Using your iPaq to console into Cisco Devices

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.bixworld.com/ipaqconsole/ipaq.htm

Chris 'Bix' Marshall has written an article that will interest anyone who has ever wanted to let their iPAQ chatter to a CISCO box. I've used my Pocket PC for some light networking troubleshooting, but never something as hard-core as this. How about you?

"As far as I can tell, this should work for any PocketPC with a serial interface and any device you happen to have that can be managed through a Console interface (a co-worker uses a similar setup to manage his Sun boxes). I'm just going to specifically address the iPaq/Cisco side of things, because that's what I know works (and that's what's in all the pretty pictures) and, we all know that getting a sexy little iPaq to talk with a king of the hill network device from Cisco is just geek heaven. This is really just a hodge-podge of several other separate ideas I've seen out there, updated for newer versions of software, all rolled into one."

Psst - Hey Bix, it's "Pocket PC" with a space. :-)

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.bixworld.com/ipaqconsole/ipaq.htm

Chris 'Bix' Marshall has written an article that will interest anyone who has ever wanted to let their iPAQ chatter to a CISCO box. I've used my Pocket PC for some light networking troubleshooting, but never something as hard-core as this. How about you?

"As far as I can tell, this should work for any PocketPC with a serial interface and any device you happen to have that can be managed through a Console interface (a co-worker uses a similar setup to manage his Sun boxes). I'm just going to specifically address the iPaq/Cisco side of things, because that's what I know works (and that's what's in all the pretty pictures) and, we all know that getting a sexy little iPaq to talk with a king of the hill network device from Cisco is just geek heaven. This is really just a hodge-podge of several other separate ideas I've seen out there, updated for newer versions of software, all rolled into one."

Psst - Hey Bix, it's "Pocket PC" with a space. :-)

[michael]

I've never seen someone use a pocketpc for this, but lots of people i used to work with used palms for this. Seeing a big sun box boot up on a tiny palm screen is so wierd :lol:

[IpaqMan2]

I've done this... but I feel I've used better tools than the article.

I use a CF Serial card with my iPAQ, Than set my iPAQ to Landscape mode, and use a cable from the iPAQ to my stowaway keyboard so I can keep typing in Landscape mode. (trust me here.. Anyone who has ever worked on heavy IOS configurations for the cisco routes, will want a keyboard and not use the stylus). I counsault on the side and used it to console into several other devices as well. Since I useally am not too sure when I need to console into other devices, the iPAQ is a good solutions when you need to do just that and are caught with out a laptop.. But defenitaly not something I would use in place of a laptop if and when I had one with me.

[bix]

Yeah, I'd agree with IpaqMan2... doing much more than simple changes with the stylus is a pain... that's actually what drove me to figure out how to get my nightly backups of the config files on my ipaq, so I wouldn't have to worry about editing files on my ipaq. Most of what I do in the field is replacements, rather than config changes, since that's all handled back in my office. That, and the fact that I couldn't get my boss to pop for a keyboard... =]

If you're dealing with just edge switches, one of the things that can make editing config files a little easier is the Web Enabled console on Cisco devices. It gives you access to all of the console commands, in a hyperlink based interface. Handy when all you have is a stylus. But that presumes you have wireless coverage or free interfaces on your switch (neither of which is always true for me).

Anyway, I fixed my little Pocket[Space]PC slip up. =]

Anyone else have ideas on how to spice this up a little?

[Aceze]

Been there, done that. Heck, did it with my old Palm III quite a few years ago, and then later with my Casio EM-500 and E-125. You know what? It was easier on the Palm (native serial sync cable on Palm vs using a usb-to-serial adapter, then a serial cable extender on the PPC).

I troubleshoot quite a few 3Com switches, and used to do this quite a bit. However, I've since stopped as doing it with the E-125 is so much of a hassle (carrying around all those cables). Most switches have a web console anyway, so why bother? Then again, I tried that with my E-125 and gave it up anyway, because PIE is so piss poor at rendering multi-framed websites (and this was on an overclocked E-125).

Aceze