serial communication

[James Sim]

I'm trying to access one of our remote servers but am having problems making a connection. I have two hpux servers A & B. I'm trying to access Server B, but it doesn't have a network connection. Server A is on the network.

The question is: Can I connect a serial cable from Server A to B and then access Server B remotely? The network card on Server B seems to be the problem.

[George Liu_4]

yes. You may use null modem cable

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can use a crossover cable between two serial ports. But it will NOT allow you to communicate as if the serial cable worked like a LAN cable. You can configure server A to accept a serial login by configuring /etc/inittab and /etc/gettydefs. Then on server B, configure the cu command with the /etc/uucp/Devices and /etc/uucp/Dialers files. Once all that is setup, you can use cu to get a login prompt.

However, I am sure that is not what you want. Making a serial cable work like a network connection is quite complicated. You'll need to configure PPL protocol (see man ppp) along with a handshake crossover cable that provides the expected signals.

It would be much simpler to fix the broken network card.

[James Sim]

The cu command worked well and I was able to remotely log in. Thanks for the quick reply.