Powershell command alternative to Telnet for managing router

Question

I need to reboot my wireless router (ZyXEL P-660HN-T1A) at a scheduled time (using task scheduler in Windows 7).
The live and manual telnet command-line version to the task above is this:
```
telnet 192.168.1.1
password: **********
sys reboot
exit
```
Now I want alternatively to use Powershell to automate and script (using probably TcpClient) the above commands and then run that script at the required time with Windows Task Scheduler.

Something to start with here http://poshcode.org/2683 maybe? — David Brabant, Sep 12 '14 at 07:59

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 01 '22 at 13:32

Some time ago I found a proper script here: https://github.com/chrisdee/Scripts/blob/master/PowerShell/Working/telnet/PowerShellTelnetRemoteSession.ps1

## PowerShell: Script To Telnet To Remote Hosts And Run Commands Against Them With Output To A File ##
## Overview: Useful for Telnet connections to Cisco Switches and other devices. Can add additional command strings
## Usage Examples: Add your environment specific details into the parameters below, or include when calling the script:
## ./PowerShellTelnetRemoteSession.ps1 "127.0.0.1" "23" "admin" "password" "term len 0" "en" "enablepassword" "show interface"
param(
    [string] $remoteHost = "",
    [int] $port = 23,
    [string] $username = "",
    [string] $password = "",
    [string] $termlength = "term len 0", #Useful for older consoles that have line display limitations
    [string] $enable = "en", #Useful for appliances like Cisco switches that have an 'enable' command mode
    [string] $enablepassword = "",
    [string] $command1 = "show interface", #You can add additional commands below here with additonal strings if you want
    [int] $commandDelay = 1000
)

[string] $output = ""

## Read output from a remote host
function GetOutput
{
    ## Create a buffer to receive the response
    $buffer = new-object System.Byte[] 1024
    $encoding = new-object System.Text.AsciiEncoding
    $outputBuffer = ""
    $foundMore = $false

    ## Read all the data available from the stream, writing it to the
    ## output buffer when done.
    do
    {
        ## Allow data to buffer for a bit
        start-sleep -m 1000

        ## Read what data is available
        $foundmore = $false

        $stream.ReadTimeout = 1000
        do
        {
            try
            {
                $read = $stream.Read($buffer, 0, 1024)
                if($read -gt 0)
                {
                    $foundmore = $true
                    $outputBuffer += ($encoding.GetString($buffer, 0, $read))
                }
            } catch { $foundMore = $false; $read = 0 }
        } while($read -gt 0)
    } while($foundmore)

    $outputBuffer
}

function Main
{
    ## Open the socket, and connect to the computer on the specified port
    write-host "Connecting to $remoteHost on port $port"
    trap { Write-Error "Could not connect to remote computer: $_"; exit }
    $socket = new-object System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient($remoteHost, $port)
    write-host "Connected. Press ^D followed by [ENTER] to exit.`n"
    $stream = $socket.GetStream()
    $writer = new-object System.IO.StreamWriter $stream

    ## Receive the output that has buffered so far
    $SCRIPT:output += GetOutput
    $writer.WriteLine($username)
    $writer.Flush()
    Start-Sleep -m $commandDelay
    $writer.WriteLine($password)
    $writer.Flush()
    Start-Sleep -m $commandDelay
    $writer.WriteLine($termlength)
    $writer.Flush()
    Start-Sleep -m $commandDelay
    $writer.WriteLine($enable)
    $writer.Flush()
    Start-Sleep -m $commandDelay
    $writer.WriteLine($enablepassword)
    $writer.Flush()
    Start-Sleep -m $commandDelay
    $writer.WriteLine($command1) #Add additional entries below here for additional 'strings' you created above
    $writer.Flush()
    Start-Sleep -m $commandDelay
    $SCRIPT:output += GetOutput

    ## Close the streams
    $writer.Close()
    $stream.Close()
    $output | Out-File ("C:\BoxBuild\$remoteHost.txt") #Change this to suit your environment
}
. Main

You could easily modify the value of $command1 variable to output your required commands. I also removed the $username input and changed the values of $password, $remoteHost, $port to the required ones.

For the part of scheduling the task, after saving the edited script mentioned above, I ran it through a command like the following with the maximum privileges from a Task Scheduler event in windows:

powershell -executionpolicy bypass -file "C:\PowerShellTelnetRemoteSession.ps1"

"-executionpolicy bypass" is so to bypass powershell security for unsigned scripts.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 12 '14 at 12:36

If you use Cisco UCS it has a module for PS management of devices. Not very familiar with it, I just know it exists.

http://blogs.cisco.com/tag/powershell/

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/msft_tools/powertools/ucs_powertool_book/ucs_pwrtool_bkl1.pdf

This guy talks about about some other options too..

http://www.orcsweb.com/blog/james/fun-with-powershell-plink-cisco-ios-and-powershell/

Powershell command alternative to Telnet for managing router

2 Answers2