Kitz Forum
Computers & Hardware => Networking => Topic started by: Weaver on January 22, 2018, 07:45:05 PM
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[Have talked about this before.]
Devices such as some Cisco WAPs and switches have some rs232-like interface on the back? For admin purposes. I'm assuming these things are RS232-like framing but not necessarily with the real RS232 voltage levels ? (or much in the way of current driving capabilities)
Is that about right?
I'm wondering how to hook one of those up to a LAN, ultimately to an iPad.
Burakkucat sent me a link to a device that will convert a console-type i/f to USB. I don't know about software for an iPad though.
If the raspberry pi comes back to life then I could perhaps plug USB into the Pi?
I don't know anything about the lightning connector i/f on the iPad. If that is USB-like then there might be some iPad app that could speak the correct protocols for a (logical) RS232-like device and talk to our console.
I did see an advert for a complete working ipad solution though! An app-plus-h/w combination called Get Console (https://www.get-console.com/shop/en/lightning-to-serial-rj45-console/56-cisco-console-companion-cable-for-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch-rj45.html) - which is $199 [!] just for the cable and then you need to pay for an ios app to go with it too. So pretty expensive.
I could use such a thing to roger a Cisco switch or a WAP if I get into bad trouble with one, that's the hope. However, having one earlier would not have helped me with the problems I had with the Cisco 1830 WAPs though because if I understood correctly, it actually turned out that I needed software for the WAPs that I simply could not get hold of myself.
Could anyone tell me if you can manage to get away without having one if you have a Cisco switch and you get into very bad trouble? Basically is there some physical mega-reset sequence? Be warned, I’m thinking of the SG300 switch which I’m told is really Linksys, not a main Cisco product.
I imagine there are three possible kinds of badness: one is messing up the config or locking yourself out. Or the second is something where you need to put a new software image into the box and console access is essential, possibly, possibly you don't have to go to such lengths. The third though is basically a dead box or one that dies during boot, either because of interruption of
re-flashing when the device doesn't have proper dual image-type recovery boot loader architecture or where you putting a bad software image into the thing, so a reflashing completes but the end result is beyond nasty. (Would have to be a lack of or failure of an NT-style ‘last known good’ type of protection system, unless the issue is not a boot-sequence related one with a new software load.)
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Just a quick note to point you to one of my more recent threads, A Proprietary, Non-Standard, Interface . . . (http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,20652.0.html), in which WWWombat and I discussed the Cisco console interface.
(On reviewing that thread, I see it yet another one that I have started but have failed to complete. There is one further post that I could make to conclude the thread. (Yet another item on my ever growing ToDo List. ::) ))