Ever work through some labs and run into situations where you have to shut down links which will cut off access to one or more of your devices? One of the best things in my opinion for your home lab is the ability to access all of your devices without having an active link.
This can be done with a Cisco 2509 Access Server. You can find them for relatively cheap on EBay or where I get my stuff most of the time, Cables And Kits.com. The setup and configuration is surprisingly easy!
Here is what it looks like logically. In my lab I have a layer 3 switch and two layer 2 switches. In the past, if I needed to shut down the links, I’d have to get up off my lazy butt and go swap the console cable from my PC to the switches individually. Well we can’t have that, so now I just have my console cable plugged into the 2509 AS, and it doesn’t matter if I shut down all of the Ethernet links; I’ll still have connectivity to all of my devices through the console connections!
The way this is done is by utilizing an “octal” cable. This cable plugs into one of the Asynchronous Serial ports on the 2509, and it has 8 numbered cables that can be plugged into the console ports of devices.
We then configure the 2509 so that we can perform a “reverse telnet” to our devices. The reason why it is called reverse telnet is because we are basically telnetting from the 2509 to a loopback interface on a specific port, which then telnets us into one of the devices it’s hooked up to.
For a configuration video, click here:
