Enabling SNMP polling on a Cisco Pix firewall is configuration process that requires a few steps, but can yield valuable information. Getting SNMP from the Pix can include: number of connections, CPU utilization, memory utilization and interface traffic. Configuring SNMP with a community string, indicating the interface and allow this connection via an access-list are the steps involved.

Login to your Cisco Pix and enter configuration mode. You need to enter specify the host IP address of the host or networkingg monitoring station that will be polling the pix, the interface and the community string to be used. The Pix is very specific, all these variable must be correct in order for data to be gathered. The commands are (example commands from a Pix running 7.0 code). SNMP - server host inside 10.1.1.1 community SECRET.

This enables one host to connect and gather data from the Pix using the configured SNMP string. The access-list on the interface 'inside' must be configured to allow this connection. Many inside interfaces simply have an "any any" access list. Whatever interface the polling station comes in to connect on must have an acl entry allowing the communication.
The command for the access-list is: access-list inside extended permit tcp host 10.1.1.1 eq SNMP.

Once SNMP is enabled on the pix and communication is confirmed from the 10.1.1.1 host, you can then walk the pix for snmp data. You can also use MRTG's configmaker to generate a config file for interface traffic graphing of all the interfaces.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Howard

Nowadays, one can do anything on the internet. Whether it is doing research on certain subjects or shopping from home. Everything is possible if you have access to the internet and computer. Most of the people have a computer at their homes. With an increase in the usage of the computer, the problems associated with it are also on a rise. Even if one is very careful while using the system, there are 100% chances that even then they will face some or the other problem at some point in time. The usual routine is to go to a computer repair shop and get the computer repaired. This is the correct solution but it also causes a lot of inconvenience. In today's times, on line computer repairs are becoming the order of the day.

It is one of the best gifts of technology as now one does not have to carry their computer systems all the way to the repair shops to get them repaired for even small problems. And then one had to wait for a long time to get it back. The other thing is that these computer repair services do not cost much. One does not have to spend fortunes for getting one's system repaired. Most of them charge a very minimal amount for removing the virus or the spy ware. Most of the on site computer repairs shops offer the free or fix it policy. This means that they will charge you only if they are able to fix up your system problem. They do not charge anything for consultation. The most common types of problems that are solved by the online repair companies are driver issues, virus and spy ware removal, system tune ups, internet issues and the registry issues.

Though there are many problems that cannot be solved by these computer repairs services for reasons unknown. Issues like booting problem cannot be solved by these repair shops. Neither can they fix the system if a certain part of the computer gets damaged. But since they have the no fix no pay policy, one does not lose any money. So if you are going for online repairing of your computer make sure that the company you have chosen has this policy.

Here are some benefits of the online computer repair services.

* Online tutorials are available for repairing the computer. Though an expert will only fix your system, you can also understand how you can go about fixing your system for a particular problem. It educates you about your system, so that you can yourself minor problems of your system.
* These online services offer excellent customer service. All your system problems whether big or small will be given utmost attention and care.
* You save a lot of your time and energy by getting your computer fixed online. Otherwise you would have to waste a lot of standing in queue and wait for your turn for getting your system problem fixed.
* These services are offered seven days a week. You can avail their remote tech services anytime and from anywhere. You won't have to worry about holiday or breaks.
* Well experienced and qualified technicians are hired to fix up your system problem. They are experts in this field and are absolute professionals. You can completely rely on their expertise.

So it is better to go for these online repair services. It will help you save a lot of your time, energy and money. There are several online sites who offer these services. All you have to do is visit them and see how you can contact them for repair services.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Piter_Smith

When your home PC has decided to opt for early retirement it is usually a madly infuriating situation. You may spend hours trying to figure out what you did wrong. Was it the kick for shutting down without asking? Was it the right jab for asking if you want to shut down when you've just told it to? It was probably neither but inevitably it's time to call in the experts. The question is who and how?

Usually the key questions is whether to call the PC doctor round or whether to unplug everything and take it back to it's birthplace or some other computer hospital on the high street.

