Saturday, December 17, 2011

Automatically Shutdown Windows 7 / XP through Command Prompt

There have been many times where I wish a program would shutdown my computer once it has completed its processes. Unfortunately, some programs do not have this option. The following command which is executed in the command prompt will allow you shutdown windows with also the possibility to restart the OS.

If the following code is copied into your command prompt, it will shutdown the computer at 6:30pm
at 18:30 shutdown -s
To confirm task has been added, just type "at" in the command prompt, and you will see the scheduled tasks. If you would like to remove the job type:
at [id] /delete 
//[id] = replace with the ID number to delete
To restart windows, just add -r command. A prompt can also be given to give notification of upcoming shutdown by adding -c. The command can also be generated to work on certain days of the week. Ex:
at 18:30 /every:T,Th,F shutdown -s -r -c "Computer is going to restart!"
The code above says the computer will restart at 6:30pm every Tuesday through Friday and give the message indicating pc is restarting. Hope this helped! IMPORTANT: If this command is being issued through windows 7, please ensure you run command prompt as Administrator or else you will get "Access Denied".

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Netflix IPad App Instant Play Issue - Solved!

Issue:
I had an issue with playing movies on the Netflix App on the Ipad. I was able to access the site fine, but when it came to playing the movie, it would attempt to load then re-direct me back to movie list. I attempted to fix issues by opening port 80 and 443, reset Netflix App through settings on the Ipad, reset the Ipad's network settings, and restarted Ipad. None of these methods worked. What I did realize was the issue started to happen once I got a new router (Linksys E3000). I then found out about DNSMasq which is some type of DNS forwarder etc. (For more information, here is Wiki) Turns out, my router has this feature enabled by default when I installed DD-WRT. Then I found my problem.

Solution:
Basically, if your router has DNSMasq enabled, it will show your router as the DNS server on the Ipad when you connect. Netflix does not like this. Once you change the DNS address, it should work. You can use either Level3's DNS address 4.2.2.2 or Google's 8.8.8.8. I just went ahead and found out what my ISP's DNS address was and used it.

Some Screenshots showing you where to change DNS address:
1) Go to Settings and you'll see the following:


2) Click on Wifi and you will see a list of Wireless connections around you. Find your network SSID (name) and click on the blue arrow:


3) You'll then see the following. Just tap on DNS and change to either your ISP's DNS server or use Level3's 4.2.2.2 or Google's 8.8.8.8.


Now try to Play a movie and it should work.

Hope this helped you guys out! Enjoy