The new Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive is Iomega’s attempt to deliver a cost effective network attached storage device for the home market. The drive connects to your home network and delivers a centralized storage location for all of your digital content across all of your networked devices.

Powering the drive is EMC’s LifeLife Home Software solution which is a custom Linux OS and application suite. After installing the software, users can access files and set permissions using a friendly user interface. Setting up the Home Media Network Hard Drive should be straight-forward and simple. Just plug the drive into the network, power up the drive, and then install the included software. Since the networked drive also acts as a UPnP media server, you can easily share content to DLNA certified networked media players such as the Xbox 360.

Key features of the Home Media Network Hard Drive include:

• Share files between Windows and Apple systems
• Gigabit Ethernet support
• UPnP AV Media Server – compatible with DLNA certified media players
• iTunes Server
• Supports CIFS/SMB, AFP, and HTTP 1.1
• Add additional capacity by connecting external USB hard drives
• Automatic network discovery by Apple Bonjour and Windows Rally devices
• Backup your data using EMC Retrospect HD backup software
• Oxford 810SE chipset with 370MHz CPU and 64MB RAM
• One 7200 RPM SATA HDD
• One USB port
• Built-in Print Server
• Measures 4.92 x 7.83 x 1.57 inches and weighs 2.45 lbs

The Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive will be available this month with the 500GB drive going for $159.99 and the 1TB drive going for $229.99.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Iomega, Home Media Network Hard Drive, NAS, CES 2009

For ASUS, the Intel Atom processor has proven to be a versatile processor for a wide variety of devices. We’ve seen the company introduce netbook systems and all-in-one PC systems based on the Atom processor. Now the company is venturing into the network appliance/network attached storage market with the introduction of the D200. The system is basically designed to be a home server appliance – allowing you to store and serve up files as well as acting as a wireless router. The complete specs include:

• Intel Atom N270 processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 512MB of ROM,
• Total of 2 TB of disk space (spanning two disks) supporting RAID 0,1, JBOD
• Built-in 3.5 inch LCD touch screen
• 802.11m MIMO AP router
• Slot DVD-RW drive
• 6 channel HD audio
• WAN/LAN/Power Recovery/HDD status LED indicator lights
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 4 USB ports, 1 DVI port
• Measures 275 x 98 x 206mm
• Noise output of 28 dB courtesy of a smart fan

Expect the D200 to be available for around $600 dollars – though it’s not clear how much storage space you’ll get for that price.

Technorati Tags: ASUS, D200, NAS, CES 2009

Do you have a need for a high end digital media server with oodles of storage space and the ability to stream lots of content simultaneously? Then check out the newly announced CodexNovus DMS-6000 Digital Media Server. This rack-mount server is capable of storing 6TB of data and delivering up to eight simultaneous 1080p video streams, 12 standard definition video streams, 16 high definition audio streams, or 48 MP3 audio streams to a network of CodexNovus Client players and player/servers.

Main features of the CodexNovus DMS-6000 Digital Media Server include the following:

• Supports resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 and lossless 5.1 and 7.1 digial audio
• 6TB storage space
• Dual Gigabit ports
• Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VC-1, MPEG-4 (FFMPEG, XVID, LIBAVC, DIVX)
• Audio: PCM, MP2, MP3, AC3, AAC, FLAC
• Video: MPG, AVI, TS, M2TS, EVO, VOB
• Audio: MP2, MP3, AC3, WAV, AAC
• Imagery: BMP, PNG, GIF, JPG

For more information, check out the website here.

Technorati Tags: CodexNovus DMS-6000 Digital Media Server

Why store music on a separate hard drive when you can leverage your existing Apple iPod on a network audio server? That’s the premise of the new Creston iServer device – this rack mount unit provides a permanent housing for an iPod and adds Ethernet connectivity which allows it to be integated into a Creston control system.

Simply pop an Apple iPod into the front docking bay and then control music playback through Creston touchpanel devices remotely around the house. Audio and video output from the iServer can be connected to a home theater system or to a multiroom distribution system and the iPod can be synced to a networked PC running iTunes without having to undock the iPod from the iServer.

Here’s a summary of features for the Creston iServer.

