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Little Known Cisco Troubleshooting Command

indi — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 12:34:55 +0000

There are a lot of commands in the Cisco IOS that you can use for troubleshooting. It depends on what the symptoms are and what networking technology you are using (eg ATM, ethernet, frame relay).

The more common of course are your sh ip int brie, sh run, sh ver, sh controllers etc but there is one that encompasses all of the afore mentioned and more. And even better, it will help you if you need to get help from a colleague or the TAC to solve your problem.

From ‘enable’mode, type in ‘show tech‘ and you will see that quite a long output will be provided (hint: you may want to set ‘term length’ to 0 for this so you cont have to hit the spacebar after each screenful of info. Also log your session so you can save the output).

If you have a look at the output, there is a lot of info there that doesnt make any sense to me, but what you will also see are the result of the more common commands that you would normally use (ie sh run, sh ver etc).

As I said, if you need to reder your problem to someone else, this will be a handy output to provide. Often the TAC will ask for it so it will save time by providing this upfront to them.

Not Enough Server Storage on a Windows XPshare

indi — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:22:29 +0000

Trying to access a shared documents folder over my local network, I came across a window with this error message – not enough server storage? What’s going on here? It’s a fresh install of windows and I had never seen it before.

Fortunately, after a bit of research I found a solution that did actually work, and the PC hasn’t missed a beat since.

The error message can indicate a IRPStackSize bug, and looking at the event log of the machine for an error with ID 2011, is further eveidence of this particular bug.

What is the IRPStackSize? Well, straight from the Microsoft website:

The IRPStackSize parameter specifies the number of stack locations in I/O request packets (IRPs) that are used by Windows 2000 Server, by Windows Server 2003, and by Windows XP. You may have to increase this number for certain transports, for media access control (MAC) drivers, or for file system drivers. Each stack uses 36 bytes of memory for each receive buffer.

I don’t know about you , but I’m still none the wiser

Anyway, let’s get around fixing it…..

Before I go on, my disclaimer: Trying the below is done so at you own risk. I take no responsibility for any problems that may occur. The fix involves a registry change, so if you are not comfortable playing with the registry, get someone that is.

Open up the registry (regedit from the run box), and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\LanmanServer
\Parameters

Look for a parameter called IRPStackSize. Whatever the value is, we need to increase it. From what I’ve read on other sites, a value of between 15 and 25 will work. I tried 16 and it didn’t. 20 did.

if you don’t have a IRPStackSize entry, create one by right clicking in the right hand window, and select new>DWORD value. Call it IRPStackSize (note: case sensitive).

Once done, click on it and enter a value (as a decimel). As you can see, I entered 20 – shown here as 14 in hex:

Once done, close the window and restart the computer and then you should be able to access the share.

What causes the bug? Well I read that programs like Acronis True Image, Seagate Disc Wizard and Symtec Endpoint protection can be the culprits. In my case, I had a fresh install of XP Pro, with Acronis True Image. Fairly easy fix, and as I said earlier, all has been fine since.

I would be interested in other people’s experiences. Please share them below.

Alternative to Synergy to use with Windows 7

indi — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:09:20 +0000

Synergy is a great program to control 2 computers with one mouse and keyboard. But it doesn’t appear to work with Windows 7. Is there any options? Well yes!

I found another program that works well with Windows 7. It’s called Input Director and works quite well – in fact I think better than Synergy does.

It certainly is much easier to configure, where you define a master and slave (in fact you can have many slaves), and can selesct what subnets (or individual hosts) you can accept connections from (on the slave of course).

Incoming search terms:
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Open Source Cisco router?

indi — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:22:13 +0000

I have spent the last 10-15 years working in a predominantly Cisco environment. I think their products are great, but are not cheap. I think it comes down to the old line ‘you get what you pay for’, and Cisco certainly delivers.

That’s at work….. At home I look at alternatives. So when I was looking for open source software/products I found a great open source networking product – Vyatta.

Vyatta is software that runs under a linux base and delivers routing, firewall and VPN functions to the product you have it installed on.

You can get the Vyatta software free (community Edition), but there are paid subscriptions which are for business use. Vyatta also sell networking appliances that have the software on them ready to configure and deploy on your network.

After having a bit of a play with Vyatta myself with the downloadable VMWare image, I must say it doesn’t work too bad. If you have played with a Cisco router, then you’ll find this very easy to configure.

The command set is very similar to Cisco. Viewing the config is a different story, but not too hard to understand if you just take the time to read it.

My recommendation is to try it out yourself, or at least visit the website and read the whitepapers. I’m sure you will find it a very interesting product.

WRT54G history lesson

indi — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:39:25 +0000

I thought I’d do a little research on the Linksys WRT54G wireless router, of which I own two of. I find them to be a very stable and reliable unit.

The WRT54G, WRT54GS, WRT54GL, and WRTSL54GS are popular Wi-Fi router products from Linksys. The devices are capable of sharing Internet connections among several computers via Ethernet and wireless (802.11b/g) data links.

The WRT54G was first released in 2003. The WRT54GS is nearly identical except for additional RAM and SpeedBooster software.

