[Chimpmaster]

Hi all,

HOpefully someone here can help me.

I am trying to configure a cisco 761M Isdn router for my g4 imac.

The main issue is that the preferred method is to connect the serial management port via the serial cable to a serial port on a pc, and with that method it is plug and play.

But of course, as an imac owner, i dotn have any legacy ports.

I have secured two rb9-->rj45 adaptors and intend to try and use one to directly connect the management port to my imac via ethernet. Hopefully that works.

But in the meantime, I should be able to configure the device via telnet using the mac osx terminal by simpply telnetting to the ip of the router (possibly requiring a username and pass).

But how do i correctly configure the ip for the router?

Ive tried manually configuring the router ip via the networking interface of the system preferences, ie giving it a dummy ip 192.x.x.x and another dummy ip within the same subnet range for the router itself, but when i try to ping the ip i gave the router, it times out with 3 packets sent 100% packet loss.

I am getting the impression that devices like this have a pre-defined ip, and i would need to know this ip to telnet to the device. Is this correct?

Can anyone help? Is the management port the only option for me? Will that even work?

The cisco manual says that the device is suitable for macs, but there is no installation procedure for a mac.

[techtrucker]

You shouldn't have to use the serial port to manage the router. Telnetting from terminal should work fine, but you do need to know the default IP address and the default username/password. In the case of our Netopia I connect to it like so:

telnet 192.168.1.1

Then enter the username and password.
The other possibility is that it might have a web based interface, which you would access using your browser:

http://192/168.1.1

Try and dig up any docs you might have on that router!

[Chimpmaster]

Yeah unfortunately Ive already been there, done that.

Ive gathered around 6 separate technical documents on this model router and there is NOTHING in there that tells you how to communicate and assign it an ip other than with the pc only software.

I spoke to the guy who sold it to me, and what he actually did was delete the config and settings - effectively formatting the router.

Result --> currently no default ip on the router.

It would appear the only way to assign a default ip is via the serial cable to the management port. Im going to try it at work on my pc, or otherwise using the rj45-->rb9 adaptor that is in the post.

Ill get there eventually, but I dont think cisco should be advising that these products are platform independent when you have to have a serial port to assign an ip to them.....

[techtrucker]

Man, that s*cks! All the routers I've ever tinkered with (DLINK, Linksys, Belkin) have always allowed you in via telnet or http. Maybe you can reset the router (look for a paper clip hole)? Sorry to hear about your troubles...

Steve W

[ghporter]

You should be able to find a USB-serial port adapter, such as this one,. (You can find tons of USB-to-whatever adapters with a not too time consuming search.) Then you simply use the terminal program of your choice to log into the management functions of the router.

It's a sad thing that so many times vendors refer to PCs as if there was nothing in common between them and Macs-there are a jillion things in common! Just not the operating system and some peripherals. In this case, the fact that you don't have any legacy ports is only a minor technical inconvenience, and since you have USB, you don't need to worry about anything but matching your router.

[Chimpmaster]

Ive already ordered a serial --> ethernet converter. Will this work instead of the usb converter?

Its db9-->rj45.