Troubles with creating my homelab!

altdrugz

Hello there!
So straight to the subject... Im currently reading for the CCNA cert (probably i ll take first the ICND1 and 2 later on) and i decided to create a lab like the one its posted in here. So, i bought 2 2500 cisco series routers, the ethernet transeivers, some rollover cables and a WRONG back to back cable. The following problems currently unsolved:
1. Since my b0x is kinda modern it didnt have a COM1. I bought a USB->RS232 adapter for connecting the rollover. Sweet.. NOT! What happens is that... http://www.picpaste.com/blankblank-uKzY1TjJ.png The adapter had the drivers in a small DVD that ofcourse i ran, and it had a cool app named SetCom. SetCOM informs you ( http://www.picpaste.com/setcom-2KvLz4DW.png ) that the adapter "creates" the COM3 but putty and tera term have a different point of view :P. Tera term also shows the USB-to-Serial Comm Port1 when i ran it but the same darkness comes again. My computer is running windows 7 (and dunno if thats the problem) and the adapter HL-USB-RS232 says it supports wind98/se/me/2000/xp/macos 9/osx/linux... Any ideas ?
2. The DTE/DCE male to female and vice versa implementation (TechExams.Net CCNA LAB: The Hardware) looks a bit expensive solution for me and also the V.35 DCE serial cable with a male DB60 to female is a bit rare in the ebay... I ve bought a serial back to back (after the first wrong cable that it was a smart serial b2b) and now im waiting it to see if its gonna work...

Thanks in advance!

spd3432

I'll only address your item #1. I don't know how old the information on this site for CCNA labs is but don't think anyone advocates using 2500s anymore.

1. COM ports and cables. If I google HL-USB-RS232 there are a number of hits for driver problems under Windows 7. I run Windows 7 and have a usb->rs232 adapter FRYS.com | PPA that I bought at my local Fry's and use to connect to my home lab using a console cable. On installation of the driver (came with it) , it told me COM3. I use putty and set it for COM3 with (9600/8/N/1) and I don't have a problem with connecting to any of my equipment. If you open device manager, what COM port is shown? If it's COM3, then you need to tell your terminal software (putty / teraterm) COM3. Otherwise the address areas and IRQs won't match.

altdrugz

Hey spd3432,
Well if you checked my screenshots you would see that yes it was saying COM3 and ofcourse i did with putty Serial->COM3 with the other default values 9600/8/N/1 and i tried tera term as well but didnt work... In the device manager it also says COM3 and i dont understand what s wrong

spd3432

Alt,

I saw your screenshots showing you were using COM3. On my computer, if I chose COM4 I got a message back stating I had selected an invalid port, so I'll assume that COM3 is correct. I tried changing baud, data bits, stop bits, parity, and flow control settings using putty. The only times I didn't receive at least some type of response was when 1) I didn't have the cable connected or 2) I had the router turned off.

Have you tried connecting to both routers? If so, we can probably rule out a bad console port. That leaves the cable or the drivers. Have you tried connecting to the ethernet ports using telnet and either a switch (in between) or a crossover cable?

astrogeek

The USB-to-Serial cable you're using is junk, I bought a whole bunch of those same cables and they rarely work in Windows. They work fine in Linux, you don't even need drivers for that, but on Windows they usually just hang as if connected but not getting any feedback, which looks like what you're experiencing.

Buy a quality USB-Serial cable, should run around $30-40 for a good one and you shouldn't have any problems. I don't know what you paid for your current cable but I bought 7 on e-bay for about a dollar each - and they aren't even worth that.

The 2500 series router is antiquated also, I don't think it will run IOS 12.4 which is what CCNA is based on. Have you tried using GNS3? Real equipment is always good to learn, but realistically most of what you will be doing doesn't require physical equipment so GNS3 can save you a lot of money. You'd be better off buying real switches and just using GNS3 for learning routers (GNS3 can't emulate switches, only routers).

altdrugz

Well im using GNS3, i just want to make a lab for hands on experience with cables etc. After googling i realized that indeed the usb-2-serial that i bought is having problems with win7. Im gonna boot linux and see if it works there.