• “Made for iPod” network audio server
• Full 2-way touchpanel control of the iPod
• Sync to iTunes over Ethernet
• Buffered audio and video outputs
• Crestron Home CAT5 Balanced AV connectivity
• Plug-and-play integration with Adagio systems
• Single-space 19″ rack-mountable

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Creston iServer, Network Audio Server, Apple iPod

The second tidbit – if you’re an owner of an HP MediaSmart Server, then you’ll be interested to know that Microsoft and HP are planning to hold a series of webcasts (webinars) on how to do more with the HP MediaSmart Server. Topics will range from how to extend the Windows Home Server with Add-ins, to digital photography, and to mobile warriors. The first webinar will take place on June 25th and will feature special guest star Terry Walsh of “We Got Served!”. Check out http://www.windows.com/hpmediasmartwebinar for more information.

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HP showed off the HP EX470/EX475 MediaSmart Server at CES 2008 and announced three new enhancements which will become available in February. These enhancements include:

• Integrated server-side anti-virus software from McAfee for added security both at home and remotely
• Improved media streaming to DMA devices through Packet Video for enhanced experiences such as thumbnail photos and album art
• Support for Microsoft Windows Vista 64 bit OS

For those of you unfamiliar with the MediaSmart Server, this is basically HP’s implementation of the Windows Home Server platform. You can do the following:

• Centrally store and backup all of your files
• Share digital media with other Windows systems on your network
• Automatically backup and protect Windows systems on your network
• 500GB or 1TB capacities
• Powered by AMD Live! 64 bit Sempron processor
• Four internal hard drive bays
• Four USB 2.0 ports
• One eSATA port
• $599 for the 500GB model
• $749 for the 1TB model

Technorati Tags: HP MediaSmart Server EX470/EX475, Windows Home Server, CES 2008

The best way to look at the Vision Series product line is as follows. The VS-100 and VS-200 are all purpose media player/server systems capable of storing, serving, and playing back multimedia (movies, music, photos) content to displays or other networked players. The VC-1 is a networked player which streams content from the Vision servers such as the VS-100/200 and the VX-600. You can deploy multiple VC-1 systems around the home to stream content all over from a central repository. If your storage needs are great, then you opt for the VX-600 which comes with lots of disk space.

Common features of the new Escient 5th generation Vision Series products include:

• All new high definition Escient user interface
• HDMI 1.3 capability and video upscaling to 1080p (for VS-100, VS-200, and VC-1)
• External control capability via Ethernet (for VS-100, VS-200, and VC-1)

Let’s quickly go over the details of the individual products within the Vision Series.

VS-100 and VS-200 Media Server/Player:

• VS-100 comes with dual 500GB drives while the VS-200 provides dual 1TB drives – both feature RAID 1 redundancy
• Plays CDs/DVDs
• Imports Music/Movies
• Automatic disc recognition
• HD user interface
• Stores digital video, audio, and photos on internal hard drive
• External changer support for encrypted DVDs (and CDs)
• Rhapsody Unlimited Music Service
• Steams audio and video to Vision VC-1 networked clients
• HDMI 1.3 In/Out
• Gigabit Ethernet
• USB mouse and keyboard support

VC-1 Media Zone Player

• Networked audio/video player with ability to stream audio and video from Vision servers allowing playback of multimedia content from any room of the home
• Plays DVDs/CDs
• Imports music/movies to VS and VX servers
• Automatic disc recognition
• HD user interface
• Rhapsody Unlimited Music Service
• 1080p video upscaling
• HDMI 1.3
• Gigabit Ethernet
• USB Mouse and Keyboard support

VX-600 Media Server

• Large capacity media server features four 1TB drives in RAID 5 configuration
• Advanced early detection monitoring systems for reliable installations in any networked home
• Expandable network storage for multimedia content
• Delivers simultaneous A/V streams for VS and VC clients
• CIFS file sharing
• Built in rack mount ears
• Hot swapable drives
• Built-in web interface for remote administration and monitoring

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Escient, Vision Series, VS-100, VS-200, VC-1, VX-600

Hush Technologies is now selling a Windows Home Server based product called the HUSH HS1 Home Server and Storage system. Similar in design to other Hush computer systems, the HS1 is the first fan-less Hush Server product for the home. With the HS1, you’ll be able to centrally store and access all of your family data – everything from music to photos to documents to videos.

I’ve always been a fan of Hush Technologies systems – especially the ones designed for Home Theater PC usage. Let’s face it – these systems don’t look like computers at all – rather they look like standard A/V components.

