[121202] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Default Passwords for World Wide Packets/Lightning Edge Equipment
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (gordon b slater)
Wed Jan 13 02:57:13 2010
X-IP-MAIL-FROM: gordslater@ieee.org
From: gordon b slater <gordslater@ieee.org>
To: Bill Stewart <nonobvious@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <18a5e7cb1001121750u238a8ba4p1ffb373352159d27@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:56:17 +0000
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Reply-To: gordslater@ieee.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
Dymo-style solutions are somewhat lacking when it comes to some complex
boxes.
Equipment configs, mods, firmware versions, etc can all be fitted onto a
nice big sheet that can be slipped back into the rack without much
problem in most <pun> cases </pun>
A nifty solution I often claim to have invented in the last century is
to spray-adhesive an A4 (or equivalent US size) plastic pocket/"punched
pocket" on the TOP face of the equipment before you slide it in, such
that a single piece of A4 just protrudes from the front of the rack when
you use a self-adhesive tab on it's TOP edge.
(the TOP 's above are emphasized, ignore them at your peril; in the
first <pun> case </pun> the plastic will be destroyed the first time the
equipment is de-racked and in the second the tab will pull off easily.
Problems can be prevented by placing two tabs on the paper, one on each
side, exactly over each other.)
The trick, to ensure subsequent re-insertion (which is much harder than
it seems if you don't) is to also firmly stick a tab to the UPPER INSIDE
of the plastic wallet opening. To re-insert, gently lift the plastic tab
up.
All of this takes up under a millimeter and (unless the equipment
designer was drunk) doesn't affect ventilation. On rolling ships,
however, the papers require a bit of insulation tape across adjacent
case-fronts after each use.
/end_stationary_geek_mode
pics off-list on request if that doesn't make sense.
Gord
On Tue, 2010-01-12 at 17:50 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote:
> A password recovery method I've found very frustrating is to use the
> serial number or similar value that's on a label on the bottom of the
> equipment. It's just fine for desktop hardware - but for rack-mounted
> gear, it's not uncommon to find out that you need this information
> *after* somebody's racked and stacked the hardware, and therefore you
> either need to unscrew it (if it was screwed into the rack)
