Alliance IT

How to burn an ISO to USB Flash drive for install

bwirth — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 23:24:38 +0000

**********************UPDATE********************
I used flashboot recently to create a windows XP install on a usb flash drive and wow, so much quicker and easier. The demo version is free and worth a download.

http://www.prime-expert.com/flashboot/

I paid the 38 bucks for the full version since I do this all the time, but for a one off just use the demo.
************************************************************

This operation assumes your machine can boot from a USB enabled device. Check your BIOS to make sure.

1. Insert your USB flash drive and enter the following commands:
(please note this list assumes that your USB flash drive will be seen as disk 1. To confirm that it is type “list disk” after you’ve entered the DISKPART command) Otherwise you may wipe a different drive (such as your hard disk drive!)

2. Type:

diskpart
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32
assign
exit
At this point your USB drive is formatted. DO NOT format the drive from within Windows. You MUST have a DVD copy of Vista to copy the source files from.

The final preparation step is to copy the installation files to your flash drive, this can be done by running the following command:
(Please note D: is the drive letter for the source files and E: is the drive letter for your flash drive, if they are different on your system you need to change them accordingly).

Exit DISKPART. Type:

xcopy f:\*.* /s/e/f/h/q h:\

Thats it, configure usb device as primary boot device in your bios and install.

Reset password on Cisco Pix without losing the config

bwirth — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:36:29 +0000

Cisco PIX (500 Series) Password Recovery

If you are locked out of your PIX firewall then you will need to do some password recovery, this procedure will reset the enable password and remove any AAA username and password settings on the PIX.

Note: If you havea PIX 520 (This has a floppy drive, and the process is different) CLICK HERE

Before You Start !

1. You need to know the software version that is running on the PIX e.g 6.3(5) or 7.0(1)

2. You need a TFTP server set up and running CLICK HERE for instructions.

3. You need to be connected to the PIX via its console cable CLICK HERE for instructions.

4. You need to download the “PIX Password Lockout Utility” that’s appripriate for your PIX i.e if your running 6.3(5) download np63.bin, or version 7.0(1) downloadnp70.bin etc, you get get them HERE Put the file in the root directory of your TFTP server.

Procedure

1. Connect to the Firewall via console cable, then power cycle the firewall, as the firewall reboots press BREAK or ESC to interrupt the boot sequence and get to the monitor prompt.

monitor>

2. Now the firewall has no config loaded, so you need to tell it everything it needs to know, firstly we need to set up the inside interface so we can load in the password reset utility. Use the interface command (PIX’s with only two interfaces it will default to the inside interface).

monitor> interface 1
0: i8255X @ PCI(bus:0 dev:17 irq:9 )
1: i8255X @ PCI(bus:0 dev:18 irq:10)

Using 1: i82557 @ PCI(bus:0 dev:18 irq:10), MAC: 0012.daf1.5185
monitor>

3. You need to tell it what its inside IP address is, use the address command.

monitor> address 192.168.1.1
address 192.168.1.1

4. Now you need to give it the IP address of the TFTP server you set up ealier, use the server command.

monitor> server 192.168.1.2
server 192.168.1.2

5. The last thing the PIX needs is the name of the password unlock file for this example I’ll use np63.bin, you will need to use the file command.

monitor> file np63.bin
file np63.bin

6. To start the process, issue the tftp command.

monitor> tftp
tftp np63.bin@192.168.1.2……………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………….
Received 92160 bytes

Cisco Secure PIX Firewall password tool (3.0) #0: Thu Jul 17 08:01:09 PDT 2003
Flash=E28F640J3 @ 0×3000000
BIOS Flash=E28F640J3 @ 0xD8000

7. Confirm by pressing y then {enter}.

Do you wish to erase the passwords? [yn]

8. Confirm by pressing y then {enter} again.

Do you want to remove the commands listed above from the configuration? [yn] y
Passwords and aaa commands have been erased.

Rebooting….

9. The Firewall will reboot and the passwords will be blanked.

Type help or ‘?’ for a list of available commands.
Firewall> en
Password:
firewall#

-Bryan Wirth

AllianceIT

Windows Server 2008 – Terminal Server Fonts Print Incorrect

bwirth — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:29:00 +0000

Recently encountered an issue when printing from a Windows 2008 terminal server (remote desktop) where fonts were incorrect. Times New Roman would change to a sick looking arial, and other fonts would print as garbage. Client was connecting from a Windows XP computer. Here are the details of the resolution.

This issue has been fixed in a QFE released post .Net 3.0 SP1.

To get the fix, please install these versions of .Net

1. Uninstall .Net 3.5 if installed

2. Install .Net 3.0 SP2

3. Install .Net 3.0 SP2 QFE KB946411

Please note: .Net 3.5 will not contain this QFE. You would explicitly need

.Net 3.0 + QFE for this issue to be fixed.

The KB article at MS doesn’t contain the download, they want you to call them for the hotfix, or you can get it here

http://thehotfixshare.net/board/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=9930

I uninstalled .net 3.5 and then installed this hotfix on a workstation, had him test, issue resolved.WQ