How-to: Use a serial connection to your Netgear ReadyNAS

How To Access the Serial Console of a ReadyNAS

(...forked from [https://gist.github.com/davewongillies/6481138](davewongillies/How-to Use a serial connection to your Netgear), which was forked from [damsteen.nl](http://damsteen.nl/blog/how-to-use-a-serial-connection-to-your-netgear-readynas))

# How To Connect a USB Serial Cable to Your ReadyNAS

*It is possible to connect to a Netgear ReadyNAS using a serial connection.
* A successful serial connection looks and acts exactly like the ttyN connections Linux machines usually offer over SSH, though it may behave more slowly.  

I personally have:
- A [NetGear ReadyNAS NV+ (Infrant based)]()
- A [NetGear Duo RND2000 v2 (Infrant based)]()

## The Problem
After a very long period where it was sitting in a box, I took out my ReadyNAS Duo V2 and plugged it in.  It seemed to start up normally, but I was unable to reach it on my network.  I could not remember what IP address I had given it, but even scanning my entire network IP range did not discover it (192.168.0.N).

## The Answer:  Serial Console Access
Just about every Linux/Unix machine has a serial console available somewhere. 

Usually, this *serial console* is  attached by the kernel to a COM port somewhere.  With older machines, it is often mapped to a physical RS-232 connector (DB-9 or DB-25) physically on the motherboard and assigned the logical name COM1, COM2, COM3 or COM4.  Most of the time nothing needs to be done to activate the tty, it will be activated during boot (there's even a startup message concerning it in Linux).

That's all well and good, but serial communications require a two-sided connection, and that's where things can get a little complicated.  On the other side of the conversation is usually another RS-232 port...or more likely a USB port.

For "old timers" setting up a serial console was a rite of passage in earlier times.  Nowadays, the easiest way to do is just use a USB-to-serial cable.

The USB-to-serial cable I used to connect my laptop to the serial header of the ReadyNAS Duo V2 was a **PL2303TA**.  It comes with a standard USB plug on one end (this connects to your workstation) and four colored wires at the other end, which map to:

```
Color	Purpose
RED     +5V
WHITE   RX
GREEN   TX
BLACK   GND
```

## ReadyNAS NetGear Duo Serial Header Pinout
The serial header on a ReadyNAS Duo V2 is hiding under a sticker located above the USB and Network connectors on the rear of the machine.  The pins are arranged vertically and the PL2303TA connects to it in this order:

```
(top)    +5V -> (Do not connect! Leave RED/5V dangling/unconnected)
(upper)  TX  -> White
(lower)  RX  -> Green
(bottom) GND -> Black
```

With the cable connecting the workstation and the ReadyNAS Duo V2, the last part of the challenge is to use a terminal program to "glue" the two systems together.

The program I used was PuTTY, a freeware terminal program that works just great.

Here's the communication settings I used:

```
Speed        9600
Data bits    8
Stop bits    1
Parity       None
Flow control XON/XOFF
```














When using PuTTY, it is possible you need to hit the 'Enter/Return' key on your keyboard first before you see a login prompt. When using minicom, you may see some garbage in the console first before you press the enter key. After pressing enter you can login with any account you would login with via SSH. If you have problems viewing certain characters, try setting the encoding on UTF-8. 



but it wasn't very clear how to connect to a Netgear ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer Edition, which I have. I guess I'm not the only one who wants to connect to their ReadyNAS, so I'm sharing my knowlegde here :)

The obvious advantages of a serial connection to your ReadyNAS is that you can experiment with network settings without the fear of rendering your NAS inaccessible. I believe it is also possible to recover the firmware in the event an update fails, although I haven't tried this myself.

# Requirements
You will need the following to establish a USB Serial Cable to your ReadyNAS:

* A NetGear ReadyNAS

* A USB-to-RS232 cable, of which there are two popular models:

  *
  
  * 
 
  * [DealExtreme](http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-to-rs232-serial-adapter-cable-94539).
* You also need an RS232 to TTL converter or cable. Also available on [DealExtreme](http://www.dealextreme.com/p/rs232-serial-port-express-card-adapter-blue-black-silver-101467).

* A communications software to mediate the connection.
  * HyperTerminal
  * Minicom
  * PuTTY (preferred)

Connect the cables
===========
First step is of course to connect the cables to your computer and to your ReadyNAS. On the back side of the NAS, you can find a small gray sticker about two centimeters long and half centimeter high. This sticker covers the serial port of the NAS. If you used the RS232-to-TTL cable from DealExtreme, you need to put the cable that comes with it in it. Put the connector without the loose ends into this port. You can put the connector with the loose ends on the converter. Below the sequence is shown how the cables should connect (converter USB side to edge -> NAS reset button to connector).

```
1 ⇨ 1  (TXD)
2 ⇨ 4  (RXD)
3 ⇨ 2
4 ⇨ 3
```
If you count from one side of the connector to the other side, pin 1 on the NAS needs to be mapped to pin 1 on the converter etc. Finally, connect the cable from your computer to the converter.

Set-up the port
===========

You need to set-up the serial port this way:
```
Speed        9600
Data bits    8
Stop bits    1
Parity       None
Flow control XON/XOFF
```
It should now be possible to connect.

When using PuTTY, it is possible you need to hit the 'Enter/Return' key on your keyboard first before you see a login prompt. When using minicom, you may see some garbage in the console first before you press the enter key. After pressing enter you can login with any account you would login with via SSH. If you have problems viewing certain characters, try setting the encoding on UTF-8. 

If you can't get it to work at all, try rebooting both computer and ReadyNAS. If it still doesn't work, try turning the connector on the NAS-side the other way around. Don't hesitate to contact me or comment here if this still doesn't work. :)

There is an old blog post that describes how to [connect to the serial header of an Infrant based ReadyNAS NV](http://debugmo.de/2007/07/running-own-code-on-the-infrant-readynas/)