So I don't doubt that most everyone on here has a good-sized coil/mashup of Cisco standard-issue light blue RJ45 to DB9 cable in their bag. Here's how to get rid of that clutter and just use a straight-through CAT5 cable for all your console needs.

First you'll need a DB9 to RJ45 adapter, I got a blank one here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000067RSY/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 $1.80 for a blank adapter, when it comes it will come with the pins out from the DB9 part.

Once you have the adapter you'll need to set the pinout. When you look at the DB9, you'll see numbers for the pins, here's the pinout for a "internal rolled" cable:

2 - Black

3 - Yellow

4 - Brown

5 - Green (could also try red, they are crimped together on the one I took apart)

6 - Orange

7 - White (possibly grey)

8 - Blue

Connect pins FULLY into adapter until they click, twist DB9 plug to shorten cables and seat in adapter, plug USB to Serial adapter and Cat5 in from the Cisco device and you're ready to drop some configs. Hope this helps everyone carry one less thing in their bags. :)

Can they both be used in the same way? I get the pins are different.

crossover cable,

1---3
2---6
3---1
4---7
5---8
6---2
7---4
8---5

rollover cable

1---8
2---7
3---6
4---5
5---4
6---3
7---2
8---1

Thank you.

Having this https://www.adafruit.com/product/954 cable and Windows does recognize it as a ”Profilic USB-to-serial Comm Port”. Can i use it as a Cisco console cable? How to wire RJ45 connector into it?