Just a quick point. Above you mention that you connect the DB9 adapter to the COM port on your PC or laptop and you mentioned that you would tell people how to get around the issue of their laptop not having a COM port later, but you never did. Now I am quite sure that the majority if not all the people reading this will be aware of the fact that you can get a USB to DB9 adapter cable, but just for completeness and for anybody new to IT networking I thought I would mention it.

Also, a handy bit on information for if you ever find yourself in the position of having access to one of the DB9-RJ45 adapters shown above but no rollover cable.

The cable layout of these adapters is as follows
Pin 1 — Blue wire
Pin 2 — Orange wire
Pin 3 — Black wire
Pin 4 — Red wire
Pin 5 — Green wire
Pin 6 — Yellow wire
Pin 7 — Brown wire
Pin 8 — Grey/White wire

So if you wire the DB9-RJ45 adapter as follows you can use it with a CAT5 straight cable to gain console access to Cisco equipment. The adapter should have a female DB9 interface.

Blue cable to position 8
Orange cable to position 6
Black cable to position 2
Yellow cable to position 3
Brown cable to position 4
Grey/white cable to position 7
Red and green cables spliced together to position 5

To splice the red and green cables together, remove the small brass pin from one of the cables and bare a little of the wire.

Carefully remove a small amount of the outer plastic covering of the other cable to bare the wire.

Join the bare wires from each cable together and secure with insulation tape.

Having this information has helped me on a few occasions.

Best Regards,

Michael