rj45 to db9 serial adaptors

this is why i love these little adaptors, you can configure two of them (sans serial wire or a null modem) with a piece of patch and you have your serial console on most ibm pc/s (by ibm i mean most standard computer systems, sun(s) are a little different since alot of the sparc/ultra and enterprise series have a db25 serial port versus a db9 port)

here is the pinout:

db9 - rj45
1 --- blank
2 --- 6
3 --- 3
4 --- 2
5 --- 4 & 5
6 --- 7
7 --- 1
8 --- 8
9 --- -

you will need two of these to complete you serial console, one for server and the other for client.

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here is a db9 to rj45 that will let you connect a foundry networks serverironxl to a standard serial port:

rj45 - db9
1 ---- blank
2 ---- 3
3 ---- 6
4 ---- 7
5 ---- 4
6 ---- 2
7 ---- 8
8 ---- 1

for this one to work – you need to have two of these same adaptors with standard patch cable in between them to function, and for all foundry networks console sessions, dont forget to disable hardware flow control.

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remember, in these adaptors, the rj45 end has the wires and are numbered as such:

1 --- blue
2 --- orange
3 --- black
4 --- red
5 --- green
6 --- yellow
7 --- brown
8 --- white

this seems to be the most common pinout / setup – just double check yours before you do anything

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you can generally find these adaptors on sale for about 5$ and they are nice to keep around especially when a machine goes down. if you have multiple machines on your network, you can always buy a comm port card (serial ports) and just keep this machine as a console server but you would just have to remember which port is which machine. you save a butt load of money doing it that way rather than investing in a dedicated console server.

• What is the distance limitation?

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  • not too sure, but i would assume not more than maybe 20-30 feet. let me test and get back to you.

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