Features of the Hush HS1 Home Server include the following:

• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• RAID controller with support for RAID 0/1
• High quality aluminum case available in silver or black
• Measures 430 x 342 x 74 mm
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 2×250GB RAID1 up to 2×1TB RAID 1
• Windows Home Server with 10 client license

The price for the above system (500GB of HDD space) is $1329.88.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Hush Technologies, HS1 Home Server, Windows Home Server

MediaSmart will be available in two versions – a 500GB version for $599 and a 1TB version for $749. Other companies due to come out with products include:

• Fujitsu Siemens with the SCALEO Home Server 1900
• Iomega with their HomeCenter Server which includes a 500GB HDD and four easy-swap drive bays
• Life|ware Life|storage
• MAXDATA Belinea o.center
• Medion Home Server with up to 2TB of storage

If you’re not in the mood to purchase a pre-built system, you can always roll your own Windows Home Server as the OEM version of the OS is now available for purchase at many online software retailers such as Newegg. Finally, Microsoft announced that more than 35 add-in programs have been created for the Windows Home Server platform. Solutions cover areas such as personal blogging, media sharing, home security, home automation, virus protection, and malware protection.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server, Microsoft, HP, MediaSmart Server,

The NS04-3100 features four internal SATA drive bays and supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and JBOD across all the drives. User’s can select the required level of data integrity for their own needs.

Features of the Lanner NS04-3100 include:

• Marvel 88F5281 processor for 30+ MBps read performance with minimal power draw
• DHCP and FTP server support
• UPnP AV and iTunes server support
• Supports Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Linux, and Mac OS X
• System back and restore functionality through optional software package for business oriented clients

Lanner expects volume shipments of the NS04-3100 to begin in September.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Lanner Electronics, NS04-3100, Media Server

While I’m still on the topic of Windows Home Server, I wanted to mention that I came across the HP MediaSmart Server product page here on the HP website. The HP MediaSmart Server was the system on display at CES 2007 earlier this year and will be one of the first WHS systems to come out shortly. The product page has probably been up for some time but this was the first time that I actually went looking for it. Here’s what we know about the machine from the page (most of this is actually WHS software specific):

• Create up to 10 user accounts
• Set up your own personal web address to allow file access remotely
• Add photos to HP Photo Webshare and easily share photos with friends and family. There’s a link to Snapfish for easy photo printing
• Backup computers on the network
• Expansion capacity up to 6TB using 750GB hard drives
• Four drive bays
• Four USB 2.0 ports
• AMD processor inside

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: HP MediaSmart Server, Windows Home Server

Welcome to part 2 of our look into the Windows Home Server Release Candidate 1 platform. In Part 1 of our series, I took a look at what it took to setup and install Windows Home Server (WHS). The system used for our WHS setup was an old Shuttle XPC system with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of RAM, and a lone 120GB hard drive. Installing WHS was fairly a straightforward process but getting the server up and running was just one step in the overall process. The next step is to get WHS ready for use by computers on a network and deploying the Windows Home Server Connector software on networked PCs. WHS’s main purpose is to provide a central location for all of your digital content – whether it’s multimedia or otherwise. In addition to offering a central file server, Windows Home Server is capable of monitoring the health of networked PCs as well as backing up the data on the systems. Thus to get things going, we’re going to take a look at the Windows Home Server Connector software, what it takes to maintain and administer WHS,  what it takes to set up users, share files, and backup your systems.

Getting Started – Installing the Windows Home Server Connector Software

So we have Windows Home Server up and running. What’s next? Get your networked computers connected to WHS. To get things going, you need to install the Windows Home Server Connector Software. You don’t need to do this if you simply want to access shared folders on your Windows Home Server. You can always access the shared folders by navigating to your WHS via UNC notation and accessing the shared folder names directly (assuming you also know the user accounts that have rights on the machine).  Of course – if no user accounts have been set up on Windows Home Server to begin with, then you should install the Windows Home Server Connector software (otherwise you’ll need to do administrative work right on the server itself). 

So what does this all mean exactly? Think of Windows Home Server Connector Software as a combination remote administration tool (a.k.a.remote desktop!) for Windows Home Server as well as a client application for monitoring and backing up networked and connected PCs. The Connector software allows users to remotely administer Home Server from anywhere on the home network – as long as they know the administrator password. Once in, you can monitor the health of the connected PCs on the network, create backup schedules of connected PCs, kick off backups of remote PCs, create or delete user accounts, create, monitor, or delete shared folders on the server, monitor the health of the server, and monitor server settings such as upgrades, remote administration etc.

