I use Media Center a lot, and the one thing that bugs me is, every time I add a new film or TV series etc, I have to restart Media Center, restart services, or reboot the entire media PC before I can see them in the list.
After some searching it appears that Media Center uses the same repository/database of media that Windows Media Player uses. There is a convoluted method of stopping services, deleting files and restarting everything that will fix the problem.
However that is a pain, as when I’ve fired up Media Center it’s because I want to watch a film, or listen to some tunes, not start manually messing about with services and deleting cached copies of stuff.
So I wrote a script to do it all for me, and seeing as I couldn’t find one anywhere else, I tarted it up a bit, and made it easy to install. You can launch it from an icon on your desktop, it will stop Media Center, flush the cache, then restart Media Center for you.
Solution
1. First download this zip file and extract the contents to your desktop.
2. From within the ‘Refresh Media Library’ folder double click the install.bat file (this will copy the needed files to your “Program Files” folder and drop the shortcut on your desktop).
3. Whenever you want to update the Media Center Library simply run the script form the shortcut on your desktop.
4. After it’s completed it will launch Media Center for you. Once installed you can safely delete the ‘Refresh Media Library’ folder.
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I was doing some work with PKI and routers today, and after spending ages enrolling all my routers for certificates, I thought I’d save my hard work and return to it later. When I started the project up again, I was less than happy all the devices certificates had ‘Disappeared’!
Solution
This is default behavior, to change this select Edit > Preferences > Dynamips > Locate ‘Automatically clean the working directory’ and DESELECT it > Apply >OK.
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If you have a Cisco router that you have forgotten the password for, or have been given one, or simply bought one from ebay, you may not know the password. In fact many years ago an ISP was going to charge me a ridiculas amount of money to put an entry in a routers routing table, this procedure ‘ahem’ would have allowed to to do it myself, for free, and then reload the router.
Solution
The reason you are able to do this is because of the router’s configuration register, this is the setting that decides how the system boots and how it operates. Usually it’s set to 0x2102 you can see this on a working router by running a ‘show version‘ command.
There are a number of different config register settings;
Configuration Register
Router Behavior
0x102
Ignores break, 9600 console baud
0x1202
1200 baud rate
0x2101
Boots into bootstrap, ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 9600 console baud rate
0x2102
Ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 9600 console baud rate default value for most platforms
0x2120
Boots into ROMmon, 19200 console speed
0x2122
Ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 19200 console baud rate
0x2124
NetBoot, Ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 19200 console speed
0x2142
Ignores break ,Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 9600 console baud rate, Ignores the contents of Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM) (ignores configuration)
0x2902
Ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 4800 console baud rate
0x2922
Ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 38400 console baud rate
0x3122
Ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 57600 console baud rate
0x3902
Ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 2400 console baud rate
0x3922
Ignores break, Boots into ROM if initial boot fails, 115200 console baud rate
The one we are interested in I’ve emboldened above (0x2142), if we can boot the router, without loading the config, we can manually load the config whilst we have administrative access, which means we can do what we like, (including changing the passwords).
1. Connect a console cable to the router and connect to it using some terminal emulation software (like PuTTy)*. Power cycle the router and as it starts to boot press the ‘break’ key (on some keyboards press Ctrl+Break, on others you can simply press the Esc Key. You will know you are successful if the router boots into ROMMON mode. Issue the following commands;
[box]
rommon 1 > confreg 0x2142
rommon 2 > reset
[/box]
*Typically at Baud 9600, 8 bits, 1 Stop Bit, No parity, No flow control.
2. The router will reboot, when prompted select no to not enter the setup dialog. (Don’t panic your config is safe in NVRAM!).
3. Now you can go to enable mode without entering a password, and load the routers startup-configuration into memory.
4. You can at this point make any changes you like, but we are here to change the passwords. On this router I want to reset the enable password, and I protect console access with a username and password, so I want to add a new one for myself. Set the configuration register back to its default setting of 0x2101, save the changes. Then reload the router and make sure you can now get access.
[box]
Petes-Router# configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Petes-Router(config)# enable secret P@ssword123
Petes-Router(config)# username petelong privilege 15 password P@ssword123
Petes-Router(config)# config-register 0x2102
Petes-Router(config)# end
Petes-Router# write memory
Petes-Router# reload
Proceed with reload? [confirm] {Enter}
[/box]
5. And we are in.
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In the example below I’ve reset ALL my tunnels. I had a constant ping running across the VPN, and it only dropped one packet before the tunnel established again.
WARNING: This will reset ALLISAKMPVPN tunnels (both site to site, and client to gateway).
Cisco ASA Reset One VPN Tunnel
1. If you just want to reset one site to site VPN then you need to reset the IPSECSA to the peer (IP Address of the other end of the tunnel). Use the following command;
[box] clear ipsec sa peer X.X.X.X [/box]
Unlike above, in the example below I’ve reset just ONE tunnel. I had a constant ping running across the VPN, and it only dropped one packet before the tunnel established again.
Cisco ASA Check VPN Uptime
Just to prove this isn’t all smoke an mirrors, after the tunnel has re-connected you can check its uptime with the following command;
[box] show vpn-sessiondb detail l2l [/box]
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I’ve only just recently started to work with these, the advantage of them is they are great for SOHO and SMB, and they don’t need additional SSD drives installing.
Note: This also procedure works on the larger ASA5500-X firewalls that have Firepower installed on an internal SSD drive, (i.e. 5512,5515,5525, and 5545 etc.)
While getting them to work with a Sourcefire appliance, I had to ‘bounce’ the module a few times.
Note: the following procedure will not affect traffic flowing through the firewall unless you have your SFR module set to ‘fail-closed’.
Solution
1. First things first, check the status of the module.
[box]
Petes-ASA> enable
Password: *******
Petes-ASA# show module
Mod Card Type Model Serial No.
---- -------------------------------------------- ------------------ -----------
1 ASA 5506-X with FirePOWER services, 8GE, AC, ASA5506 JAD1912XXXX
sfr FirePOWER Services Software Module ASA5506 JAD1912XXXX
Mod MAC Address Range Hw Version Fw Version Sw Version
---- --------------------------------- ------------ ------------ ---------------
1 a46c.2a99.dfbe to a46c.2a99.eeee 1.0 1.1.1 9.3(2)2
sfr a46c.2a99.dfbd to a46c.2a99.ffff N/A N/A 5.4.1-211
Mod SSM Application Name Status SSM Application Version
---- ------------------------------ ---------------- --------------------------
sfr ASA FirePOWER Up 5.4.1-211
Mod Status Data Plane Status Compatibility
---- ------------------ --------------------- -------------
1 Up Sys Not Applicable
sfr Up Up
[/box]
2. To reload the module issue the following command;
3. It usually only takes a couple of minutes but you can use the show module command to keep an eye on it.
[box]
Petes-ASA# show module-----Output removed for the sake of brevity----
Mod Status Data Plane Status Compatibility
---- ------------------ --------------------- -------------
1 Up Sys Not Applicable
sfr Reload Not Applicable-----Output removed for the sake of brevity----
Mod Status Data Plane Status Compatibility
---- ------------------ --------------------- -------------
1 Up Sys Not Applicable
sfr Init Not Applicable
-----Output removed for the sake of brevity----
Mod Status Data Plane Status Compatibility
---- ------------------ --------------------- -------------
1 Up Sys Not Applicable
sfr Up Up
[/box]
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