posted October 17, 2006 16:39
Hey people! I have a customer with a flash and are really bad about
letting their mailboxes get full and now they let it get too
full.....It died! I can probably get a new flash card and reprogram but
Isnt there a way to get into the stratagy and erase some files , at
least enough so it will boot up and I can erase messages.I think using
hyper terminal or procomm!!Any other ideas would be appreciated, They
are using alot of chains ,routes and such. Thanks Jayman
Posts: 120 | From: chattanooga,TN | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted October 17, 2006 18:48
Ever thought about setting up auto delete in "XX" days for all messages except the ones in the bosses' mailbox?
That is not solving your "dead" problem, I understand, but a good idea for the future?
-------------------- THE Bunnie, old blond specialist in Rube Goldberg solutions. Posts: 2033 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted October 17, 2006 19:22
I hear ya Bunnie, Ive learned my
lesson in the passed. This company gets hammered with voicemails on the
weekend.Thats why I try to make a point to swing by and keep em
straight.I do have it set to delete in XX days, but they have some
special going on thats attracting allot of call volume this week and I
didn't know about it. Now its too late.I can pro comm in but don't know
what files to delete...Lost my DOS for dummies book!!! Thanks Jayman
Posts: 120 | From: chattanooga,TN | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted October 17, 2006 22:25
There is an easy solution, very large CF cards can be used in the flash or created for the flash.
There are very large hard drive Amandas (some even sitting in my storeroom) that could be used in place of the flash.
Buying your way out of this problem would not be expensive.
-------------------- THE Bunnie, old blond specialist in Rube Goldberg solutions. Posts: 2033 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted October 18, 2006 04:40
I agree with Bunnie, it sounds
like they have not enough voicemail for thier company. Now might be a
good oppurtunity for them to upgrade to a voicemail that can handle
thier call volume with a little more ease.
WR
-------------------- The Rat Posts: 116 | From: St.Petersburg, FL | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted October 20, 2006 15:30
Just to update my situation,The customer didnt like the idea of a new
system athough I agree.They have had the flash for 5 years. I couldnt
figure out how to delete files through procomming in,so I opened it up
and took out the flash card, stuck it in a flash card reader.Was able
to delete 40 or so of the 300 messages.To my amazement it came back to
life and kept all programming,wich was more in depth than I thought.The
on;y good thing that happened today,Its time for a cold one!!
Posts: 120 | From: chattanooga,TN | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by jayman: [QB]I can pro comm in but don't know what files to delete...Lost my DOS for dummies book!!! /QB]
Can
you tell me how to watch the thing boot and get a DOS prompt with
procomm? By mounting the CF card elsewhere I found the comment in
STRATAGY.BAT about removing J4 near the first serial port to get a boot
prompt, but I can't find that jumper anywhere. I don't know what baud
rate to use, either---I tried 2400 since the IVP8 has a 2400bps modem.
I tried 9600 since that's the standard, and also 115200 since PeeCees
sometimes think that's the fastest, but none of those speeds shows any
output for me om com port 1, at any time, from when I plug in the power
until when the thing comes ready.
Also, does someone know how to
copy the contents of a stratagy's CF card onto another CF card of a
different size? I find that XP can see the files on the card no
problem, but I'm not sure how to copy the boot sectors, as would be
done with FORMAT /S or SYS under MS-DOS.
posted January 29, 2009 11:49
Carton, what you're asking for is beyond what we can give you in an
open forum. If anyone would like to give Carton explicit help, please
do so offline with a PM or email. Thanks for your cooperation.
Posts: 1801 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted January 30, 2009 10:47
Interesting. IIUC phonemeister you
are doing the equivalent of asking people not to help me. I've worked
in technical fields all my life and am not accustomed to there being a
limit to the usefulness of help, beyond which it has to be done in
secret.
I'm trying to maintain the one system I own, nothing more.
If I've broken some taboo, I've no idea what it is, but I'd like to learn. Thanks in advance for your basic courtesy.
Posts: 4 | From: NYC | Registered: Jan 2009
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posted January 30, 2009 11:42
carton, It's not that anyone has anything against you personally, if you re-read phonemeister's reply, focus on the two words open forum.
The
moderators of this forum have decided that there are certain things
such as passwords and instructions for entering programming mode are
not to be posted where anonymous readers can view them.
In
telling you how to procomm into the voicemail, we would essentially be
telling anyone with the right google search how to hack into systems
they have no business touching.
As well as copying the CF - I
think the worst that could happen is someone flooding ebay with illegal
copies of Toshiba's software, but who knows what nefarious schemes
could be cooked up if it was easy knowledge to copy & replace
someone elses flash drive.
edit: for more details on posting of
and definition of "privileged information", read the Posting
Instructions thread pinned at the top of the Forum list.
Posts: 87 | From: Wilmington, DE, USA | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted January 30, 2009 11:54
Carton. What phonemeister is
trying to say is that is a general forum for general questions and
basic to middle technical help,the forum is open to everyone, and there
is a saying that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing in the
wrong hands ( would you let a baby drive a car )so that is why
phonemeister has posted a response, everyone here would gladly help you
if they can and will advise you via email or pm. Hope this explains everything.
