1. Download BGInfo and extract the zip file to your %windir%
2. Right click bginfo.exe and select Properties.
3. Select the Security tab.
4. Select Edit to edit the list of Users/Groups for the file.
5. Select Add.
6. Type Authenticated Users into the user object query.
7. Select OK.
8. Give the Authenticated Users group Full Control by selecting the allow checkbox.
9. Select Apply > OK.
10. Launch bginfo.exe
11. Left click on the Time Remaining counter in the top right corner to stop the timer.
12. Setup BGInfo layout as desired.
13. Select File > Save As
14. Save the file as bginfo.bgi in %windir%.
15. Create a directory in %windir% called bginfo
16. Repeat the process of adding the Authenticated Users group and give Full Control to the %windir%\bginfo folder.
17. In BGInfo, select Bitmap > Location > Other Directory
18. Type  %windir%\bginfo\bginfo.bmp
19. Select OK twice.
20. In Windows Explorer, navigate to your start up folder (see below)
21. Place a shortcut to %windir%\bginfo.exe in the Startup folder.
22. Right click on the shortcut to BGInfo in the startup folder
23. change the target of the shortcut to

    %windir%\bginfo.exe /timer:0 /i%windir%\bginfo.bgi

Now bginfo will automatically run and update the wallpaper every time someone logs in.

Startup Folders
Windows 7 C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Windows 2000 C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Are you a power-user with 5 minutes to spare? Do you want a faster internet experience?

Try out namebench. It hunts down the fastest DNS servers available for your computer to use. namebench runs a fair and thorough benchmark using your web browser history, tcpdump output, or standardized datasets in order to provide an individualized recommendation. namebench is completely free and does not modify your system in any way. This project began as a 20% project at Google.

namebench runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and UNIX, and is available with a graphical user interface as well as a command-line interface.

The router continually tries to load a configuration from the network, and displays error messages on the console similar to the %Error opening tftp://255.255.255.255/network-confg (Timed out) message

A router can continually display the log messages because the service config command is enabled on the router.

These error messages usually occur after the router has performed a Cisco IOS  Software upgrade. In the latest version of Cisco IOS Software, the service config command is the default value. Since this is the default value, the service config command line sometimes does not show up in the show run command output.

Resolution

Enter the following commands to resolve. All commands are in bolded text, prompts are non bolded.

Router>en
Router#config terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#no service config
Router(config)#^Z
Router#
00:07:35: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by console
Router#copy running-config startup-config
Destination filename [startup-config]?
Building configuration…
[OK]
Router#
%Error opening tftp://255.255.255.255/ciscortr.cfg (Timed out)
Router#reload
Proceed with reload? [confirm] y

Introduction

This page explains how to recover a Cisco 2600 Series Router and a VG200 stuck in ROMmon (rommon# >prompt).

All commands are in bolded text, prompts are non bolded.

Check Configuration Register Settings

If the router is stuck in ROMmon mode, the first setting that should be checked is the value of the configuration register.

The first four bits of the configuration register comprise the boot field. The value of the boot field defines the source of a default Cisco IOS® software image that will be used to run the router. If the value of the boot field is 0 (configuration register value of XXX0), on startup the system enters and remains in the ROM monitor mode (rommon>), awaiting a user command to boot the system manually. For more information on the software configuration register bit meanings, see Configuring the Software Configuration Register.

If your router keeps entering the ROMmon mode each time the system is restarted, it is probably due to the setting of the configuration register. To verify the configured value of the configuration register, use the confreg command as shown below:

rommon 2 > confreg
Configuration Summary
enabled are:
load rom after netboot fails
console baud: 9600
boot: the ROM Monitor
do you wish to change the configuration? y/n [n]:

