expect!

Do you need to do a bunch of things to network devices? This only works if you have a stable password instead of some kind of two factor authentication like an RSA token, but if that describes your circumstance, then check out expect, available at http://www.nist.gov/mel/msid/expect.cfm. It's a scripting language for automating stuff. So, for instance, you can write a script to log into routers, modify access lists, change passwords, whatever.

I first used it back in the mid 1990's when I worked in a place that had a training room. The access lists on the routers were different depending on whether the training class was external users or internal users, and we didn't want the external users being able to get to the internal network resources. The solution was to have an expect script that fired off at the end of every day and force the router to have the more secure access list. That way, if the acls had been changed during the day to allow for external users, it would be sure to be set back the way we wanted it.

also, this is my 25th real non-lorem-ipsum blog post. yay!