OK, so you've just got your new Cisco Router or Switch.
You need to configure it.
So, how do you configure a brand new Cisco router or switch?
Now, if it's a remote device and it's been configured correctly you could use a protocol such as Telnet
or SSH, secure shell to remotely configure a device like this but generally with Cisco devices you
need to connect to the console port of the Cisco device and configure it locally first.
So how do you connect to a Cisco Router or Cisco switches console port?
In this video I'm going to show you how to do that
We're going to look at physical connections using the old traditional methods on an older laptop and
then how to connect to the device using a more modern laptop.
I'm going to show you how to configure the devices from the ground up so how do you connect to a Cisco
Router or switch.
I'm going to show you how to do that right now
Now traditionally a Cisco Router or switch would only have an RJ45 console port these days fortunately they
now have USB ports.
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
you how to connect it to the device using a USB port so much easier these days using a USB port.
So how do you connect your PC your laptop to the console of a Cisco right or switch in the old days
we used to use what was called a rollover cable like this.
This is known as a rollover cable because pin one on the one side goes to pin eight on the other, pin
two goes to pin seven, pin three to pin six all the way to pin eight, going to pin one.
So, all the pins in this cable are rolled one to eight all the way to eight to one.
OK.
So what you would do is connect the one side to the console of the router or switch.
Don't make this mistake.
I've seen many people make this mistake.
Please don't make this mistake.
Don't connect the other side to the Ethernet port on a PC.
You'll blow this port.
I've seen it happen too many times where people connect the Ethernet port to their PC or laptop and
then connect to the console port of a router or a switch and then it blows the port.
This is what's called an out-of-band connection.
We are not sending IP across this.
So TCPIP traffic is not going across this cable.
This is a serial port so you would in the old days need a serial port on your laptop to connect to the
router or switch.
So here I've got an old Toshiba laptop really good laptop for its time.
What you would need is what's called a DB9 to RJ45 connector, so DB9 converter like this RJ
45 on the one side, DB9 because there's 9 pins here, female pins and you would connect to the serial
port of your PC.
So what you would do is connect to the serial port on the one side and to the console port of your router
or switch on the other side so something like this.
That's how you'd connect your router or switch to your laptop, now rather than doing it that way rather
than having a rollover cable like this.
DB9 converter.
What they then did was create a cable like this.
Notice built-in DB9 female connect on the one side RJ45 on the other.
So this would allow me to connect directly to my laptop on the one side so nice connection on the one
side and then connect and then I'd connect to the router or switch on the other side.
So RJ45 on the one side that would go to the console port of the router or switch DB9 female connector
on the other side.
It's much easier to have a single rollover cable like this DB9 to RJ45 than it was to have two
RJ45 and then have to get a DB9 to RJ45 converter or connector like this.
So that's the old way of doing things.
The problem is today's laptops don't have serial interfaces like this.
So how do you connect a modern laptop to a router or switch.
If you don't have a serial interface, here's a more modern laptop ASUS laptop one running Windows 10.
It doesn't have serial interfaces so I can't connect this serial cable to this laptop.
So what we had to do and things have got easier today, but what we had to do in those days is use
USB to serial converter.
So what I'd have to do is buy something like this, so here's an example.
You have to be careful with some of these,
some of them don't work.
They were dodgy chips inside of them.
A lot of cases they wouldn't work but you'd get something reputable like this.
This would give you a male DB9 connector, so you could connect the female console cable to this and
then this would go into your laptop.
So USB port like that and then, so I'm gonna use some of these cables out of the way.
And then you would have your console connection to the router or switch.
So something like this console on the router or a switch and then you would have USB on the laptop.
So that has been the way to do it for quite a few years.
But Cisco have started adding USB connections to the router or switches.
So here.
Notice this switch,
more modern switch has a USB connector so much, much better so much easier.
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
on your laptop.
That's a much easier way of doing it.
So there is a bit of history.
So the first part of the puzzle is you need to physically connect your laptop to a router or switch.
There are two ways to do it.
You can either use a traditional RJ45 connector or you can use a USB connector.
In this video, I've now shown you both ways.