access console of a switch : problem

pankajd

how to access console of a switch having rj45 on switch side to db 9 female on pc side console cable which needs to be connected to one console server having rj11 on its side and db 9 female on other end.i.e. on switch side,console cable has rj45 and db 9 pin female connector on other side of the console cable which has come with switch.Now i have to connect this switch using console server which has a cable having rj11 on that server side and other end is db 9 pin female .Now i hv to connect switch serial console cable to console server serial console cable using some consverter or some cable which can connect both db 9 female connectors.how to do that?i hv linux as os and minicom and console utilities.

gomer

I find minicim to be a pain and overkill in cases like that. I happen to have to do exactly what you are describing pretty often at work and I use picocom. It's simple, and there's not a lot of over-head. It's good that the switch came with the cable. If for some reason you needed to make your own, though, it's not terribly dificult. you can build sucha cable using the pinouts laid out here: http://www.zytrax.com/tech/layer_1/cables/tech_rs232.htm#db9

All you need to do to use picocom is specify the dev you want to use to connect with. e.g. picocom /dev/ttyS0