Last year I bought an Huawei Matebook D to use at home for light workload like surfing the web (is this term still in use?) and take notes for my blog.

The Matebook replaced my tablet, I preferred an actual laptop over a tablet with a keyboard.

After a year of use I finally decided to install Linux on the laptop. Here I share my experience.

I’ll keep updating this post with new findings.

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OED tools: Pushover

The problem In my last post about Linux at command I talked about notifications on my mobile. In most of my automation scripts I prefer notifications to come to my mobile instead of via email or SMS (really? in 2015?) because: it is always with me I check it thousands times a day (I know you too ;-) ) it is a preferred channel - a specific app just for that The automation There are many notification services available today for free or minimal cost.

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OED Tools: ConzoleZ

The problem As many IT professionals I work quite often on the command line with many command prompts open. Windows lacks a good native command prompt software so usually you see monitors filled with black terminals that are hard to manage and track. The automation ConsoleZ allows multiple tabs and to split tabs vertically or horizontally among with many other features. Get ConsoleZ HERE

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OED Tools: 1Password

The problem Security today is a main concern for every computer user. One of the first problem is how to manage password. I see many creative solutions around: post-it or paper only, use of the same password for all services, a spreadsheet inside an encrypted zip file… none of them appear safe or efficient. The automation I evaluated many password managers and I’m a happy 1Password user for years now. sync options , mobile client, App integrations and team features are awesome and they’ve never been hacked so far.

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OED Tools: NetSetMan

The problem I manage many networks and quite often I work at customer site. For every site I need and IP address, gateway, Wi-Fi network, sometimes proxy, a printer and many other unique network settings. Change IP address on Windows is a process that takes too much time and many clicks. The automation I used to use netsh scripts to do that but it was hard to maintain. The OED solution: NETSETMAN This software allows to change many network parameters, browser proxy, printer, smtp server, run custom scripts and set many other parameters.

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Quick tool: PingInfoView PingInfoView is a small utility that allows you to easily ping multiple host names and IP addresses, and watch the result in one table. It automatically ping to all hosts every number of seconds that you specify, and displays the number of succeed and failed pings, as well as the average ping time. OS: Windows License: freeware ###How I use it

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Log analysis GUI tools

Log analysis is important to both troubleshoot and understand network devices behavior. Tail/less/grep are great tools that can help to filter and search hundreds or thousands lines of logs. If you prefer a GUI there are a couple of alternatives that can fit well. For windows users only Log Expert is a great choice with many features but it is not developed since 2012. Log Expert is a Windows tail program (a GUI replacement for the Unix tail command).

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AutoHotkey

One of the more annoying things of the windows command line is the lack of Shift+Ins to paste the clipboard. A bit of googling made me discover a very useful software called AutoHotkey . While I’m just beginning to use it it proved to be the perfect tool for the job. This simple script allows use Shift+Ins to paste the clipboard content inside the Windows console: #IfWinActive ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass RShift & Ins:: SendInput {Raw}%clipboard% return #IfWinActive I’m sure AutoHotkey will be even more valuable as I learn how to use the advanced functions.

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ifconfig.it

Where the vNic meets the SDN

Network Engineer

Italy