Hello

We have recently purchased a packetshaper 4500 from ebay. It functions
correctly except that the previous owner was a little over zealous in
clearing the information from it.. and have deleted the basic.cfg.
This file contains the serial number of the unit.. when booting the
box checks this file against the burnt in serial if no match, doesnt
function properly...

Looking through the binary of the rom it seems that it is somehow
possible to make the unit re-create this file (test menu).. vendor
wants to charge $$$$ forcing us to take out a support contract..
anyone know how to re-create this file..

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Clarification of Question by ukfraggle-ga on 08 Jun 2004 07:06 PDT

Ive upped this to $200.. Would like to get a resolution to this asap if possible.

http://support.packeteer.com/documentation/packetguide/6.0.0/nav/tasks/administrative/restore-configuration.htm
says you have to return the unit to the factory if the basic.cfg is
loaded wrong. Since it's a $16,000 unit retail
http://www.nwc.com/1324/1324f33.html, even a nominal 10% standard
service contract wouldn't be unreasonable... I'm guessing you saved at
least that much on ebay. Best bet: contact seller for basic.cfg.

well yes it appears that the box was once $16k, however its now a
discontinued unit, and taking out a support contract is not something
we can afford.

The unit came from bankrupt stock, and company doesnt exist anymore,
flash was wiped and disk was hammered.

Packeteer tell me that its possible to recreate this file on the unit,
but obviously wont do so, which I understand... Hence the question
here.

Since the product arrived non-functional, perhaps at least you could
contact the seller and complain, plus leave negative feedback, unless
the unit was sold explicitly As-Is including indicating that the
configuration was wiped.  Regardless of the original source of the
product, the seller sold you something that was essentially DOA to
you. If you feel this is the case, then talk to the seller about
getting a refund and returning the product.

product was sold as considition unknown, other than the fact that the
memory and p3 cpu had been removed - which I have replaced from a
working unit I have. Incidently I have tried using the basic.cfg from
another 4500, it doesnt work ( correctly anyway, most functions are
disabled due to the mismatch of serial ) .. Im guessing because it
compares the serial number in the basic.cfg to a hardware copy of it
or even the mac address of the onboard nics.

One approach might be if someone knows someone that works for packeteer? 

Ive got another one of these in the same state, so if I can get a
resolution to this I will include a nice tip.

Is the basic.cfg file text or binary? I bet you might be able to copy
the old basic.cfg, and do a hex edit or notepad on it and change the
appropriate information.

basic.cfg is a binary file.. You may be right, however I have searched
it already for references to both the onboard macs and serial number
and came up dry. Its possible that its either compressed, enocded or
encrypted... I know I would if I were them..

The main board is intel, and as far as I can see the unit loads an
absolute file into memory and executes at the beginning.. Im getting
to the point where I might dissassemble this and start prodding
around, I know from a string search in the binary that the box can
re-write /  re-initialise this file. Im guessing they have been lazy
and used standard bios reads/writes, as the host flash is sandisk
based. All this might seem a little extreme but this has now become a
bit of a challange as well as a quest to get a useful box. Im not
trying to get anything for free from the company, these boxes have
already been paid for, im just trying to recover the functionality
that should be there if some fool hadnt  wiped the flash clean without
finding out if that was a good idea first.