The Web's Largest Dedicated Windows Home Server Resource by Microsoft MVP Philip Churchill.
Microsoft Windows Home Server - WHS will automatically backup and restore your PCs and allow you to share and access files from any machine in the house as well as giving you remote access to those files and PC’s as well. This site will guide you on your journey of discovery with WHS.
Episode 100 of The Home Server Show podcast is available.
In celebration of episode 100 there is not a lot of news this week but instead the focus is on past episodes as well as plenty of FREE swag for the Home Server community.
You can catch up with the weeks goodness here.
The How-To Geek website gives you a screenshot tour of the Windows Home Server Vail install process.
They go through the actual installation process of the server and (of course) provide plenty of screenies to show you what the process looks like, which you can view here.
Cloudberry Labs have added Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) improvements to their CloudBerry online backup software.
RSS was introduced in version 1.5, but now in version 1.6 you can decide it you want it on the account or plan level with an an appropriate option added to the Compression and Encryption step.
This enables you to have several backup plans with different storage classes. For example, one with standard storage class for the data that under no account you can lose and another one with RRS storage class with the less important data.
More details on CloudBerry Backup for WHS is available from here.
Only a couple of days left to grab yourself a copy of HomeServerSync Beta 10 before the beta program closes – Interested? Then drop a line to newaccount@homeserversync.co.uk with "beta" as the subject line for a chance to play with a copy.
Online backup provider KeepVault today announced new features for small and medium business customers which will be coming on August 4th 2010.
The success of the ‘KeepVault Pro & Business’ (www.keepvaultpro.com) solution is its ground-up design targeting small to medium businesses (SMB); easy to setup with no special IT skills required, almost no maintenance thanks to its automatic operation, and it is significantly cheaper than the competition with prices starting at under $7/month. Most other SMB vendors try to re-purpose highly technical enterprise solutions, resulting in a poor user experience and high prices with hidden bandwidth and per seat fees.
Importantly we also listen to our customers and we continue to improve our service based on their feedback; which has helped to shape these new SMB features:
Enhanced Administrator Control & Reporting
Ensuring data is secure and that backups are functioning successfully is of particular importance to business owners, where any loss of data can jeopardize their company. The KeepVault Pro & Business software ‘admin lock feature’ prevents unauthorized changes to settings that control, amongst other things, the what, when, where of backup, and how much bandwidth each device uses. These controls are now enhanced with the new ‘web-based admin console’ which provides an overall backup status report as well as health reports for each device being protected. The administrator or account owner can review (per device) the date of the last backup, device status, and the amount currently protected. These reports are in addition to the existing automated ‘health’ notifications via SMS, email, and Twitter.
Access to data via the web is included at no additional cost for ‘Pro & Business’ users. The new admin console allows the administrator to control web access, greatly enhancing overall security. Web access control and backup ‘health’ reporting can be managed on a ‘sub user account’ basis for extra flexibility.
Sub User Accounts
Securing sensitive financial data, personnel or patient records, or product roadmaps is now a lot easier with the Sub Account feature. As the name suggests, account owners/administrators can now create sub accounts within their main account, easily letting them section-off data for different departments within the company and prevent unauthorized access. Best of all we’ve kept it really simple and easy to use, no complicated permissions rules to manage or keep in-sync. For example, a 100GB account could be subdivided with 20GB for the accounting department, 30GB for senior management, 50GB for marketing etc. As needs change, those storage amounts can be increased or decreased with the click of a button. Usage, status, web access can all be tracked by sub account.
The How-To Geek tells us how to install Windows Home Server Vail on VMware Workstation.
VMware is virtualization software which will enable you to test Vail if you haven’t got a spare box to test it on.
The Geek’s post takes you fully through the process of getting the software up and running with minimal fuss, which you can read here.
Website Home Server Integration lists some great add-ins to enhance your Windows Home Server functionality.
On the list are:
You can read the full details here.
The MediaSmart VGA/PS2/Serial debug board from VOV Technology is very useful gadget which allows you to add a screen, or optionally a keyboard and mouse or even a serial device to your HP MediaSmart server to convert it from a headless appliance back to a fully functional PC.
In addition to the HP MediaSmart and DataVault server families, the debug board is also supported on the Acer Aspire easyStore H340.
VOV Technology lists the reasons you would want this device as:
– You want to play with the BIOS settings or re-flash your BIOS
– You want to boot from a USB stick to install another OS (Vail, Linux, Windows Server 2008, OpenSolaris)
– You are a software/kernel/addons developer
– You want to tinker but not risk shorting your MediaSmart Server
– You don’t have the time to build your own custom cable
– You don’t want to buy expensive tools for a one time project
– You want the ability to troubleshoot any bootup problems without running a recovery that will destroy existing data
– Buying is cheaper than building!
Lovers of networking products KitGuru.net review the Asus TS mini.
Their 6 page review has plenty, and I mean plenty to pics and performance graphs to compliment their piece, including a dBa noise testing graph which places the TS mini in an idle state as whisper quiet and under load as a high quality computer fan – Impressive!
The Asus TS Mini Windows Home Server is built like a tank and has a steel chassis able to withstand some serious damage. This is a unit which is both well built and attractive to look at…
You can read their review here.
Online backup provider KeepVault, today released a technology advisory confirming that a Vail optimized version of their Windows Home Server local and online backup software is under development.
Pending any operating system changes from Microsoft, the software should be available by the end of August.
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