As indicated by the output of the confreg command above, the configuration register is set to a value that forces the router to go into the ROMmon mode each time it is reloaded or power-cycled. To make the router boot automatically from a default Cisco IOS software image, change the configuration register value as shown below:

do you wish to change the configuration? y/n [n]: y
enable “diagnostic mode”? y/n [n]: n
enable “use net in IP bcast address”? y/n [n]: n
disable “load rom after netboot fails”? y/n [n]: n
enable “use all zero broadcast”? y/n [n]: n
enable “break/abort has effect”? y/n [n]: n
enable “ignore system config info”? y/n [n]: n
change console baud rate? y/n [n]: n
change the boot characteristics? y/n [n]: y
enter to boot:
0 = ROM Monitor
1 = the boot helper image
2-15 = boot system
[0]: 2
Configuration Summary
enabled are:
load rom after netboot fails
console baud: 9600
boot: image specified by the boot system commands or default to: cisco2-C2600
do you wish to change the configuration? y/n [n]: n
You must reset or power cycle for new config to take effect

By doing this, you have changed the configuration register to a value that makes it look for a valid Cisco IOS software image on startup and boot from the same. The
router must now be reset.

rommon 3 > reset
System Bootstrap, Version 11.3(2)XA4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1999 by cisco Systems, Inc.
TAC:Home:SW:IOS:Specials for info

The router should now reload with a valid Cisco IOS software image.

Look for a Valid Image in Flash

If the configuration register value is set to make the system boot automatically from a default Cisco IOS software image, and if no break signal is sent during start up, the router should boot normally. However, if the router still enters the ROMmon mode, it is probably because the device is unable to locate a valid Cisco IOS software image.

The first thing you need to do then is to look for a valid Cisco IOS software image. To do this, issue the dircommand for each available device, and look for a valid Cisco IOS software image. For example, to look for the IOS in the Flash, use the command shown below.

rommon 1 > dir flash:
File size Checksum File name
5358032 bytes (0x51c1d0) 0x7b16 c2600-i-mz.122-10b.bin
rommon 2 >

Note that if the router returns the “bad device name” message, the device specified probably does not exist. The output above indicates that a valid image is indeed present in the Flash. Try to boot from that image using the boot command.

rommon 2 > boot flash:c2600-i-mz.122-10b.bin
program load complete, entry point: 0×80008000, size: 0x51c0dc
Self decompressing the image : #################################################
##################################
…

The router should now boot with the Cisco IOS software image specified in the boot command. However, there are times when a valid image does not exist on any of the devices or the image on the Flash might be corrupted. In these cases, a valid image has to be downloaded using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) or by using the Xmodem procedure. Both these procedures can be carried out from the ROMmon mode.

Note: There are instances where the system message “Device does not contain a valid magic number” appears. If this happens, in addition to getting a valid Cisco IOS software image, you might need to reseat the Flash or replace it, if it is damaged.

Download using TFTP from ROMmon

This is the fastest way to re-install a new Cisco IOS software image on the router. Go to Using the tftpdnld Command.

Download using Xmodem from ROMmon

You can also download a new Cisco IOS software version through the console port, using Xmodem. Go to Xmodem Console Download Procedure Using ROMmon.

NASA Images was created through a partnership between NASA and the Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library based in San Francisco, to bring public access to NASA’s image, video, and audio collections in a single, searchable resource.

The site contains everything from classic photos to educational programming and HD video, and is growing all the time as we continue to gain both new and archived media from all of NASA’s centers.

Through the development of nasaimages.org we hope to promote education and facilitate scholarship in the math and sciences at all levels, and to build general interest and excitement around space exploration, aeronautics, and astronomy.

For news and updates, visit the NASA Images blog.

The Cisco Feature Navigator allows you to quickly find the right Cisco IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR and CatOS software release for the features you want to run on your network. Shows examples of how to preform various administrative functions depending on what type of router/IOS you are running.

The trick is simple – if you cannot generate ^^ (ASCII code 30), change the escape character. You can change it for the current session with the terminal escape-characterchar exec-level command or permanently with the escape-character char line configuration command. For example, to set the escape character for the current session to ctrl-C, use terminal escape-character 3 command.