Linksys released the WRT54GL in 2005 to support third-party firmware based on Linux, after the original WRT54G line was switched from Linux to VxWorks, starting with version 5. The WRTSL54GS is similar to the WRT54GS, while adding additional firmware features and a USB 2.0 port (referred to as StorageLink) which can be used for a USB hard disk or flash drive.

The WRT54G is best known for being the first consumer level network device that had its firmware source code released to satisfy the obligations of the GNU GPL (an example and very popular choice being DDWRT). This allows programmers to modify the firmware to change or add functionality to the device.

Later revisions increased the CPU speed to 200 MHz, and the later Linksys firmware overclocks the MIPS processor to 216MHz to resolve stability issues. Both the RAM and flash memory were doubled to 32 MB and 8 MB, respectively, in the WRT54GS, although both quantities were reduced again in later models.

All models come standard with a 4+1 ports network switch (the Internet/WAN port is also in the same switch, but on a different VLAN) and a wireless chipset by Broadcom which provides Wi-Fi connectivity.

The devices have two removable antennas connected through reverse polarity TNC connectors (except WRTSL54GS).

See other posts on this site regarding ‘unbricking’ of the WRT54G – specifically the V5 which I managed to recover back to a usable state.

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Home surveillance with Linux and Zoneminder made easy – Part II

indi — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:29:06 +0000

My last post I gave a quick overview of my hardware (PC, camera and capture card) that I was using on my surveillance system. This post I will explain what OS and software I use.

My operating system of choice for this ‘project’ was SUSE. The initial reason was that learning Linux is (in my opinion) a bit easier because if I got stuck with the command line, I could always fall back (ie cheat) with the GUI which I found quite comfortable to use. Other Linux distros I had difficulty using. I am currently using SUSE 10.2 – a vast improvement over 9.3 which I previously used on another one of my boxes at home.

Next was the software. As I said in my previous post, I had troubles getting windows drivers to work, and when that was sorted out, I could not find any suitable software (for my needs anyway). The PICO2000 software looks like what I was after, but as I wanted to use/learn Linux, I found a great product called Zoneminder.

First looks at Zoneminder indicated that that it was a popular (and free) piece of software, great support and very customizable for your own needs. What the hell – I’ll give it a go.

I first installed Zoneminder a couple of years back all via the CLI – not a problem if you are conversant with the file structure of Linux, TAR etc. But it was a steep learning curve for me. I worked it all out in the end, but an easier way (if you’re using SUSE) is to install the RPM using YaST. Here is the link for the SUSE RPMs. The beauty of doing it via YaST is that it can resolve your dependancies for you, so all the appropriate packages can be installed in one hit.

Anyway, I installed it without too many hassles. Next post I will show you some of the features and my setup.

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Type wrong command, disable dns lookup on Cisco router

indi — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:37:17 +0000

How many times have you typed in the wrong command on a Cisco router, and then have to wait while the DNS lookup times out because the route is trying to resolve that ‘domain’?

Yeah me too. Easy to fix …

Simply enter global configuration mode and type

router(config)# no ip domain-lookup

And the result is no more waiting for the DNS searches to time out.

KVM physical space problem?

indi — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:20:07 +0000

Here’s a brilliant way to save all the room that a KVM switch and related cables take up.

KVM (Keyboard-Video-Mouse) switches are used when you have (for example) 2 PCs and only 1 keyboard, Monitor and Mouse. They allow you to share the use of them by simple hitting a button on the KVM switch or by a special key combination on your PC.

You can buy them quite cheap off Ebay, but I have found a better way to do it – and for free.

In comes Synergy – Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each using it’s own display. No additional hardware is required.

All that is required to use (once configured of course), is to move the mouse off one screen and then it appears on the other. Keyboard control is then assigned to the other PC where your mouse is located.

Synergy is an open source project, and can be found here.

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Eye-Fi Wireless Memory Card

indi — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 02:20:05 +0000

What’s that I hear you say? A memory card that has wireless built in? Sure does.

The Eye-Fi memory card adds wireless support to digital cameras that don’t already have it. Perfect to get rid of those pesky cable that clutter up desks.

It supports automatic wireless uploading to your computer as well as social/blogging based photo sites such as Facebook, Picasa and Gallery2.

It’s very easy to do. Just plug your card in, and configure the wireless from your computer. When Eye-Fi is within wireless range, it will automatically upload your pictures for you. The card also performs like a traditional memory card.

The price is around $99 which is a bit steep, but for the convenience factor alone, is well worth the price.

Router Sim Using Real Cisco IOS Images

indi — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:43:31 +0000

There’s nothing better than a router sim that has the full Cisco command set available to utilise. All of the router sims (up to now) have a stripped down collection of commands to use.

I stumbled on this website a few weeks ago. It’s an open source product that runs on Windows and Linux boxes, and enables you to simulate multiple routers on the one PC. You can even route real traffic out the ethernet interface of your PC, which takes it past the traditional ‘router sim’ that I am used to. The good thing is that this software supports multiple Cisco routers so it would be perfect for a budding CCNA, CCNP.

I have not tried it as yet as I’m building a PC specifically for this, but a friend of mine told me you need a pretty good PC with a Gig of RAM to make it worthwhile. He runs six instances/routers on his PC.

I would be interested in anyone that has tried this and what their thoughts are.