Tips
Recover from IOS Armageddon
Dec 24th
Ok, maybe it’s not that extreme, but losing power to a Cisco router or switch, while performing an IOS upgrade, after you’ve deleted your existing IOS can be a headache. While not a disaster, you can plan on spending about an extra 45 minutes or so to recover. Here’s the lowdown:
Summary
You’ll need to upload a new IOS image using the Xmodem or Ymodem protocol, which is way slower than TFTP or other methods (about 50 times slower!).
What You’ll Need
- Cisco console cable
- Terminal emulator w/Xmodem or Ymodem support
- IOS image of choice
Step 1
Configure the router for the fastest connection possible (115kbps) using the “confreg” command, as shown here. Also, configure the speed of the serial port on the computer that you are connecting to the device with to the same speed.
Step 2
Upload image using a terminal emulator with support for Xmodem or Ymodem. If you’re using Windows XP, you can use hyperterminal in combination with telnet. I prefer to use “SecureCRT“, but if anyone has any other recommendations, don’t be shy to comment. Be prepared for this process to take up to an hour for an 15 MB IOS image. If you’re looking at a couple of hours for the same file size, most likely you don’t have your transfer or serial port speed set correctly (see step 1).
Step 3
Reload router using uploaded IOS image. Don’t forget to change the speed settings on the network device and computer back to the default (9600kbps).
Random Death [Smartphone Annoyances]
Dec 21st
My phone has been suffering from a bad battery and random death. I would keep my phone charging constantly in the car, at work, or at home, then when off the charger for a small period of time, I would notice that it was dead. Totally dead; no charge left. This has left me so completely aggravated that I have started to fantasize about using a BlendTec blender to fix the problem once and for all.
A coworker was nice enough to give me a spare battery they had and it seemed to help a little, but I would set my phone down or put it in my pocket, only to take it out later and it be shut off again!
Well, I’m happy to announce there is a simple fix in the form of a non-technical hack to solve this dilemma……the paper shim!
Simply fold a small piece of paper, or thin cardboard, the size of your cell phone battery and place it between your battery and the battery cover and voila! Problem solved.
Seriously, if you notice on newer smartphone handsets, the manufacturers have started to place small foam pads attached to the battery cover, such as this one on the new Motorola Droid.
Enable WiFi in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
Nov 13th
I recently took the plunge and decided to setup a dual-boot configuration on my laptop. I’m already running Windows 7, which is excellent by the way, but my geekier side has always dreamed of using a linux distribution regularly. Ubuntu is one of the friendliest Linux distros out there, and with all of the buzz that the latest version (Karmic Koala) has been getting, I decided to go for it.
After an extremely smooth (Windows 7 smooth) install, my wired ethernet connection worked right from the start; but not so lucky with my wireless connection; my wireless adapter was not detected during install. If I’m going to use this regulary, my wifi connection HAS TO WORK! I have a basic knowledge of Linux, nowhere near professional or expert, but I figured that with Ubuntu being user-friendly there has to be a fairly easy fix, especially since I am using a Dell because Dell is supposed to be Linux-friendly.
Disclaimer: this worked for my specific setup and has not been tested with other systems, but hopefully the process is general enough to help out others. There are a lot of articles that are more technical, but my goal was to resolve this with making as few changes to the internals of Ubuntu as possible, as well as to avoid making any dumb newbie CLI mistakes that would ruin my install.
My setup:
Dell Latitude D520
Dell WLAN 1390
1. Download Windows drivers for your WLAN adapter, extract to a directory of your choosing
2. Install ‘Windows Wireless Drivers’ (Ndiswrapper driver installation tool) using the new ‘Ubuntu Software Center’
3. Open the tool above (System/Administration/Windows Wireless Drivers) and ‘Install New Driver’ by pointing to the appropriate ‘.inf’ file, which should be located in the directory you extracted your WLAN drivers to from step 1.
4. Download, install, and activate the appropriate proprietary Linux drivers for your WLAN device (System/Preference/Hardware Drivers). In my case, there were no available drivers listed until I followed steps 1-3 above. FYI, the download and install process took a while in my case, just be patient.
5. Connect to your wifi and enjoy!
Got a Virus? Don’t Panic!
Oct 26th
My last post dealt with being proactive and installing a good anti-malware solution that won’t eat up all of your processor cycles. This post will deal with the reactive side:
You suspect you may already have a virus….NOW WHAT?!
How bad your computer is infected will determine what you need to do to get rid of the malware. As far as I’m concerned, there are 3 levels of infection:
- “Peer” Pressure: You may or may not have visited a few questionable websites, whether is was for music, games, or something worse, or downloaded some freebie software using your favorite P2P software, without bothering to configure virus scans. Even good sites can be compromised by a hacker. At this stage, you have probably inadvertently downloaded spyware or a trojan. If left unchecked, you will be well on your way to the next stage (below). Luckily, there are several software packages that can detect and repair malware at this stage. You should scan your entire computer with this software, remove the threats, and repeat until no more threats are found. Here are a few of my favorites, in addition to the software listed in my last post:
- Rooted: At this stage, you probably have had a trojan or rootkit lingering around for a while and it’s invited some buddies, who in turn have invited some of theirs, etc. You’ve also started to have noticeable problems with your computer performance and/or speed issues while browsing the Internet. You can still use the programs above to detect your problems, but they probably won’t be able to get you out of this jam by themselves.
- McAfee Avert Stinger
- Sysinternals Process Explorer
- Sysinternals Autoruns
- VundoFix and other virus-specific tools
For an overview on using the Systernals tools for cleaning malware, check out this great presentation given by Mark Russinovich, creator of the Sysinternals tools.
- Brain Dead: If you’re at this point, chances are you already know it. Your computer is unresponsive, may or may not start correctly, experiencing symptoms that appear hardware related, and generally unusable. While technically you may be able to recover your system intact at this point, it is usually not worth the effort or time. Your best bet is to start over, especially if you already have a good backup of your data. If not, take your computer to your trusted computer professional and have them make a copy of your data and reinstall your operating system.
- Scan drive using alternative OS
- Reformat and reinstall
Know of a tool or application that works better or is easier to use than the ones listed? Share your experience and advice in the comments!
