The RoarinPenguin Techiezone » Putty-Winscp3

Zeroshell displaying odd characters on serial terminal

RoarinPenguin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:25:57 +0000

I’ve been recently fashioned by Zeroshell project, a very well documented project run by an italian guy who made a splendid job.

I tried to set it up on a VIA based appliance with Intel 1 Ghz processor and 1 Gb RAM, using 1 Gb Compact Flash and the image provided in download section of Zeroshell web site.

Everything went smooth, except that when I booted the appliance the BIOS information was displayed correctly, but as soon as Zeroshell boot started I saw crappy characters on screen.

After some investigation and some good hints from a friend, I found where the problem was and, as usual, here’s a tech note to avoid again this investigation in the future.

The issue was that appliance BIOS was set to redirect console to serial port with settings normally in use: 9600 bps, 8N1

…while Zeroshell defaults in its boot to more performing (but also less “default”) 38400.

To solve, remember to set your serial com port with correct speed as shown below (screenshot from a Win 7 box):

Or change the setting of the Terminal emulation software you are using to match the settings, as shown below (example with Putty):

Once you’re done, Zeroshell screen will appear as shown below:

Tunneling Apps in SSH

RoarinPenguin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:41:24 +0000

Yesterday I found a very handy functionality in Putty: tunneling apps in SSH.

Not that I did not know that this technique exist but for the first time I tried it and worked out of the box.

The idea is to enable tunneling of insecure applications inside an established and authenticated SSH encrypted session, using Putty as a client.

Scenario in my case is that I have few web based appliances at home acting as a media center, a NAS, etc… each of them being manageable by a web based interface on various ports.

I could certainly open destination PAT on my router, but it would increase the risk… and I don’t trust level of security implemented in such systems.

Therefore I’ve done something represented in picture below

How to configure it in Putty? Well, when you launch the session to connect to SSHD Server, check in SSH options – Tunnels.

There you find the chance to add the port forwarding parameters to be set as follows:

Enjoy!

How to export sessions in Putty?

RoarinPenguin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:33:18 +0000

Situation is that I have several (10+) preconfigured sessions in Putty and I need to save them should I need to change PC or reinstall it.

Sessions parameters are stored in Windows Registry under path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions

To export settings to a file use command: regedit /e .reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions

To import settings use command: regedit /s .reg

Also, you might want to save PUTTY.RND, by default sitting in your home directory.