Configuring a Network Switch via the Serial Interface in Linux

I’ve just purchased a rather nice Netgear FMS726 Layer 2 Managed switch t replace my old D-Link 10/100 hub.

Configuring the switch in Linux using VT100 terminal emulation initially proved difficult using xterm and PuTTY. I then stumbled across minicom and this excellent blog at http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/connect-soekris-single-board-computer-using-minicom.html which explains how to connect serially to a device.