Many people think of the PC in much the same way as the family car. They have a garage that they trust and similarly they have a PC shop they trust. But your car is mobile and if the garage hasn't repaired the problem you will know right away. Not so with PC's.

My parents recently took their PC to a repair shop. Unfortunately I wasn't in the country at the time to fix it for them. After 2 weeks the PC was ready along with the $150 bill for replacing the motherboard. When they took it home and assembled it they were quite dismayed to find it still didn't work. After a one day of swapping connectors and calling back to the repairers they got it working. This seems all too common a problem. Many times the fault is incorrectly diagnosed at the shop because the PC fixer only receives the dead box. Changes are made to settings and outputs that are not explained to the customer. When the customer puts it all back together at home all those wires look so similar and they end up in the wrong slot. Next, the PC goes back to the shop where the PC fixer and the customer have an argument regarding the "working" properties of the PC.

In contrast if you call a PC doctor to your house you can talk them through the problem. More importantly they can talk you through the solution and there is no disconnecting of wires and getting covered in dust. The only down side is in trusting a stranger in your home. Luckily almost all PC geeks don't have a dishonest bone in their body and they make enough money to ever be involved in any scams. Most people can judge character over the phone. Ask your friends who they would recommend. Be sure to get an estimate of the total cost for the job within the first 10 minutes of the PC doctor arriving at your house. If they won't commit show them the door.

Speed wise it's almost always quicker to get someone in. Many would argue that the repair shop will be quicker as it stocks the parts. If new parts are required there are so many variables these days that the repair shop is likely to order them in just like the roving PC doctor. Also, the price of parts is changing on a daily basis. It's in no one's interest to carry a large stock of parts.

Furthermore when the PC repair shop tells you that you are "top priority" be under no illusion that this really means "in the pile with everything else". The great benefit of calling someone in is that you know they are working flat out on your problem. You can watch them. If for some weird reason they don't like to be watched then show them the door. The whole point is that you can see what is going on.

How do I know all this? I've worked on both sides of the fence. I currently work as a roving PC doctor in Vancouver, BC but have worked part time in PC repair shops. For the reasons outlined above I wanted to work at people's homes. It's a great feeling when you can walk into someone's home, look at a problem that been driving someone nuts and have it fixed in 20 minutes.

Not all problems are fixable in 20 minutes. I know I might be biased but at least if you have someone round to your house they can show you exactly why it will take longer. If it's at the shop who knows how long the work took and if they used some old parts they had lying around! Happy computing!



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rory_Cain

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a key feature to enable on any cisco network device so you can gather stats and other valuable data from the device. SNMP data can be sent from a failing device indicating trouble, interfaces down, environmental data and simple configuration changes. Contacting a device and pulling data can also provide key data to show health, traffic, errors and state changes of interfaces. No matter the size of the network involved, number of devices or size of the support team - SNMP should be enabled for even simple monitoring.

SNMP needs to have a community string set for read-only access and read-write access. For monitoring and health information, only enable read-only access. A unique community string and access should be configured for your Cisco device. The community string is the password polling devices will use to pull information, and the access list will restrict who can access data. A simple example is:

Cisco router/switch running IOS:
access-list 10 permit 10.1.1.1
SNMP-server community SECRET ro 10

Cisco switch running CatOS:
set SNMP community read-only SECRET
set ip permit enable SNMP

This will enable the router or switch to allow polling requests from any host on access-list 10, using the community string SECRET. Now that access is granted, a variety of information can be pulled, a common place to start is gathering interface traffic. From a monitoring station or software, you can then pull SNMP data from the device by walking the device and revealing information and SNMP OIDs to indicate health, traffic and start to monitor key systems.

An example is walking a device for interface data or using some mrtg unix utilities such as cfgmaker that comes with MRTG to then build a configuration file that gets interface traffic data from the device. If the community string is miss-configured when using cfgmaker or if the router or switch acl doesn't permit your host to connect, a working config file will not be made. Once a successful file is made, you can then use MRTG to poll the router or switch every few minutes, get that SNMP data, then generate logs and graphs showing traffic usage on a per port basis.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Howard