-------------------- Live Long and Prosper My Friends Posts: 52 | From: Uk | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted January 30, 2009 13:50
It actually is personal, though: if I ask the same question, but
succeed in ``passing'' as a VAR, pretend I'm asking ``for a client'' or
something, I will get help.
As
far as a little knowledge is dangerous, our VAR came out here twice
trying to fix this thing, poking around in the mud with sticks:
deleting full mailboxes and rearranging menus, with no success at all,
until finally they gave up. so we decided it was my turn.
I
put the thing's suspect CF card in my openbsd laptop and copied it onto
some leftover ritz camera CF card I found in a jar with rubber bands
and BIC pens, using a Unix command which replaces unreadable sectors
with zeroes, and now the thing is working, and without having to
reprogram all the menus. It took about 30 minutes. Yes, of course, if
bad sectors were in part of the operating system rather than inside a
message, the thing may fail again, but what the VAR did was neither a
safer fix nor more skilled than what I did. They didn't even root-cause
the problem. They wanted to replace the whole device, costing us more
downtime and losing all the messages.
I also make my living by
helping people solve technical problems. But I'd never dream of sharing
my knowledge only with someone else trying to make money off it, nor
would any of my technical friends. We hold all of our meetings in the
open and are glad to teach anyone who wants to learn, and we find it
difficult to live any other way. Perhaps what we do is more difficult,
and that's why we're fearless. I suppose the process of sweeping a
chimney or polishing a stone floor is also a closely-guarded secret,
but many people would be glad to discuss with you virtual memory pagers
or monads in Haskell. I would prefer you didn't sniff out your own
``kind'' and guard knowledge jealously from outsiders, but if you must,
you've certainly no call to be proud of it.
Someone told me the
contents of the CF includes the device's serial number so they cannot
be swapped between units, presumably to frustrate self-maintenance and
direct more units back to Toshiba Repair, but in any case the software
is useless without the device to run it on, so aside from the fact that
you are not obligated with the powers of a deputy just because you
speculate Toshiba has some oblique interest in their copyright, I'm not
sure how ebay/piracy is threatening to them through the answer to my
questions about procomm and disk formatting.
Furthermore,
there's someone on ebay selling the service I want for $150, right now.
I am not sure that's a problem. If it is, well...answering my question
might mean he gets less business, who knows. But here is what's
certain: NOT answering my question won't make him suddenly cease to
exist!
In my case, I'm trying to put a newer card into the old
device, so I'm not swapping devices and that's why I didn't ask about
the serial number lockdown---it doesn't affect me. I have already
copied the card onto a larger one, and it works, but since it's a
block-for-block copy the filesystem is not expanded. If I could
preserve the boot sector information, I could reformat the filesystem
to the larger size and have 512MB for messages instead of 48MB.
And
the nonsense about procomm being related to hackers is FUD: there is no
physical access to port 1 from outside the telephone closet. Unless you
consider the owner of the device a hacker, which maybe you do.
If
you'd like to know how I recovered a failing CF card in a stratagy
flash, ask me, and I'll tell you, on an open forum. This is not a
default password or anything at all useful for hacking---it's
information useful for someone with physical access trying to repair
his own device.
If you can tell me how to use procomm, or how to
copy the contents of the CF onto a larger card so I have more space for
messages, in public or private, naturally I'd be grateful.
Thanks for your cooperation.
^^^ maybe I should make that my signature.
Posts: 4 | From: NYC | Registered: Jan 2009
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posted January 30, 2009 15:11
If someone wanted to help you they can do it offline. It doesn't matter
if you're a VAR or not. These are the rules. I didn't make them. I just
make sure that they're followed.
Posts: 1801 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted January 30, 2009 16:07
First, yeah they _can_ do it
offline, but you hinted that they might not want to, like there was
something wrong with my question without specifying what.
Second,
what rule? You never said the first time that you were enforcing rules
at all, just sort of hinted something was wrong. When I specifically
asked, a bunch of other people made up excuses, which though they
didn't make much sense to me (hackers? piracy?), they're welcome to do,
but if now you say there are ``rules'' and your ``job'' involved, isn't
it your job to specify which rule, not their job to assume and
appologize?
Third, ``I don't make the rules,'' are you kidding
me? That's obstructionist, authoritarian, irresponsible,
talk-to-the-hand customer-service-rep-ism. If you feel it's your job to
enforce the rules then it's also your job to discuss them and maintain
them.
But, I'm not really expecting to get any help at this
point since of course everyone will now see my question as a
``political'' issue and want to steer well clear of it to avoid
becoming a pariah himself. I basically lost all chance of getting help
after your first obtuse post, and at this point nothing's likely to
happen than my getting ``made an example out of'' in order to keep
everyone else in line, and keep them making nonsensical apologies about
piracy and hackers.
so instead of wishing for help, I'm trying
to point out some of the underlying broken culture that's brought us to
this point. Then maybe I can get stratagy help from some other
gathering of people more similar to the open-source culture I'm
familiar with, though that seems really unlikely. More probably I'll
advise replacing it with something more open, when the time comes, and
thus my successor can avoid being beholden to a mess like this.
Posts: 4 | From: NYC | Registered: Jan 2009
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