Using PuTTY for serial connection

I am attempting to enable web-management functionality on my Dell PowerConnect2824.

From what I can tell by reading the manual I need to connect via the serial port to enable web functionality.

I picked up a serial-to-USB adaptor and installed the drivers onto my Windows 7 machine. It now shows up in my Device Manager under Ports, Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM5).

However when I fire up PuTTY and choose 'serial' and enter COM5 the resulting terminal window simply hangs.

The PowerConnect uses VT100 protocol which from what I understand PuTTY recognizes. My serial settings are as follows:

Serial: COM5
Speed: 9600
Data bits: 8
Stop bits: 1
Parity: None
Flow control: XON/XOFF

Solution 1:

Most switches that I have worked with do not use any flow control, so I double checked the Dell PowerConnect and it indeed does not use flow control.

From page 33 of the manual: 9600 baud 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity Set flow control to none Under Properties, select VT100 for Emulation mode

Solution 2:

Try pressing Enter after connecting. As far as I know, there's no way for the device to know when PuTTY opens the serial port; an Enter keypress would serve as a "attention" message and you should receive a reply.