Again – you do not need to have Connector installed on a PC on your network IF you simply want to access a shared folder on the WHS.

As I mentioned in Part 1, WHS comes in three discs. They are:

• Windows Home Server Installation DVD – use this DVD to install Windows Home Server on a computer
• Windows Home Server Connector Software CD – use this CD to install the Windows Home Server Connector Software
• Windows Home Server Home Computer Restore CD – use this CD to restore a home computer from a backup located on a Windows Home Server

You can also install the WHS Connector Software via the WHS system. Your WHS system will have a shared folder called “Software” where you will find three subdirectories initially setup. These include:

• “Add-ins” – This directory is used to install third party add-in software on a Windows Home Server system
• “Home PC Restore CD” - This directory contains the image CD that can be used to restore a backup to a PC
• “Home Server Connector Software” – This directory contains the Connector software

Let’s quickly run through the Windows Home Server Connector software setup process.

Here are the contents to the Home Server Connector Software:

Windows Home Server Connector software is installed on any computer that you want WHS to monitor and backup. For my test setup, I am running Connector on an older IBM ThinkPad notebook. Doubleclick on the “setup” executable and you’ll see the following dialog box.

Setup is painless – just agree to the EULA and watch it go.

Before the setup is finished, Connector will ask you for the Windows Home Server administrator password.

Once the password is provided, your computer will be added to Windows Home Server. Computer backup is initially configured for the system also.

That’s it!

Windows Home Server Connector up and running…

Once you have Windows Home Server Connector installed on your PC, you’ll see the Windows Home Server tray icon added to your system task tray as shown here:

The WHS tray icon shows you the current health and status of Windows Home Server as well as your connected home computers. According to Microsoft, this icon includes notifications about:

• User account password mismatches
• Software upgrades
• Backup status

Right click the tray icon and you’ll quickly gain access to the Windows Home Server Connector software.

Here are the five colors to the WHS tray icon:

 This indicates a healthy network

 This indicates that you have an issue that you should attend to soon

 This indicates you have an issue or a set of issues you must attend to immediately

 This means a backup is in progress

This means your computer can not contact Windows Home Server

Since this was the first system that I installed the Windows Home Server Connector software on (and I hadn’t looked at my WHS in several weeks), I had to address several issues right from the get go. 

The initial issues that I ran into included:

• Setting up a user account that matches the user account on my computer (notice the balloon warning that says Windows Home Server does not recognize your user account)
• Updating my malware protection (anti-virus and spyware software needed updates on my computer)
• Installing the latest updates on Windows Home Server

The third bullet is an important aspect to Windows Home Server. It alludes to the remote administration capabilities of the Windows Home Server Connector software. As I mentioned in Part 1, once you have WHS installed, you can disconnect your monitor, keyboard, and mouse because you won’t (ideally) be needing them anymore.

In order to remotely administer the Windows Home Server, you need to kick off the Windows Home Server Console. You can either doubleclick the system tray icon or you can right click the icon and select the Console from there. Once you do this, you’ll see the following show up on your screen:

In order to administer the Windows Home Server from the Console, you’ll need to know the administrator password to the machine. Enter it here and you’ll enter the Console. The WHS Console allows you to access the following major topics:

• Computers and Backup – see the PCs connected to WHS. Monitor the health of the PCs and administer backups
• User Accounts – administer user accounts on WHS
• Shared Folders – administer shared folders and user rights for folders stored on WHS
• Server Storage – administer the hard drives on the WHS
• Network Status – check the current status of the Windows Home Server network
• Settings – administer Windows Home Server

Computers and Backup

One of the key features of Windows Home Server is the ability for the system to remotely monitor and backup the computers on the home network. When you click on the “Computers & Backup” tab from within the WHS Console, you’ll see all the systems with Windows Home Server Connector software installed. Each connected PC will have their current state displayed here. The snapshot shown here displays only one system which happens to be my guinea pig notebook. Now if you did have multiple systems here, you would select a system you want to work with and then click on one of the various buttons above in the toolbar.

The toolbar has the following buttons:

• View backups
• Backup Now
• Configure Backup
• Remove Computer

Select “View backups” and you’ll see a list of backups made of the system (which there are none at this time)

You can select “Backup Now” to manually backup your computer to Windows Home Server at this moment in time. I’ll go ahead and show you in action with my notebook system.

