PCs, notably

A Fujitsu-Siemens laptop with Ubuntu installed
A Thinkpad with Slackware / Windows 98 / Freedos
An IBM desktop with Windows XP

In all cases, com1 (ttyS0) is accessible and Telix / Minicom / CuteCom / HyperTerminal show me as "Online". I assume this means that the communication program is listening to the port.

But then nothing happens!
Telix and Minicom just ask me to press CTRL A + Z for further information. Hyperterminal and Cutecom are just blank screens.

I exclude the problem is on the cable, or on the host. I booted the first two PCs with a Linux live distro which is only supposed to configure the pc and put you in front of a Minicom screen - with the same result. I am Online, and nothing happens, no matter how many Break I send.

What am I missing? Is the router running an IOS at all, and how can I find out? Am I supposed to do something else to it before I can get it to work?


Any help will be very welcome.

Thank you infinitely,

Diego

dynamik

Are you using these settings for your terminal emulator?

The default parameters for the console port are:
9600 baud
8 data bits
No parity generated or checked
1 stop bit
No Flow Control

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps214/products_tech_note09186a00801f5d85.shtml

mikej412

dschiavon wrote:

After a few attempts with hand-made cables, I figured out that my wiring skills are maybe not up to speed, so I got myself a Cisco rolled cable.

Where did you get the DB9-RJ45 adapter? If you haven't tried with a known good Cisco Cable -- you haven't excluded the cable as the problem.

If it doesn't work with the standard settings, try changing the speed. Someone may have changed the speed settings on console port.

If you still can't get into the router, then your back to either a cable issue or a bad router/console port issue.

Have you tried sending breaks (using what ever the break sequence is for the terminal software you're using) while the router is booting?

dschiavon

Hi dynamic, hi Mikej412,

thank you very much for your replies.
The console cable is rj45 on one end and serial db 9 female on the other, so no need for adaptors. The cable goes nicely from the com port to the console port, it is new (not second hand), so I tend to exclude that the fault might lie in the cabling.

Previously I had made my own db25 adapters to com2, but with the same result. That is when I thought about buying an official cisco console cable.

And to answer to dynamic, yes, I set the port to 9600baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no hardware or software flow control. That could have been a valid point indeed. I went though a number of tutorials to configure the router and tried to follow them as closely as possible, to no avail.

The router came with nothing attached to it - cable kit, users manual, iso cd. So I was wondering - do I maybe have to load the ios image? I mean, can it be that it is just an empty box right now?
If I exclude the port configuration and the cabling, the troubleshooting does not leave much besides the router itself, does it?

Diego

dschiavon

Hi again Mike412,

sorry, I had not read the whole reply.

> did you get the DB9-RJ45 adapter? If you haven't tried with a known good Cisco Cable -- you >haven't excluded the cable as the problem.

It is a cisco console cable, one of those flashy, flat, light blue ones. It says cisco on it, so I guess it is original

>If you still can't get into the router, then your back to either a cable issue or a bad router/console >port issue.

Well, I tend to exclude the cable. It is brand new. Probably the console port then?

>Have you tried sending breaks (using what ever the break sequence is for the terminal software >you're using) while the router is booting>

Yes, I did. Nothing happens no matter how many breaks I send.

>If it doesn't work with the standard settings, try changing the speed. Someone may have >changed the speed settings on console port.

I will try that today and get back to you.
Thank you for the suggestion!

Diego

tech-airman

dschiavon,

dschiavon wrote:

Hello everybody,

I am starting to study for the CCNA exam and I got myself a small second hand Cisco 836. Unfortunately, I can find no way to logon to it via the console cable.

Firstly, congratulations on starting on your journey towards CCNA certification. Secondly, here's the current information on Cisco's website about the Cisco 836 router.

Source:

1. Cisco 836 ADSL over ISDN Secure Broadband Routers - Data Sheet - Cisco Systems - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps380/product_data_sheet09186a008014ee18.html

Unless you've got an "ADSL over ISDN" Internet Service Provider, this will just have to be your Cisco IOS familiarization router as well as a 4 port 10/100 switch.

dschiavon wrote:

After a few attempts with hand-made cables, I figured out that my wiring skills are maybe not up to speed, so I got myself a Cisco rolled cable. I connected it to 3 different PCs, notably

A Fujitsu-Siemens laptop with Ubuntu installed
A Thinkpad with Slackware / Windows 98 / Freedos
An IBM desktop with Windows XP

Since I am most familiar with Microsoft products, I would try the Thinkpad with Windows 98 using Hyperterminal. There is a problem with Hyperterminal for Windows XP in that it's scrollback buffer becomes garbled, which is why I'm not recommending that operating system, even though it is relatively more modern than Windows 98.

dschiavon wrote:

In all cases, com1 (ttyS0) is accessible and Telix / Minicom / CuteCom / HyperTerminal show me as "Online". I assume this means that the communication program is listening to the port.

