Here is how to turn Raspberry PI with Linksys WUSB100 v2.0 adapter and Raspbian into wireless access point. This might be handy for conference rooms where you have wired connection, but wireless signal is too low. Just quick setup on Raspberry, plugin the cable and you have wireless available.

Install required packages

apt-get install firmware-ralink wireless-tools hostapd bridge-utils

Modify /etc/network/interfaces to add bridge interface

auto lo br0

iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet manual

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual

iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0 wlan0

Once network configuration is modified reboot Raspberry PI.

Create /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf file to define access point configuration

interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
bridge=br0
country_code=PL
ieee80211d=1
ssid=raspb3rry-wifi
hw_mode=g
channel=6
wme_enabled=0
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=raspberry123
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP

Add configuration information to /etc/default/hostapd

That will make hostapd daemon to start automatically each time Raspberry PI will bootup.

DAEMON_CONF="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"

If there is a need to pass specific credentials to Get-WmiObject in order to gather information from remote machine, here is how you can do it:

$LAdmin = "DOMAIN\Administrator"
$LPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString "Password!" -AsPlainText -Force
$Credentials = New-Object -Typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $LAdmin, $LPassword

Once $Credentials object is created you can easily use it to gather information from remote PC:

Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $computername -Class Win32_VideoController -Namespace "root\cimv2" -Credential $Credentials

During mass reainstallation/redeployment/migration of large number of PCs, always question about applications is raised.

How to deploy/deliver applications once all machines are resintalled?

If you have SCCM in the infrastructure, this might help a lot with automation. All you need is mapping between computer name and applications (to be more specific collection ids) and PowerShell console on SCCM server.

Then you just need to prepare input files for the script below and you can automate application deployment on mass scale.

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Just released small app for Windows platform. This app allows to decrypt type 7 password from Cisco devices as well as passwords from Cisco VPN profiles (PCF files).

Password which can be recovered using this app:

• wireless keys fro Cisco access points,
• RADIUS/TACACS shared secrets
• NTP authentication keys
• Enable passwords (NOT enable secrets, which are stored using MD5)
• enc_GroupPwd – VPN group password from PCF file
• enc_UserPassword – VPN user password from PCF file

Application also allows to store password and/or send tchem via email after decryption.

You can find app in Windows Store:

Handy information during pre-deployment checks/validations.