January 6th, 2010 by shiraj

How to troubleshoot a computer with Open Firmware Password enabled If you cannot access the Open Firmware Password application and need to troubleshoot your computer by:* resetting the PRAM * starting up in Single-user mode * starting up in Verbose mode * starting from CD-ROM

Then follow these steps:

1. Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
2. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
3. Press Return.
4. When prompted for your password, enter it and press the Return key. It responds OK.
5. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
6. Press Return.
The computer restarts and you are now be able to reset the PRAM and startup in Single-user mode, Verbose mode, or from CD-ROM.

July 15th, 2009 by shiraj

How to install VNC version 3.3.7 on a remote PC

Introduction:

VNC is a free utility to remotely control another PC, see http://www.realvnc.com for details.

This article assumes that:

1. The remote PC is running Windows 2000, 2003, NT4 or XP Pro
   (XP Home does not have an IPC$ share as far as I know).
2. You have administrative rights to the remote PC.

This article also focuses on loading VNC on a remote PC as a service, not as an application.

Step 1: Install VNC locally and set the password.

Download Real VNC and install it on a local PC (for this article, version 3.3.7 was used).

During the installation process, make sure that you check both:

1. Register VNC Server as a system service
2. Start the VNC system service

Click here for a screen shot.

At the end of the installation process, you will be prompted to set a password.
The password that you set here will later be used to connect the remote PC.

If for some reason you aren’t prompted for the password, run the following from the command line:
“C:\Program Files\RealVNC\WinVNC\winvnc.exe” -defaultsettings

Also run net start from the command line and confirm VNC Server is running as a service

Step 2: Configure VNC on the remote PC using PsExec

PsExec is a freeware tool to execute processes on a remote PC and is needed for this procedure:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/PsExec.mspx

1. Login to the remote PC’s IPC$ share with an administrator account.

If you don’t include the password in plain text, you will be prompted to supply the password (which will not be displayed as plain text).

NET USE \\RemotePC\IPC$ /user:administrator password

2. Copy your local VNC files to the remote PC.

xcopy “C:\Program Files\RealVNC\*.*” “\\RemotePC\C$\Program Files\RealVNC\*.*” /r/i/c/h/k/e

3. Use Regedit to export the local VNC registry settings to the remote PC.

Note: If you prefer you can export the file locally and then copy it.

regedit /e “\\RemotePC\C$\vncdmp.txt” “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL”

4. Use PsExec to import the above registry file on the remote PC.

psexec \\RemotePC -s -i -d %windir%\regedit /s C:\vncdmp.txt

Make sure to use the /s switch with regedit so that confirmation isn’t required on the remote PC.

You are using regedit on the remote PC to perform this command. If the path for regedit is different on the remote PC, use the exact path instead of %windir% (local, not remote environmental variable).

Example: If the local PC is running XP Pro and the remote PC is Windows 2000, use this command:
psexec \\RemotePC -s -i -d C:\Winnt\regedit /s C:\vncdmp.txt

5. Use PsExec to install the remote winvnc service.

psexec \\RemotePC -s -i -d “C:\Program Files\RealVNC\WinVNC\winvnc.exe” -install

6. Use PsExec to start the remote “VNC Server” service.

psexec \\RemotePC -s -i -d net start “VNC Server”

You should now be able to use VNC to control the remote PC.

June 3rd, 2008 by shiraj

http://blog.netnerds.net/2006/04/ribcl-reset-administrator-password-on-ilo/

RIBCL: Reset Administrator Password on iLO
Filed under: Quick Code, Security — Written by Chrissy on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 @ 4:57 am
Last night I got locked out of my Compaq DL360’s iLO. I searched the web to find how to reset the Administrator password and read that, for the most part, I’d have to be at the console. Bah! My servers are in San Jose and I’m up here in San Francisco, I didn’t want to make a trip just to reset my passwords. I continued to look around the web for a solution and found that I could reset the Administrator password (or even add another user with admin privs) using Compaq’s Remote Insight Board Command Language. Apparently, if you are processing RIBCL commands through your given operating sytem so long as you have the rights to login to the server. I logged in as my Windows Domain Admin and performed the following steps (Linux users, you can download the RPM for HPONCFG):

1. I installed SNMP because it was a preprequesite for HP Insight Management Agents.
2. I dowloaded and installed the HP Insight Management Agents.
3. I then downloaded HP Lights-Out Online Configuration Utility.
4. I ran into NTVDM errors trying to run the file so I just used WinRAR to extract the contents into C:\hp\ilo. I also extracted the zip file contained within the initial archive.
5. I then downloaded the HP Lights-Out XML Scripting Sample for Windows (Linux users can download the files in tgz format here or here.) extracted it and found the file I was looking for –

 Administrator_reset_pw.xml

<ribcl VERSION=”2.0″>
<login USER_LOGIN=”Administrator” PASSWORD=”boguspassword”>
  <user_INFO MODE=”write”>
   <mod_USER USER_LOGIN=”Administrator”>
    <password value=”newpass”/>
   </mod_USER>
  </user_INFO>
</login>
</ribcl>
6. Using notepad, I opened up the sample file and modified it slightly. Initially, I just removed the LOGIN and ran the file but HPONCFG gave me a syntax error. I then added it back and gave the Administrator a bogus password. Apparently, the LOGIN line is required for syntax reasons but it is not actually processed.
7. Next, I opened a command line and changed directories to C:\hp\ilo and typed the following:

HPONCFG.exe /f Administrator_reset_pw.xml /l log.txt > output.txt
8. I opened up Firefox, navigated to my iLO machine and viola! I was able to login as Administrator.

If changing Administrator’s password seems too scary, you can also add another user with administrator privileges. You can then login as that user and change the Administrator password via the web console. Use the following code, suited to your liking:

 add_user.xml

<ribcl version=”2.0″>
<login USER_LOGIN=”Administrator” PASSWORD=”boguspass”>
  <user_INFO MODE=”write” >
   <add_USER
    USER_NAME=”Chrissy”
    USER_LOGIN=”Chrissy”
    PASSWORD=”mynewpass”>
     <reset_SERVER_PRIV   value = “Y” />
     <admin_PRIV   value = “Y” />
   </add_USER>
  </user_INFO>
</login>
</ribcl>
Here’s a zip of just hponcfg.exe, add_user.xml, and Administrator_reset_pwd.xml. Since it’s an exe with no apparent supporting files, y ou may be able to just use that.

I see quite a few people have hit this page..if you found it useful, please let me know! If not, drop me a note and I’ll see how I can help.

April 26th, 2008 by shiraj

So you and your friends have a wild party and you wake up in the morning to realize someone has changed the admin password on your beloved mac and you can no longer access your computer. No problem, you can just pop in the OS X DVD that came with your computer and reset the password….but wait, that’s missing too.

Here’s how to reset your OS X password without an OS X CD. You need to enter terminal and create a new admin account:

1. Reboot
2. Hold apple + s down after you hear the chime.
3. When you get text prompt enter in these terminal commands to create a brand new admin account (hitting return after each line):
   • mount -uw /
   • rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
   • shutdown -h now
4. After rebooting you should have a brand new admin account. When you login as the new admin you can simply reset the old account password or delete the old one and you’re good to go again!