So, today is the day that the Windows 7 was released to the public.  If you haven’t already, I highly recommend giving it a shot!

I recently signed up for the Windows 7 Beta Exam, 71-680, which pretty much forced my hand to install Windows 7.  In fact, I went as far as to completely abandon my normal day to day machine, and make Windows 7 my primary workstation.

So far, I’m liking what I’m seeing!  I was able to download the MSDN version on April 30th, so I’ve only had a few days to evaluate the product.  But the buzz phrase everyone seems to be using is “Vista Done Right”, and I tend to agree.  I have to warn you, the task bar will come as a major shock.  And when I was building a Windows 2008 R2 Server lab, one of the first things I did was get rid of the new taskbar, and make it work like older version of Windows.  However, since I’m going to be taking the Windows 7 exam, I’m really approaching Windows 7 as a full blown end user, and enabling and evaluating all of the features with an open mind, but also with the goal of being exam ready.

The OS feels very snappy and polished, and like I mentioned above, the new taskbar is really growing on me.  Expect a video demonstration as soon as I can get around to it.  (Disclaimer:  I’m in the process of completely re-landscaping my house, building a new storage server, re-purposing my old machine as a Hyper-V box, studying for the beta exam, and the CCNA exam, plus I have to get my network completely up and running before Verizon shows up this Saturday to install FIOS)

Here is the design of the new network for the house, which will use several Cisco Switches and routers. And this is just functional portion of the network. I'll be adding a router with a serial WAN link to another router will act as my "lab" portion of the network. :)

CCNA, Cisco, Hyper-V, MSDN, Video, Windows 7

So it’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated the site. I was finally able to crawl out from under this economy and find some work. First of all, a big thank you to a friend of mine that hooked me up with some consulting work. I really thought this was going to get me through a couple more months of job searching. But then, I got a full time job offer. And then, I got another consulting gig. And THEN, I got ANOTHER consulting gig! Needles to say, I’m quite busty.

In addition to that, I’m still trying to find the time to work on the yard, and study for my CCNA. In fact I just purchased my first Cisco router! It’s a SOHO 817W with Advanced IP Services. Basically this thing does just about every single thing the big boys do, just on a smaller scale.

It’s got:

• Switching with VLANs
• WLAN 802.11b/g
• Stateful Inspection Firewall
• IPSec VPNs
• Intrusion Prevention
•  RIP, OSPF, etc…
• Spanning Tree

And the list just goes on and on…  Basically everything I need to study for the CCNA!

Check it out yourself!

 So anyways, hopefully I’ll get caught up and can work on some more tutorial videos.  In fact, I actually have several things I’d like to share.  Maybe I’ll make a few videos setting up the 871W  :)

871W, CCNA, Cisco, jobs, Video