Okay, so I could use this console cable so let's try that once again.
Hopefully it won't blue screen.
So on the PC, I'm going to connect the USB console cable and then I'll connect this to the console
of the router.
So basically connected to the console of the router and to the USB of the PC.
Okay.
So once again right click on windows start.
Go to Device Manager, I've got a additional comport.
Now, it's not showing up as com 4 the whole process once again is to start PuTTY
select serial, serial port that I'm going to use is com 4, click open and what I've got now is a connection
to a router, if I type show version this shows me that the router is running Cisco IOS XE software version
16 0 3 0 3 pressing spacebar, I see a whole bunch of additional information and I can see that this is
a Cisco ISR 4321 B K9 router so that is an example of a Cisco router, I can type enable once again
I can type CONF T to go to global configuration mode, type END to go to privilege mode, type disable
to go back to user mode, so user mode type enable to go to enable or privilege mode type CONF T to
go to global configuration mode you have to configure the device in configuration mode or global configuration
mode and they are sub-modes after that, I'll show you those later and then END takes me back to enable
mode, disable takes me to user mode and then I can type exit to exit out of the router I am connected
to console 0 of the router, but now let's get you to do this.
So what I'm gonna do is start Packet Tracer please make sure that you've downloaded packet tracer
and that you've got access to Packet Tracer because I'm gonna show you how to do something very similar
using Packet Tracer.
So when Packet Tracer boots up I've got to log in, I've shown you in separate videos how to do this
okay so the physical router that I'm using is a Cisco, type enable here show version allows me to see
what type of router it is it's a Cisco ISR router, once again show the for short we'll show version
full command.
This allows me to see what type of router, I'm using it's an ISR 4321, in Packet Tracer there have
ISR 4321, routers so if I click on the router you'll notice that this looks very similar to the physical
router that I have right here and if I click on CLI you'll notice that once this boots up that it's very
similar to the router that I'm using now when a device boots up once again and it doesn't have a safe
configuration we'll see this initial configuration dialog, I'm gonna type NO to bypass that and on this right if
I type show version and press spacebar you'll notice this looks very similar to my physical router, so
here's the physical router and here's the packet tracer router.
Notice how that looks very similar to this slight difference in output but very very similar.
Now we'll talk about configuration registers late in the course.
This has actually been changed to 2 1 4 2.
The default is 2 1 0 2.
But again we'll talk about that later.
So don't worry about it now we can see licensing information on the packet tracer router a similar kind
of information on a physical router. I specifically once again bought this rather because it's available
in Packet Tracer.
Now you don't just click on a router in the real world to connect a console connection to the router, what
you actually need to do is have a console cable.
So what I'm gonna do is add a PC to my packet tracer topology and then I'm gonna go to connections
and notice this blue cable is a console cable.
I'm gonna connect the RS-232 interface to the console of the router.
Now routers have what are called the auxiliary ports and console ports auxiliary ports in the old days
we used to connect modems to a router so you could phone the router to use an outer band connection to
configure it, not use that much these days but notice now on this PC, if I click on the PC and go
to desktop and I'll just make this bigger I can select terminal.
This is what's called the well-known defaults for a console port on PuTTY as an example.
If I right-click and go change settings, connection, serial you'll notice these values are the same as
these values in Packet Tracer.
So this is the physical router.
This is Packet Tracer.
Now there is one difference you'll notice flow controllers X on, X off.
Generally that should be set to None.
And that might be what's causing the problem.
So these are the values that you generally want to use.
So I'll click Okay.
So what you'll notice now is I've connected to the router using packet tracer and that looks very similar
to PuTTY.
So this is PuTTY, show version.
But once again that's crashed so flow control didn't help, so my laptop crashed once again looks like
that USB connection isn't very good but what I wanted to show you is once again this is Packet
Tracer.
Show version, looks very similar to a physical router if I open up device manager once again and look
at my console ports here my various console ports so com 4 if I remember right is the router open
that up again run PuTTY again go to console 4 here is my router so show version on the router.
You'll notice it looks very similar to Packet Tracer, PuTTY and Packet Tracer looks very much the same.
So the great thing about packet tracer and what I'll do, is I'll just turn off this physical router right now
so that the room becomes quieter and that we don't have it crashing my windows laptop again.
The great thing about Packet Tracer is you can test this stuff as if you're connected to real devices.
So let's add a switch that you can see the switches,
here's a 3650 switch again in PuTTY.
I'll open up a new session and I'll connect to let's say com 3, so com 3.
One of my USB connections, this is a 3560 C switch show version that went a bit quick but notice
at the bottom here 3560 in Packet Tracer.
He has a 3560.
So what I could do as an example is add another PC to my topology and then go to connections select
console cable and connect to RS-32 cable to the console port of the switch on the PC go to
desktop go to terminal select the defaults and what you'll notice is we see a switch booting up and
you can see the full process, I'll go right to the beginning can see here the switch is starting up and
that looks very similar to real physical switch booting up and then we get the initial configuration
dialog I'll say no to bypass that and notice I'm on this packet trace switch which is a 35 60 24 port
switch going to my physical switch, this is a slightly different switch and what I want you to see and
I'll put these side by side, is packet tracer is very, very similar to a real switch.
So on a real switch, I'll type exit, we get console port is available, packet trace a top exit we get console
is now available press enter in packet tracer, press enter on the real switch type enable, type enable type
CONF T, type CONF T, type End here, type end here.
Press question mark on this side, press question mark you'll notice that it looks very much like a real
switch real switch gives you the the real thing.
It's the best way to do things but not everyone can afford to buy a bunch of switches so packet tracers
all you need, you can connect to the consoles of multiple devices by adding PCs to your topology but
you don't have to do that on a switch like this you could just go to the CLI now it has to be powered
on so I have to add a power module to this specific switch but if I click on CLI now, I can see the seal
of the switch without having to actually connect a console cable to the switch so packet tracer gives
you two options you can either do it this way or you can simply click on the switch go to CLI and see
the CLI directly without using a console cable but this replicates or simulates what happens in the
real world, in the real world you can't just click on a device to access the console you have to physically
connect to it either via the console or remotely using Telnet or SSH.
Okay that was a long video but hopefully, I've now shown you how to connect to the console of routers
and switches using multiple options. I've shown you how to use the old way of doing it roll over cable.
I've shown you how to use USB to roll over cable.
I've shown you USB cables directly to switches, USB, obviously much easier and much better today.
And that's the preferred way to do it but if you come across an old router or switch you may need to use
one of these not as good as USB but there you go.
Okay, but make sure that you can get this working make sure that you can connect your PC in packet
tracer to the console of the router and switch and gain access to the device.