Is This a Conspiracy?

Well... This is not a "conspiracy" per say, but it is a convienent side tact to marginalize those other operating systems. I have a Cisco 678 with Qworst as my line provider and a local ISP. The 678 and the 675 are almost exactly the same, so here's the facts:

First, the Code Red virus is not "infecting" the Cisco routers, just causing many of them to hang. Code Red indiscrimenantly sends out infection attempts to port 80s all over the web. On Windows machines, this exploits a buffer overflow and propagates the virus. On the Cisco's, it causes a different buffer overflow that tends to hang the router, but is not otherwise infectious (completely different CPU/OS architectures). *nix machines just laugh at Code Red and record bad requests for AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA in the web log. Since this is directed at port 80, only Ciscos with an external IP (router/NAT mode as opposed to bridging) and running the web configuration interface (the default setting) are directly vulnerable. (Of course, there are lots of other ways to hang a Cisco.)

Second, now for the upgrade. The PC/Mac only options are just the typical non-support brush off you ought to be used to by now. There is nothing special about upgrading Cisco 67* that requires a Windows machine. Your a Linux user man! Use your prowess and superior techinical ability to do it yourself.

The Cisco upgrade is actually quite easy and is possible thru far more ways than the Windows/Mac utilities allow. Basically, it's just a transfer of the CBOS bin image to the router. The simplest routine is probably (from memory, read the CBOS operating system manual for the exact commands):

DISCLAIMER - Flashing BIOS is inherently dangerous, procede at your risk

But, I've done it myself (twice) with no problems... ;-)

1) Download the CBOS image file (generally name something like 675cbos2.4.3.exe, not the Windows update utility) Follow the links from here for your router models proper image:

http://www.qwest.com/dsl/customerservice/modemsupport.html

2) Unzip the .exe and locate the CBOS bin.

3) Use minicom to connect to the router via the serial port (you must use the serial port).

4) Disable external traffic, NAT, etc. Then set the router for download.

cbos> enable

cbos/ set int wan0 down

cbos/ set tftp enable

--Downloading...

5) Now, in a different term, use a tftp client to upload the new bin image. Something like:

linux> tftp -i 10.0.0.1 put nsrouter.c675.2.4.3.bin

6) Upon transfer completion, your minicom terminal should show something like:

Image downloaded successfully.

Wait a minute or two, the Cisco 67* should flash the new image and then reboot. If it doesn't reboot, but does give you command prompt, do a:

cbos/ reboot

Alot of startup messages later, your Cisco should be up and running the new CBOS version. You'll need to reset your router passwords and check the general config. You can also do new CBOS downloads in lots of other ways, reverse tftp (local tftp server, client from the router), serial modem transfer, etc. Again, read the CBOS manual... there's all sorts of ways to screw-up^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H reconfigure the Cisco 67*.

Adrian

choprboy@hotmail.com

Same deal for flashing a modem or a PC BIOS. It's gotta be That Other Sucky OS. But maybe, in the case of non-BIOS flashing, would WINE work?

As for ISP's, BrightNet in Ohio does have a CSR that speaks Unix/Linux. That was nice when my mother's connection was failing. (Yes, my mother runs Mandrake Linux...)

Phil, were you able to reload the Cisco's OS from Linux?