678 with strange problem

[davidis1]

Seems like these midget boxes have strange problems sometimes. Power whent out at my customer's site and now the 678 won't forward a couple of ports anymore. Probably the last guy forgot to write to NVRAM. Easy to fix but the password is lost. Easy to erase the password through the console management port but the port won't talk to any computer that is hooked up to it. Changed cables and quadruple checked the settings of the emulator. OK, maybe the circuit got fried by the power anomaly. That's a long shot. Another thought occured to me.

Could the last guy have disabled the console management port somehow? Beats me.

But what a way to get more billing (albeit terribly dishonest.) Imagine that. Just don't save to NVRAM and then disable the management port and then just keep the password secreted from the customer. Could it be?

 

[fmonteiro]

I have never seen a 678 so excuse me if I am wrong.
First, double check the emulator. I would use Hyper-Terminal, accept all parameters except the speed which must be change to 9600 bps. Connect to the router; make sure you are using the correct COM port. Power cycle the router: do you receive any charcater in the display (ever noise characters) ?
I do not know if it is possible to disable the console port, I believe it is not possible. But, if you receive "noise" characters you may be using a wrong speed. In this case I would change the speed to 1200/2400/4800bps, and test each one at a time.

 

[MWM]

Davidis1:
Are you using the Cisco (round) blue console cable that came with the 678 or are you using the (flat) blue console cable that comes with mainline Cisco units?
They are not the same, I believe. I inadvertently used the round cable on more than one router for hours of frustration before plugging in the standard flat cable, which worked immediately. Look closely. They are not the same, I believe.
Yours,
Mike, RCCD, CCNA

 

[davidis1]

I am using the standard flat cable. It would indeed be sad if Cisco has a different cable for this little DSL router. I will check on this. Thanks.

 

[allteltec]

MWM is right the 678 have there round light blue console cable, that cable is diffrent then the cable you use on the big Cisco units. I work for a isp we use to use the 678 so i have programed a lot of them.
Use 9600,8,n,1 no flow control, You can also dump the memery and get the Pass words if needed.

 

[davidis1]

Does anyone know how the pinout differs from the standard crossover cable? I could make an adapter. At this baud rate it would be hard to goof it up.