1 00:00:05,070 --> 00:00:08,710 OK, so you've just got your new Cisco Router or Switch. 2 00:00:08,810 --> 00:00:09,940 You need to configure it. 3 00:00:10,250 --> 00:00:14,520 So, how do you configure a brand new Cisco router or switch? 4 00:00:14,690 --> 00:00:20,510 Now, if it's a remote device and it's been configured correctly you could use a protocol such as Telnet 5 00:00:20,900 --> 00:00:28,040 or SSH, secure shell to remotely configure a device like this but generally with Cisco devices you 6 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:34,450 need to connect to the console port of the Cisco device and configure it locally first. 7 00:00:34,490 --> 00:00:40,310 So how do you connect to a Cisco Router or Cisco switches console port? 8 00:00:40,310 --> 00:00:42,000 In this video I'm going to show you how to do that 9 00:00:41,990 --> 00:00:47,990 We're going to look at physical connections using the old traditional methods on an older laptop and 10 00:00:47,990 --> 00:00:51,500 then how to connect to the device using a more modern laptop. 11 00:00:51,500 --> 00:00:57,920 I'm going to show you how to configure the devices from the ground up so how do you connect to a Cisco 12 00:00:57,920 --> 00:00:58,990 Router or switch. 13 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:00,550 I'm going to show you how to do that right now 14 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:12,700 Now traditionally a Cisco Router or switch would only have an RJ45 console port these days fortunately they 15 00:01:12,700 --> 00:01:14,660 now have USB ports. 16 00:01:14,770 --> 00:01:20,050 So I'm going to show you firstly how to connect it to the device using an RJ 45 port and then I'll show 17 00:01:20,050 --> 00:01:26,620 you how to connect it to the device using a USB port so much easier these days using a USB port. 18 00:01:26,620 --> 00:01:33,640 So how do you connect your PC your laptop to the console of a Cisco right or switch in the old days 19 00:01:34,660 --> 00:01:39,000 we used to use what was called a rollover cable like this. 20 00:01:39,250 --> 00:01:47,020 This is known as a rollover cable because pin one on the one side goes to pin eight on the other, pin 21 00:01:47,020 --> 00:01:53,140 two goes to pin seven, pin three to pin six all the way to pin eight, going to pin one. 22 00:01:53,140 --> 00:01:59,880 So, all the pins in this cable are rolled one to eight all the way to eight to one. 23 00:02:00,530 --> 00:02:00,780 OK. 24 00:02:00,790 --> 00:02:07,420 So what you would do is connect the one side to the console of the router or switch. 25 00:02:07,420 --> 00:02:10,250 Don't make this mistake. 26 00:02:10,330 --> 00:02:12,570 I've seen many people make this mistake. 27 00:02:12,610 --> 00:02:15,520 Please don't make this mistake. 28 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:21,730 Don't connect the other side to the Ethernet port on a PC. 29 00:02:21,790 --> 00:02:23,380 You'll blow this port. 30 00:02:23,410 --> 00:02:29,740 I've seen it happen too many times where people connect the Ethernet port to their PC or laptop and 31 00:02:29,740 --> 00:02:35,650 then connect to the console port of a router or a switch and then it blows the port. 32 00:02:35,650 --> 00:02:39,000 This is what's called an out-of-band connection. 33 00:02:39,070 --> 00:02:42,620 We are not sending IP across this. 34 00:02:42,640 --> 00:02:46,720 So TCPIP traffic is not going across this cable. 35 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:54,610 This is a serial port so you would in the old days need a serial port on your laptop to connect to the 36 00:02:54,610 --> 00:02:56,200 router or switch. 37 00:02:56,230 --> 00:03:00,880 So here I've got an old Toshiba laptop really good laptop for its time. 38 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:09,040 What you would need is what's called a DB9 to RJ45 connector, so DB9 converter like this RJ 39 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:16,180 45 on the one side, DB9 because there's 9 pins here, female pins and you would connect to the serial 40 00:03:16,180 --> 00:03:18,440 port of your PC. 41 00:03:18,580 --> 00:03:25,810 So what you would do is connect to the serial port on the one side and to the console port of your router 42 00:03:25,810 --> 00:03:30,890 or switch on the other side so something like this. 43 00:03:30,890 --> 00:03:36,620 That's how you'd connect your router or switch to your laptop, now rather than doing it that way rather 44 00:03:36,620 --> 00:03:38,830 than having a rollover cable like this. 45 00:03:38,940 --> 00:03:40,360 DB9 converter. 