Access a cnReach N500 radio for which IP address is lost

Access a cnReach N500 radio for which the IP address is lost

OVERVIEW:

If for some reason the IP address of the cnReach radio is forgotten, or the radio becomes inaccessible then following method can be used as an exceptional case to change the IP address of the radio to the desired value by executing CLI commands through serial interface.

CAUSE:

When the user enters the IP address of the cnReach N500 radio and is not able to access it through internet browser.

SOLUTION:

The purpose for this article is to restore access to cnReach radio by executing the CLI commands through serial connection.  The following method demonstrates how to modify the IP address of the cnReach radio through serial connection.

To access radio through serial port:

1. Connect the Serial port of your laptop to Serial port 1 of cnReach N500 radio by using straight ethernet Cat5 cable. Serial to RJ45 adapter and Serial to USB converting cable may be required if your PC does not have a Serial Port available. Following equipment can be used to make a successful Serial connection:

  • cnReach N500 DB-9 to RJ-45 adapter
  • Standard CAT5 Ethernet cable
  • Serial to USB cable

cnReach N500 DB-9 to RJ-45 adapter:

DB-9 to RJ-45 Adapter.png

All the RJ45 ports (2 ethernet and 2 serial) for cnRech have the locking tab facing upwards. Therefore, the pin numbering of the RJ-45 connectors are reversed from right to left.

cnReach uses the EIA/TIA-561 standard for RS-232 signals on the serial RJ-45 Port. For the serial port on the radio configured as RS-232, 4-wire RS-433/RS-485 and 2-Wire RS-485 please consult cnReach N500 User Guide under section “RJ-45 Serial Port Pin Assignment”, which can be accessed at Cambium Networks Software Download website:

https://support.cambiumnetworks.com/files/n500/

2. Open a terminal emulator program such as tera term, Putty or Hyper Terminal and connect to the PC’s COM port. Make sure that you use the same COM port number as connected to the PC. In the example below, COM4 is used to connect. To confirm you may access the Control Panel of the PC. Then click on “Device Manager” and then the “Ports (COM & LPT)”.

COM Port.PNG

3. The serial cable must be connected to the Serial port 1 of cnReach N500 radio, if that’s what is defined in the radio as “login” under Serial --> Local Serial Settings option of the radio as shown below in the screenshot:

4. Click on “Serial” option on your PuTTY window as shown below:

PuTTY.PNG

5. Use Speed (baud rate) as 115200, if that is what is configured at the radio, as shown above.

6. Set the following serial port values:

  • Data bits 8
  • Stop bits 1
  • Parity: None
  • Flow control: None

7. Click “Open” to open PuTTY Serial session

8. Login as username: admin and password: admin

9. Once logged in, enter “?” to get a list of all the available CLI commands

10. At “>” sign, type “cfg” and hit enter

11. Enter “interface vlan1”

12. Enter "IP Address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx   xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" (desired IP address and subnet mask for the radio)

13. Enter “;” (semicolon)

14. Enter “Control D”

15. This will initiate a reboot of the radio. Once the reboot is finished the radio will be configured at desired IP address entered above. You may ping the desired IP address from your PC Command Prompt to observe when the radio is available.

NOTE:

This procedure is only used in case when the access/IP address for the radio is lost and the user does not wish to factory default the radio. This procedure should not be used frequently to avoid human errors.