By the way, I am posting this because I happen to be interested in United States foreign policy issues.  I personally feel that if the United States did in fact enter Iranian airspace with a UAV, the Iranians have every right to shoot it down.   I get a number of visits from the middle east, but I just wanted to explain why I post articles like this.  I personally feel that the United States is extremely lopsided when it comes to foreign policy in regard to the middle east.  We give nuclear weapons to Israel, but if any other country attempts to obtain the same technology, they are threatened with invasion?

“Iran’s military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran,” Iran’s Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted the unnamed source as saying. “The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces.”

Iran shot down the drone at a time when it is trying to contain foreign reaction to the storming of the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, shortly after London announced that it would impose sanctions on Iran’s central bank in connection with Iran’s controversial nuclear enrichment program. Britain evacuated its diplomatic staff from Iran and expelled Iranian diplomats in London in retaliation, and several other EU members recalled their ambassadors from Tehran. The attack dragged Iran’s relations with Europe to a long-time low.

“The Iranian military’s response to the American spy drone’s violation of our airspace will not be limited to Iran’s borders,” the military source said, without elaborating. The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute.
Iran has dismissed reports of possible US or Israeli plans to strike Iran, warning that it would respond to any such assault by attacking US interests in the Gulf and Israel.

Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by launching hit-and-run strikes in the Gulf and by closing the Strait of Hormuz. About 40 percent of all traded oil leaves the Gulf region through the strategic waterway.
Iran said in July it had shot down an unmanned US spy plane over the holy city of Qom, near its Fordu nuclear site. In related news, Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese website al-Intiqad on Sunday posted what they claim to be pictures of Israeli spy devices that IAF aircraft destroyed on Friday after they had been discovered in southern Lebanon. Two people were injured Friday during an explosion in the southern Lebanese towns of Srifa and Deir Kifa, Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star reported. The report suggested that the explosion may have been caused by an IDF drone, but also speculated that it was a result of a cluster bomb.

Jerusalem has alleged that Iran has heavily armed Hezbollah by transferring weapons through Syria.

Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VBS has ever dealt with.

From the authors: After we went back and forth with their representatives for months, they finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang.

Then, ten days before we were supposed to go, they said, No, nobody can come. Then they said, OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists. We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when you’re supposed to be a tourist you go to jail.

We don’t like jail. And we’re willing to bet we’d hate jail in North Korea. But we went for it. The first leg of the trip was a flight into northern China.

At the airport, the North Korean consulate took our passports and all of our money, then brought us to a restaurant. We were sitting there with our tour group, and suddenly all the other diners left and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs.

We were thinking, Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. We’re jet-lagged. Can we just go to bed? but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you don’t act excited then you’re not going to get your visa.

So we got drunk and jumped up on stage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didn’t get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on.

Observium is an autodiscovering PHP/MySQL/SNMP based network monitoring which includes support for a wide range of network hardware and operating systems including Cisco, Linux, FreeBSD, Juniper, Brocade, Foundry, HP and many more.

Observium has grown out of a lack of easy to configure network monitoring platforms. It is intended to provide a more navigable interface to the health and performance of your network. Its design goals include collecting as much historical data about devices as possible, being completely autodiscovered with little or no manual intervention, and having a very intuitive interface.

Observium is not intended to replace an up/down alerting system, but rather to complement it with an easy to manage, intuitive representation of historical and current performance statistics, configuration visualisation and syslog capture.

Free, Libre, Gratis - Observium is Free Software. This means that you can use and redistribute the software without permission and without paying anything.

Observium supports monitoring of the following metrics: CPU, Memory and Storage statistics. Interface traffic, packet and detailed error statistics. BGP and OSPF statistics. MPLS VPN configuration. Temperature, Fan Speed, Voltage, Amperage, Power, Humidity and Frequency sensors. Detailed IPv4, IPv6, TCP and UDP stack statistics. Users, Processes, Load Average and Uptime statistics. Linux distribution detection. Cisco CEF statistics. Cisco IPSec VPN statistics. Juniper ATM VC statistics. Real-time interface traffic graphing. Device inventory collection. CDP, FDP, EDP, LLDP tracking. PAgP tracking. Interface stack tracking.

Try our Observium Demo!