Once you’ve clicked on “Backup Now”, you’re asked to provide a name to the backup. Select “Backup Now” to begin the remote backup. Your system tray will notify you that a backup has begun:

and that’s it – backup is working in the background. If you visit the Windows Home Server Console, you’ll see the status of the remote backup which is currently at six percent. Note – I’m backing up this notebook of mine over a wireless network.

You can also see your progress by hovering over the tray icon:

Windows Home Server took approximately 4+ hours to back up my entire notebook system over a wireless connection for the very first time. Subsequent backups are much faster since they’re incremental backups. Note – my test notebook is extremely bare – with only 14GB of disk space consumed. This translates to roughly 6.2 GB of space consumed on WHS for backup purposes.

I can now go back to the WHS Console, select the backed up computer and view the backup.

Here you’ll see the backup I just manually performed. Click on the details button and you’ll get additional information.

You can select the backup and even open it up to restore specific files or directories. The first time this is done, a device driver is installed on the PC which allows the opened backup image to appear as a mounted network drive.  Here’s the opened backup mounted automatically as drive Z. Notice how the drive looks like any other drive under Windows Explorer.

If you want to pre-configure your notebooks for automatic backup, you can select the “Configure Backup” button on the toolbar. This will bring up the following wizard driven interface.

Click next, and WHS will collect information about the selected computer on the network:

You’ll see the drives that WHS can back up. Note – it can only back up NTFS drives – No FAT32 formatted drives. WHS will then display the folders that will not be backed up.

The configured backup will take place between 12am and 6am (You can modify this within the Settings section). The final confirmation dialog box looks as follows:

User Accounts

If this is the very first time you’re installing Windows Home Server Connector software on a PC, then chances are, there are no additional user accounts on the Windows Home Server other than the administrator and the Guest account. To get things going, we will need to create an account that ideally matches the account on the computer that has Windows Home Server Connector software installed. It’s best that the username and the passwords match so you don’t have to provide the passwords when you’re trying to access a folder on WHS but it’s really up to you.

To add a new user, click on the “Add” button in the toolbar. You’re then presented with the following dialog box.

If you want to allow this user to remotely access the Windows Home Server over the Internet, then check off the “Enable Remote Access for this user”. More on remote access later on.

The next step is to pick a password for the user.

Finally, you need to assign user rights to the shared folders on Windows Home Server. The new user can either have Full, Read, or No access to each shared folder on the server.

WHS will display the following dialog after you click ”Finish”.

Shared Folders

For those of you new to the concept of file servers – the “Shared Folders” is essentially the heart of Windows Home Server. It is through this feature that allows you to centrally store files on the WHS. Files stored here can then be accessed by any networked PC and even over the Internet.

Click on the “Shared Folders” tab and you’ll see all the folders available on the Windows Home Server. WHS creates a set of default shared folders including:

• Music
• Photos
• Public
• Software
• Videos

Every user created within WHS also gets their own folder with their login name associated to it. These user folders are located under “Users”. The top row of buttons allows you to perform various actions related to shared folders. You can either:

• “Add” new shared folders
• Select an existing folder and bring up the “Properties”
• Select an existing folder and “Open” the folder
• Select an existing folder and “Remove” the folder

All shared folders can be seen within Windows Networking. You can browse to the shared folder within Windows Explorer or you can directly access the shared folder via the UNC notation (\\<WHS name>\<shared folder name>). If you’re familiar with mapping network drives, you can map the shared folder on the Windows Home Server to your PC. Under Windows Vista, you simply right click the Computer icon within Windows Explorer. Select “Map Network Drive” and map the UNC path to an available drive letter.

In order to see the contents of a shared folder, you need to know the user credentials for that folder. If your current login and password on your system matches the users’ credentials on WHS for a folder, you will have immediate access to that folder. Note – as I said earlier, you do not need to have Windows Home Server Connector software installed to access a shared folder on a Windows Home Server. You just need to know the user credentials (user account and password) to get to the share.

If you look closely at the snapshots – you’ll see a column called “Duplication”. Windows Home Server is capable of creating duplicate copies of your data for backup purposes – in case a hard drive fails on the WHS. The column shows that all of the folders are “off” for “Duplication”. The reason for this is simple. In order for file duplication to take place, you need at least two hard drives within a Windows Home Server. My initial WHS setup only had one hard drive installed but we’ll test out additional drive support later on.

