Serial Terminal

Document revision 16-Sep-2002
This document applies to the MikroTik RouterOS v2.6

Overview

The /system serial-terminal command is used to communicate with devices and other systems that are connected to router via serial port. The serial terminal may be used to monitor and configure many devices – including modems, network devices, and any device that can be connected to a serial-terminal.

Contents of the Manual

The following topics are covered in this manual:

Installation

The Serial Terminal feature is included in the 'system' package. No installation is needed for this feature.

Hardware Resource Usage

There is no significant resource usage.

Serial Terminal Description

All keyboard input is forwarded to the serial port and all data from the port is output to the connected device. After exiting with "Ctrl-Q", the control signals of the port are lowered. It is not possible to send "Ctrl-Q" key to serial port as it is intercepted and the serial-terminal is closed. The speed and other parameters of serial port may be configured in the /port directory of router console. No terminal translation on printed data is performed. It is possible to get the terminal in an unusable state by outputting sequences of inappropriate control characters or random data. Do not connect to devices at an incorrect speed and avoid dumping binary data.

Serial Terminal Usage

The serial-terminal is invoked with one argument - the name of serial port: 

[admin@MikroTik] system> serial-terminal port=serial0
[Type Ctrl-Q to return to console]

Serial Terminal Examples

Several customers have described situations where the serial-terminal feature would be useful. One situation is described as a mountaintop where a MikroTik wireless installation sits next to equipment that also includes switches and Cisco routers that can not be managed in-band (by telnet through an IP network). Another situation describes a need to monitor weather-reporting equipment through a serial-console. Another situation described a connection to a high-speed microwave modem that needed to be monitored and managed by a serial-console connection. With the serial-terminal feature of the MikroTik, one to thirty-four devices can be monitored and controlled (using serial expansion cards from more than two devices).

The serial-console was tested and found working with:

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