Connecting to an RS232 without an RS232
 

Hello.

I recently got a Nortel 450 24-Port Switch. (Second hand). It looks to be a pretty funky piece of kit. However there are two problems. The first is that I do not have a kettle lead to power it up. I can solve that one.

The main problem is that the previous owner tells me that although the password is set to disabled/blank/default the web interface is disabled. The switch can be configured and the web interface enabled through an RS232 socket on the front. However, none of my computers have an RS232 socket. What hardware do I need to get to do this? Is there something I can buy that will plug into a USB socket and then plug that into the Switch? The vendor recommends using Kermit as the software to do this but they just assume you have a serial socket on your machine in the first place.

From the manual....

A VT100 or ANSI-compatible terminal, or a PC with a serial port and the ability to emulate a VT100 terminal.
Configure the terminal settings as follows:
-- 9600 baud
-- No parity
-- 8 bits
-- 1 stop bit
-- Flow control set to Xon/Xoff
-- Window Terminal Emulator option set to NO
-- Terminal Preferences: Function, Arrow, and Control keys active
-- Buffer size set to 24


So it would be helpful to do that. I get the impression this is the sort of thing I ought to be able to buy cheap but I dont actually know what im doing.

I ought to mention, in my shame, that due to circumstances beyond my control, this will have to be done from a machine running Vista.

Thanks in advance,

Timnp.

Any RS232 to USB converter should work. These are extremely cheap (you can get them from $4 online) and show up as a normal serial device to the software on the host computer.

Hi,

Thank you for responding. I have had a quick look online and all I can see are USB to RS232 converters that present a male RS232 interface, like this one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-2-0-TO-Ser...QQcmdZViewItem.

Do I also need to buy a converter like this one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Serial-RS232-9...QQcmdZViewItem .

Does that sound right? It seems odd that this is the right way to do it if there are no USB to female RS232 converts.

You need to use what is referred to as a null modem cable (female to female serial cable with RX/TX lines swapped) to connect a computer directly to a device like a switch. So the serial adapter has a male interface, and the switch has a male interface, and you link them with the female to female cable.

Thank you, so the gender changer I posted above won't have the crossover? It makes a bit more sense now if thats the case.

Kind regards,

Timnp

Can't you log in over ethernet?

It is possible to log in over the ethernet both with telnet and a web interface (albeit with slightly less options on the web interface). However, for security reasons these were disabled by the previous owner.