If you want to add a new shared folder on the WHS, simply click on “Add” and you’ll see the following dialog box:

I’ll go ahead and create a folder for Krunker:

The next step is to assign user rights to the folder. Just as before, rights for each user are either “Full”, “Read”, or “None”

Click on ”Finish” and you’re done!

You can assign user rights for any folder at any time via the Windows Home Server Console. Simply select the folder and click on Properties in the toolbar. You can also right click a folder and select “Properties”.

Server Storage

The Server Storage tab displays all the hard drives installed on your Windows Home Server. The drives are listed on the left hand side and a pie chart is shown on the right displaying a breakdown of disk space allocations.

From here, you can “add”, “repair”, or “remove” drives from the server. Since I only have a single hard drive installed in this server, there isn’t a whole lot I can do at this time.

Network Status

The Network Status icon will show you the current health of the network - which includes information relevant to your PC. If your connected PC has out of date virus definitions or your spyware is out of date, then WHS will inform you of such remotely. If WHS needs software updates to be applied, you’ll also see this here.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s been many weeks since I installed WHS so there were several new updates for me to apply. You can remotely install the updates from within the Connector Console.

Once I opted to install the updates, I get the following screen shot (basically the old Windows XP update dialog boxes)

Settings

Windows Home Server Settings can be accessed by clicking on the “Settings” button on the upper right hand corner. Once you select it, you’ll see the following dialog box.

You can configure the following setting categories:

• General
• Backup
• Passwords
• Media Sharing
• Remote Access
• Add-ins
• Resources

Settings – General

Under the “General” category, you can modify the date and time, the language selection (default to English), Windows Update settings, whether you want to be a part of the Customer Experience Improvement program, and whether you want Windows Error Reporting turned on.

Settings – Backup

Under the “Backup” category, you can modify the start and end time for backing up computers on the network. You can also specify how long you want to keep the three different kinds of backups that WHS will perform (monthly, weekly, and daily).

Finally, you can manually perform backup cleaning through this interface.

Settings – Passwords

Under the “Passwords” category, you can change the home server password and modify the user accounts password policy. The user accounts password policy allows you to set how strong or weak user passwords should be on Windows Home Server.

Settings – Media Sharing

The “Media Sharing” category allows you to turn on or off the media sharing capabilities of the Windows Home Server. You can select to turn on/off streaming of Music, Photos, and Videos individually (the default settings are all off initially).  If you turn it on, devices on your network can stream the digital media content from the WHS. This is basically equivalent to Windows Media Connect under Windows Media Player.

This is particularly important for devices like Microsoft Xbox 360. Turn on sharing of these folders, and the Xbox 360 will be able to stream media directly from your Windows Home Server.

Settings - Remote Access

Once of the neat features of Windows Home Server is remote access. If you enabled Remote Access on WHS,  you can setup WHS and your home computers to be remotely accessible from the Internet. This isn’t necessarily for the faint of heart but it’s not the hardest thing to do either.

To get remote access working, you simply select the “Settings” tab on the upper right corner of the Windows Home Server Console. This will bring up the following dialog box:

Select the “Remote Access” option on the left and do the following:

• Make sure “Web sites is turned on”
• Configure your router – it’s best if your router supports UPnP because Windows Home Server can automatically configure the router without any user intervention. WHS is basically port forwarding to the local IP address of WHS

Here’s the router configuration process. You simply select “setup” and then you’ll see the following dialog box.

Since my router supports UPnP, configuration was automatic. You can click on “Details” to see what actually happens behind the scenes. Here are snapshots of the setup process:

And that’s it! We’re done with router configuration.  

• Configure a domain name. You don’t necessarily have to do this - You can always access the Windows Home Server remotely by IP address IF you know the IP address assigned by your ISP.

If you do want to setup a domain name, it’s actually an extremely easy process. Microsoft supplies a domain called “livenode.com” where you can register your Windows Home Server onto. Your job is to simply select a unique subdomain on livenode.com.

To setup a domain name, you need to have a Windows Live account.  Here’s the initial dialog box.

You’re now asked to enter your Live account information:

Here’s the privacy policy and custom domains addendum:

You then select a subdomain name for the “livenode.com” domain. Select “confirm” to make sure the subdomain is available.

