Connecting two Cisco router together.
I recently purchased two older Cisco routers 2500 series in order to use for studying and I was wondering what is the best way of connecting the two together using the Serial interfaces. Where can I purchase cables? Do they have a null Cisco cable that will directly connect two serial ports?
Software/Hardware used:
Software/Hardware used:
ASKED:
April 19, 2006 7:47 AM
UPDATED:
April 21, 2006 11:23 AM
Answer Wiki:
Yes, there is such a cable. It's called a back-to-back cable. The best place to look is probably eBay.
Something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9714988623
is probably what you need, but be sure to verify what type of physical connectors you need on each end before buying.
Search for 'cisco serial cable back'.
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With the right cable, you could even connect the two routers together using the AUX ports. We normally use ISDN for backup, but had to resort to analog modems, where we run a ppp connection if the primary link goes down. These are just connected through the AUX port.
With the right cable, you could even connect the two routers together using the AUX ports. We normally use ISDN for backup, but had to resort to analog modems, where we run a ppp connection if the primary link goes down. These are just connected through the AUX port.
You must get your self a DTE and a DCE serial cable inorder to connect the two cisco devices.
Then you have to configure the bandwith on both devices with a encap off PPP.
There are DTE to DCE serial cables available for this use. Do you have the 60 pin connectors? If you do a google search on cisco serial cables you will find several vendors. The first one I checked wanted $70 for a 60 pin DTE to DCE cable. The second wanted $19. Here is their link: http://www.boxfire.com/cab60mtcbx.html
If this will only be used for lab experiments I would check out the other suggestion about using the AUX interface. You can make a cable for this yourself if you look up the pinouts. I wouldn’t use this in a production environment since the AUX port connection puts a heavy load on the CPU.
You might want to do more than just hook the two 2500s together. My home lab has a 1700 hooked up to a linux router and an openbsd router/firewall. I used modem cables and adapters to connect them. This allowed for some interesting routing experiments.
rt