46 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:44,970 What they then did was create a cable like this. 47 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:50,750 Notice built-in DB9 female connect on the one side RJ45 on the other. 48 00:03:50,750 --> 00:03:57,230 So this would allow me to connect directly to my laptop on the one side so nice connection on the one 49 00:03:57,230 --> 00:04:04,520 side and then connect and then I'd connect to the router or switch on the other side. 50 00:04:04,580 --> 00:04:12,050 So RJ45 on the one side that would go to the console port of the router or switch DB9 female connector 51 00:04:12,230 --> 00:04:13,660 on the other side. 52 00:04:13,850 --> 00:04:22,370 It's much easier to have a single rollover cable like this DB9 to RJ45 than it was to have two 53 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:28,970 RJ45 and then have to get a DB9 to RJ45 converter or connector like this. 54 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:33,190 So that's the old way of doing things. 55 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:40,520 The problem is today's laptops don't have serial interfaces like this. 56 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:44,480 So how do you connect a modern laptop to a router or switch. 57 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:54,120 If you don't have a serial interface, here's a more modern laptop ASUS laptop one running Windows 10. 58 00:04:54,400 --> 00:05:02,530 It doesn't have serial interfaces so I can't connect this serial cable to this laptop. 59 00:05:03,070 --> 00:05:10,750 So what we had to do and things have got easier today, but what we had to do in those days is use 60 00:05:10,750 --> 00:05:13,420 USB to serial converter. 61 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:20,920 So what I'd have to do is buy something like this, so here's an example. 62 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:22,300 You have to be careful with some of these, 63 00:05:22,300 --> 00:05:23,470 some of them don't work. 64 00:05:23,500 --> 00:05:26,250 They were dodgy chips inside of them. 65 00:05:26,380 --> 00:05:31,420 A lot of cases they wouldn't work but you'd get something reputable like this. 66 00:05:31,510 --> 00:05:40,440 This would give you a male DB9 connector, so you could connect the female console cable to this and 67 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:42,040 then this would go into your laptop. 68 00:05:42,300 --> 00:05:47,750 So USB port like that and then, so I'm gonna use some of these cables out of the way. 69 00:05:48,420 --> 00:05:53,120 And then you would have your console connection to the router or switch. 70 00:05:53,310 --> 00:06:00,690 So something like this console on the router or a switch and then you would have USB on the laptop. 71 00:06:01,290 --> 00:06:05,280 So that has been the way to do it for quite a few years. 72 00:06:05,940 --> 00:06:13,050 But Cisco have started adding USB connections to the router or switches. 73 00:06:13,230 --> 00:06:14,100 So here. 74 00:06:14,100 --> 00:06:15,780 Notice this switch, 75 00:06:15,780 --> 00:06:21,410 more modern switch has a USB connector so much, much better so much easier. 76 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:30,570 So what you would do is get a USB cable, it's not micro USB standard USB and you would connect to a USB port 77 00:06:30,570 --> 00:06:31,740 on your laptop. 78 00:06:31,740 --> 00:06:35,060 That's a much easier way of doing it. 79 00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:36,590 So there is a bit of history. 80 00:06:36,690 --> 00:06:45,800 So the first part of the puzzle is you need to physically connect your laptop to a router or switch. 81 00:06:45,810 --> 00:06:46,970 There are two ways to do it. 82 00:06:46,980 --> 00:06:52,860 You can either use a traditional RJ45 connector or you can use a USB connector. 83 00:06:52,860 --> 00:06:55,020 In this video, I've now shown you both ways.