Re: Cisco hardware question

["Ricky Beam" <jfbeam () gmail com>]

On Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:16:01 -0500, Kaveh . <afx66 () hotmail com> wrote:
> A) Pre-existing configs: What Tim and Joe mentioned is apparently  
> correct. I was on phone with a few Cisco tech-reps earlier today and  
> they told me that since version 8.2, they have been shipping ASAs with a  
> default configuration, which explains the existence of private IP  
> addresses on the inside interface, etc ... .

The Pix 501 was like that too.  It was usable "out of the box".

...
> I could not find much info on these files, but a simple Google search  
> indicates that these files may be 'recovery files' of Disks operating  
> under Unix/Linux/BSD/etc /... kernel, indicating a dying hard drive.  
> That would be enough to freak me out! Anyone can confirm this?

It's not a "disk", but a CF (256M in your case.)  It's a DOS FAT  
filesystem.  The underlying linux OS runs dosfsck on every boot.  There  
are *lots* of reasons why it would find things to recover.  It's not  
necessarily an indication of Badness(tm).

> C) SmarNet issue: I am a little confused on this. Since this purchase  
> was for NEW equipment, and the devices were shipped by Cisco (at least  
> that is what I read on the box; a Cisco warehouse in TX)...

Not necessarily.  I've seen a lot of boxes that appear to have come  
"direct" from Cisco, however, I know they came from a wholesaler's  
warehouse. (only one came direct from Cisco. from the factory in Malaysia.)