Change IP in Command Prompt

In Windows, we can issue the following command to set static IP address in Command Prompt:

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" static 192.168.0.10 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.1 1

where the 3 IPs are Machine’s IP, Subnet Mask and Gateway

Or to set dynamic IP:

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

Change File Attribute in Command Prompt

To change file attributes in Windows using Command Prompt:

attrib [+|-][ahsr] filename

Where + means enable the attribute, – means disable the attribute.

a: Archive
h: Hidden
s: System File
r: Read Only

Example:

attrib +sh filename means make the file a hidden system file

attrib -r filename means make the file not read only

Send mail using telnet

Some SMTP server allow you to send anonymous email (or even fake email), by using telnet. Telnet is available in both Windows and Linux.

1. In your command prompt or terminal, issue following command:
   telnet smtp_server port
   smtp_server is either IP address or URL of the server, while port is the SMTP port of the server. The port normally is 25, but the server admin can change it to other number. Following is a example,
   telnet smtp.servername.com 25
2. After login (if success), it will show a 220 something message without any prompt sign. Just type the following command and enter:
   helo domain_name
   domain_name is the host name of the server.
3. Type in following command to set sender’s email address (any address, exists or not exists).
   mail from: sender_email
4. Type in following command to set recipient’s email address.
   rcpt to: recipient_email
5. Type in following command to trigger the starting of a message. This means you can start typing your message after this command.
   data
6. When the message is finished, type . (single dot) to end the message and email will be sent out.
7. Type quit to logoff.

Aware that any typing error (and backspace for correction) might result a command syntax error.

How to install Windows Update through Autopatcher

The usual ways of installing Windows Update is pathetic. Either you are using Automatic Update, or using Windows Update through Internet Explorer, you need to hook your PC to Internet. It is not a big deal but each time you install the update, you need to download the update from Internet and the update cannot be reused. So when you reinstall your PC, or you want to update a few PC, you need to download the updates all over again for each PC. It surely is waste of Internet bandwidth and time.

Autopatcher is a software that can save the updates to your PC and of course install the updates offline in a range version of Windows (2000, XP SP2, XP SP3, 2003 and even Vista). Originally it can be downloaded with the bundle of updates, but until year end 2007, it is banned from releasing such bundle by Microsoft. However the last bundle, Autopatcher August 2007, is still exist on the Internet, and it can be easily googled out.

There are a few methods to start using Autopatcher, but either way you need to download Autopatcher Updater zip file first and extract it to a folder where you want to put your updates (lets called the folder as Autopatcher Folder). Autopatcher Updater is used to download the latest updates from the Internet and update the Autopatcher itself:

1. Straight away run Autopatcher Updater, tick those updates that you want and continue.
2. Or download Autopatcher August 2007 first, extract it to Autopatcher Folder, and put the Autopatcher Updater inside the Autopatcher Folder as well, then run the Autopatcher Updater. The updater will only download those updates which are incomplete or not exist, and so you will not need to download the updates that released before August 2007.
3. Or for Windows XP, install Service Pack 3 before run Autopatcher Updater, then tick the updates for Windows XP SP3 and continue. This way you will not need to download updates that exist in SP3.

After the Autopatcher Updater finished running, you then can execute Autopatcher to install the updates to your PC. Then to update another PC, just copy over the Autopatcher Folder, or share the folder on the LAN, or burn it to a CD (or DVD). No need to download the update or even connect to the Internet. To update the Autopatcher bundle of update, just run Autopatcher Updater again.