Once you’ve confirmed the availability of your subdomain, click on “Finish” and you’re all set:

We’re now able to go to the provided URL and remotely connect to our Windows Home Server. You can even remotely administer WHS or some of your Windows based computers at home. Unfortunately remote administration of computers on your network will only work with the following operating systems

• Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2
• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition with SP2
• Windows Vista Ultimate, Vista Business, or Vista Enterprise

Surprisingly, Windows Home Server does not let you remotely administer PC’s with Windows Vista Home Premium which is the predominant version available on most PC’s purchased today. That’s a bit odd don’t you think? Either Microsoft doesn’t want users of Home Premium to remotely administer their machine via WHS OR they purposely want you to upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate.

Here’s a quick run-through of the web interface to the Windows Home Server. Again, if you know your Internet IP address, you can always enter the IP address directly in your browser’s address bar. Alternatively, you can enter the URL assigned to you during the Remote Access setup procedures. You’ll get a subdomain off of the livenode.com website.

Once you go to the website, you can login with your user account. You can not log in with the Administrator account via the web. You can however, login with your regular user account and then remote administer the Windows Home Server – assuming you know the administrator password.

You can use Firefox or Internet Explorer to gain access to your Windows Home Server over the web. If you want to remotely administer any computer on the network or the Windows Home Server, you’ll need Internet Explorer.

Here’s what  the site looks like when you first go to the URL:

Log into the website by clicking on the “Log On” button on the upper right hand corner.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the following display under Internet Explorer. (You won’t see the “Computers” tab within Firefox).

There are three tabs available under IE – “Home”, “Computers”, and “Shared Folders”.

The Computers tab will allow you to perform remote administration of your PCs at home including the WHS. The “Shared Folders” tab allows you to access the shared folders you have rights to right over the Internet – as if you were at home.

Click on the ”Computers” tab and you’ll see options to remote access either the Windows Home Server or Windows computers on your home network. Note – you can only remote administer certain Windows systems. My notebook is listed here but I can not remote administer it because it runs Windows Vista Home Premium.

Let’s access the Windows Home Server over the web. Simply click on the link “Connect to your Home Server” and you’ll be asked for the administrator password to the WHS:

You might be asked to add the URL to your Trusted Sites list within Internet Explorer in order to proceed. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the same Windows Home Server Console interface – this time over the web. You can perform the same operations you would otherwise perform at home.

You can also retrieve all of your files stored on the shared folders simply by clicking on the third tab labeled “Shared Folders”.

You’ll see a list of all the shared folders that are accessible by your account. Let’s click into the “Music” folder:

From here, you can see all the files and subdirectories underneath the shared “Music” folder. You can navigate back up a directory, create a new directory, download a file, upload a file, and rename a file. There’s even a search interface allowing you to look for a file stored on the server.

Here there’s a single “New Order” directory within the Music folder. If I click down into one of the albums, I’ll see all the files stored in the directory. Click on a file and you can instantly download the file wherever you are on the net.

Settings – Add-ins

The “Add-ins” category allows you to manage any additional add-ins that you might have installed or want to install on your WHS. Add-ins can be installed by copying the appropriate “msi” installer to the Add-ins folder under the “Software” shared folder.

Settings – Resources

The “Resources” category under Settings gives you a high level overview of the server configuration, and the Windows Home Server version information.

Summary

In this article, we’ve focused on the client side of Windows Home Server via the Windows Home Server Connector software application. We’ve shown you:

• How to install Connector
• How to backup your computer
• How to add users
• How to access shared folders and files
• How to maintain Windows Home Server
• How to connect to your Windows Home Server over the web

Windows Home Server is much more than a centralized file server for the home environment. Home Server gives you the ability to centrally monitor and maintain the health of multiple PCs on your network. It gives you a way to access your data – whether on different systems at home or remotely over the Internet. It provides the power of a centralized file server yet is so easy, nearly anyone can administer and maintain it. Amazingly enough, WHS is certainly shaping up to be a great product. Were it not for the lack of remote desktop support for Windows Vista Home Premium machines, then I would give the product straight A’s.. but alas, there are still minor issues to overcome but I’ll go into that down the road.

Stay tuned for additional articles over the next few weeks as I try to dig into more specific features of WHS. Hopefully this has helped you gain further insight into how you can centrally manage your data in your home network using Windows Home Server.

Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server Connector, WHS, Connector