Sorry, no big changes to TV while you were away. You still cannot control/use the tuner on the server from a client (as much as I wish you could).
As for commercial skipping, MC will not find commercials or create the files needed to skip them on it's own. However, I wrote this post a while back on how to automate the process so you don't need to touch anything after this to get comercial skipping. I have been using it since with NO problems. Some of it doesn't apply/is unnecessary if you don't use WMC to record the shows, but either way, it will get you the .edl files you need and MC seamlessly skips commercials on all my TV, which I LOVE!!
It may look overwhelming or complicated, but it's really very easy, and I think the pictures really help show exactly what needs done, in case you wish to try it yourself. Surprisingly to me, no one ever reported back any success or failure, so I'm not sure how anyone else is getting the files, or if anyone else is even doing commercial skipping.
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67579.0