Getting Connected

Overview

Necessary Equipment

Connections to an Ecessa device can be made with either an Ethernet cable or a console cable, both of which are included in the box.  If you do not have access to a personal computer (PC) with a serial port a Universal Serial Bus (USB) to serial converter can be used and is available from many technology vendors.

Connecting for the first time

The default configuration of the Ecessa device has a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DCHP) server configured on Port 1.  To connect a PC directly to the Ecessa device a crossover Ethernet cable should be used and DHCP should be enabled for the connection.  When connected your computer will get a DHCP address in the range of 192.168.50.100 to 192.168.50.150.  Once the connection is made use a web browser to go to https://192.168.50.1 and the login page will appear.

Default Credentials

The default user name of an Ecessa device is root and the default password is PWRLNK.  All connection types use the same credentials.  It is highly recommended that you change the default password once the Ecessa device is in a live environment.  Details of changing the password can be found in the User Management article.

Connection Types

Recommended Software

Firefox or Chrome are the recommended browsers to use when accessing the web interface.  Other browsers can be used but not all features may work correctly.  When using Internet Explorer graphs will not display without installing the Adobe SVG Viewer plugin.

For other connection types we recommend the use of PuTTY which is a free client that can be used for SSH, telnet, and serial connections.

HTTP and HTTPS

Using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) allows access to a management interface through a web browser.  Using the web interface, with Firefox or Chrome, is the recommended way to manage your Ecessa device.  Internet Explorer can be used but graphs and charts will not display without a third party plugin.  After your Ecessa device is configured the web interface can be accessed by using any of the configured Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN) Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.  To secure these service see [Configure Services].

SSH and Telnet

Secure Shell (SSH) and telnet will allow you to access a text menu that can be used to configure the Ecessa device.  Not all options are viewable or configurable in the text menu so the web interface should be used when possible.  SSH is more secure than telnet and should be used whenever possible.

Console

The console connection will allow you to access a text menu that can be used to configure the Ecessa device.  This method of connection does not require any networks to be configured and is usually used for initial setup or troubleshooting if other connection methods fail.  To connect plug the included console cable into the port on the Ecessa device labeled “Console”.

The port settings for a console connection are as follows:

When done using the text menu it is best to completely log out before disconnecting.  When connecting to the console, and the user of the previous connection did not log out, it is sometimes necessary to press the Esc key after making the console connection to get the menu to display.

If you have any questions about this Knowledge Base article, contact help@ecessa.com.