I purchased a Cisco 2509 Router to act as a Access Server for my home lab. The first time I powered up the router I could connect to the console without any problems and played with the configuration for some time before powering it off. When I powered on the router the next day to finish my config, I couldn't get the console to respond to any inputs. (i.e, I connect with Hyperterminal and hit enter a couple of times and nothing happens) For troubleshooting purposes I've tried different "known good" cables that I use to connect to my other routers/switches. Im using the following COM settings: "9600 - None - 1 - No Flow Control" same as the other routers/switches. I can power cycle the router and see the boot messages (which are included in the attachment), but it still will not respond to any keyboard inputs even after sitting for 30 minutes. Any ideas on whats wrong or how I can access this router again?
About the config changes, I was trying to set up reverse telnet so I could use the 2509 as my main access server so I wasn't moving the cable around so much. I did not set and IP addresses or passwords, yet.
Please see the attached text file for a dump of the boot messages I see.
The fact that you are seeing the boot messages would seem to verify that you have a correct cable. And also verify that the console speed was not changed. (these are two of the common reasons to have difficulty in accessing the console.)
My first suggestion would be to see if you can access the AUX port on the 2509. You may be able to establish a connection via the AUX, especially if you had configured an enable password. If you can access the AUX port it might be helpful if you post the output of show line 0 (which is the console).
My guess is that you may have stopped the exec process on the console. (Especially if you were trying to set up reverse telnets you may have been configuring no exec on the async ports and may have also configured it on the console). If you are not able to do anything useful via the AUX port then my next suggestion would be to try to do the password recovery process on the 2509. If you get the config-register set to 0x2142 it will boot and ignore the config file. If it lets you in then you could start over again with configuring the router. Be sure not to do "no exec" on the console again, and be sure to set the config-register back to its normal value of 0x2102.