Dec 4, 20232 min read

Can’t Manage To Get Your Management Port?

A lot of my test equipment has ‘Management’ ports where you can remotely access the tool, pull data, etc. Unfortunately, most of the time the tool needs to sit in a data center where it gets pretty cold after a while, or a wiring closet where the room is typically limited and hot.

The problem I encounter is that the client won’t have an extra ethernet port to connect to. In some cases, if I have a spare switch, and if the customer switch isn’t configured for port security, I’m good to go. Sadly, that is the minority of the cases.

In the ’90s a few clients called me Mr. MacGyver because I would figure things out on the fly. So, I have come up with some creative ‘temporary’ solutions to access your tools.

Powerline; I have used powerline adapters to connect to the tool’s management port and then I use another powerline unit to connect to my computer. This is the easiest solution but only works about 50% of the time in most offices due to a variety of electrical issues, filters, etc.

Wi-Fi; There are 2 options here. One is to connect a wireless access point to the tool’s management port and create an SSID to connect to. I have a few ‘travel’ routers that are super small (the size of a deck of cards), powered via USB or battery, and can be configured as an access point or wireless station. The issue is that you need to be within range. The second option is to use the travel router as a wireless client, configure it as you would your workstation, and now you can connect to the tool from anywhere on the clients’ network.

Just make sure you get the ok from the client’s security team 😉