3Com SuperStack II PS Hub 40 console management

[IBMan]

Hey, I obtained a few of these 24 port managed hubs from my school they were selling them in a rummage sale, I want to learn how to get into the console management program. I do have 2 Serial to Ethernet adapters in case needed for this specific model. I downloaded all the available software for these hubs from this site:

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/result.jsp?selected=all&sort=effdt&order=desc&sku=3C16406-US

if that helps any..

i know you can access the hub via hyperterminal or web browser but my question is, how do i find out the IP address of the hub, if it's not set to the default, and is there any way to reset the hub to mfg's spec so i dont have to put in a password(since they used to belong to the school). If anyone has any idea how to use this please reply with any information. Any information is helpful, I asked the school's network admin and he said he's never worked with these 3com switches so its not much help, there was another admin before him so he doesnt know the IP's or passes either.

thanks for any replies.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Last time I checked, hub's didnt have IP's, however managed hub's may be different.

But a port scanner finds all

 

[Law]

Best chance is for you to use hyperterminal, I don't know much about 3COM devices because I'm more of a Cisco person but best chance is for you to get into the command line interface and erase the current configuration, there has to be like a Rom monitor mode or some safe mode for you to recovery the password. Refer to your manual.

http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/hubs/suprstac/3c16405/manual.a02/16405ug2.pdf

I could have helped you if it was a cisco product but since it's 3com I'll just stay away

 

[urf]

Get tactile. Theres likely a very small button either on the back, side or underside of the hub that you can depress for this. I'm pretty sure you can stroll stright in to a telnet sessions with these monsters - think I've seen superstack on a command prompt before.

Best way to find it's address is to fire up ethereal or the likes (www.ethereal.com) and plug the hub in. Watch your network traffic for new ARP requests. Probly see it fairly quickly. Post the packet capture here if you like.

 

[IBMan]

the user guides did show that the hubs had IP's, i forgot to mention that the console port is actually a 9 pin serial adapter, i have a pair of those ethernet to serial adapters and im not sure if i put one on each end and go from serial to serial to console or use a network card on a computer to connect...

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

If it's labelled console, you need a serial to LAN cable, I got 2 of em kicking around.

 

[IBMan]

thats wat i mean i have one of those adapters that converts the serial to lan and i have lan cables laying around, but how do i access the console with it, do i need to plug my computer into a different hub and plug that lan to serial into the console from that hub/ or do i connect my laptop directly to the console with that or what setup so i need...also i have my laptop connected to a hub with 3 other devices(not all running) and i'll upload the ethereal file.

also it would not pickup any packets(even with the hub on) unless my laptop was reading a file off my server, so i had an MP3 file opened on the server running on my laptop so that it would pickup any packets, otherwise it picked up no packets, the hub im trying to console in is plugged in and turned on... so i dunno wats goin on.

sorry, my ethereal file is too large to upload, i'll get it up on my webserver in a sec...

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

When you conenct them, launch a hyperterminal session, 9600-8-N-1

If 1 stop bit doesnt work, try two

 

[IBMan]

and...how do i do that...thru which port...and thru which connection...serial to serial...ethernet to serial or...

 

[urf]

When you are capturing with ethereal is the capture in promiscuous mode option selected?

What you'd be looking for is the hub announcing itself on the network by attempting to resolve a network name to an IP address - the IP address it would like to use. It would check that the IP is not already in use.

This depends on the hub already having an IP set..

If you don't see this pursue the console option