linksys switches have cisco cli!!

after getting very frustrated with the linksys gui speeds over a vpn i was surprised to find out that linksys switches have a cli that is very very similar to cisco telnet! Suddenly we could see the logs easily and ascertain the issues we were having to fix them.

to access this:

1. logon to the ip of the switch by telnet
2. from the central admin screen type "ctrl z"
3. "?" from this point will show available commands as per cisco, logs will also display - type "lcli"
4. authenticate
5. you are now in and can use ? and tab completion - use "configure" as opposed to "conf t"

windows 7 rtm upgrade surprisingly smooth!

last weekend i upgraded my laptop (vista business) to windows 7 professional. Although it took ages it was a surprisingly good experience. The only problematic software was cisco vpn client (fixed by uninstall/reinstall), and itunes which it warned about (needed to de-authorize before the upgrade). so far (touch wood) i haven't had any issues of any kind. I have been impressed by the new simple look and the new aero interface features. If anything the only annoyance was that i could not upgrade from x32 to x64 which is relatively minor.

I also upgraded my media center pc (ultimate to ultimate) which is where the most (un)noticeable changes have occurred there are some cosmetic changes - everything is a little cleaner and the toolbar access and sidebar gadget is actually useful.

the media center power pack improvements (red button etc) are all there and tuner-free mce works fine. avi's dont fast-forward still which is annoying.

i used to have problems with thumbnail generation in the video's folder which seems to now work fine and in general i would say the main improvement is responsiveness and reliability. All media functions seem reliable whereas in the past i have had many problems with cpu spikes indexing crashes etc etc.

Media center now just works! (apart from avi fast-forward).