For me and Hyperterminal on Windows 2000 Professional, in the bottom left corner, it says "Connected: #:##:##."

dschiavon wrote:

But then nothing happens!
Telix and Minicom just ask me to press CTRL A + Z for further information. Hyperterminal and Cutecom are just blank screens.

I exclude the problem is on the cable, or on the host. I booted the first two PCs with a Linux live distro which is only supposed to configure the pc and put you in front of a Minicom screen - with the same result. I am Online, and nothing happens, no matter how many Break I send.

Instead of:

• Bits per second: 9600
• Data bits: 8
• Parity: None
• Stop bits: 1
• Flow control: None

try..

• Bits per second: 9600
• Data bits: 8
• Parity: None
• Stop bits: 1
• Flow control: Hardware

Those are the settings I use on my Windows 2000 Professional computer with Hyperterminal to connect to the console port of my Cisco 2621 router.

dschiavon wrote:

What am I missing? Is the router running an IOS at all, and how can I find out? Am I supposed to do something else to it before I can get it to work?


Any help will be very welcome.

Thank you infinitely,

Diego

Before you start the above troubleshooting steps, do some apparently obvious but necessary troubleshooting steps:

1. Make sure that the power cord for the router is firmly plugged into the wall outlet.
   [list=1:28a7803c6a]
2. If there's somehow a wall switch associated with that wall outlet, make sure the wall switch is in the "on" position.

[*]Make sure the power cord is snugly inserted into the router.
[*]Make sure the power switch on the router is in the "on" position.
[*]Look for any lights turning on the front and back of the router.

1. For information of what the lights mean, here's the Troubleshooting section of the "Cisco 800 Series Routers Hardware Installation Guide" - http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/access/800/801/hardware/installation/guide/trouble.html

[*]After verifying that power is being supplied to the router, connect the Giga/Fast/Ethernet port on one of your laptops that is powered on with a straight through UTP cable to each of the Ethernet ports on the router and verify that the Ethernet link lights go on. This would mean that electrical power is being supplied to the router.
[*]Now it's time to figure out if there's an issue with your terminal emulation program on your computer.
[*]Feel free to post back if the abovementioned troubleshooting steps don't work. Just as importantly, make notes of any occurences as you complete each step, such as noises, lights turning on/off/blinking, etc.
[/list:o:28a7803c6a]

I hope this helps.

dschiavon

Hi all again,

following the troubleshooting steps kindly posted by tech-airman:

Make sure that the power cord for the router is firmly plugged into the wall outlet. * It is.
If there's somehow a wall switch associated with that wall outlet, make sure the wall switch is in the "on" position.

* It is on.

Make sure the power cord is snugly inserted into the router.

* It is inserted.

Make sure the power switch on the router is in the "on" position.

* The router is on.

Look for any lights turning on the front and back of the router.

* No lights except for OK.

After verifying that power is being supplied to the router, connect the Giga/Fast/Ethernet port on one of your laptops that is powered on with a straight through UTP cable to each of the Ethernet ports on the router and verify that the Ethernet link lights go on. This would mean that electrical power is being supplied to the router.

All ethernet ports are lighting up correctly.

Now it's time to figure out if there's an issue with your terminal emulation program on your computer.

I ran hyperterminal at speeds of 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 38400, 57600 and 115200 as suggested by mikek412. I did that both with no flow control and with hardware flow control. Nothing new to report, other than hyperterminal occasionally spitting out some rubbish (yes, I was using hyperterminal on Windows XP).

I googled shortly for the keystroke needed to send breaks on hyperterminal and found mostly Ctrl+Break. However we are using Sun keyboards at work with no break-key. Ctrl-B caused the Connect counter to skip a couple seconds, so I think that might be it.

I am going to try again with minicom at different speeds and with hardware flow control and post the results.

Thank you all for the help,

Diego