ATT, Comcast, Time Warner – Uploads and Downloads to Time Out Automatically

October 22, 2007 — Philip Churchill

I got a letter today from one of our readers in the States, now if you are a heavy user of RDP and FTP this could affect you. Over to Don:

I would like to inform that anyone who is using ATT or Comcast in some areas are going to run into problems with WHS. I have been using WHS for several months and just last week I noticed that with RDP and the website that my download and upload dropped from over 300 – 400kbs to 15 -20kbs and timing out every time not only WHS, but my own web server hosted in Kansas City was timing out with not only FTP but any of my uploads for new content, so after hours of trouble shooting thinking maybe it’s the switch and so on and on I finally called Comcast who “well you know how they go”  have me running every test I already ran and stating they saw no problems.

Well, Comcast sends a tech out (Jim) who shows up to my door to run the same tests already ran and asks if I own a webserver? I tell him WHS and my primary sites hosted within a datacenter which I am having trouble updating from home on this network. I could not believe what fell out of his mouth! Comcast in some areas along with ATT and soon Time Warner are using data filters. Which send back a silent request from ISP to the customers on certain uploads and downloads to time out automatically. The software is designed to block torrents and file sharing, so there are no so-called “network degrades” for all customers. Wow! Not good at all!

I asked Jim what the fix was even for my hosted server (from my home network) and of course the normal Comcast answer of “I will forward this to techs in datacenter”, but nothing he could do for now!

I am a huge user of RDP and FTP. WHS has combined these functions plus added a lot more. When Comcast, ATT and Time Warner go nationwide with these filters this will affect the product and customers at every level and not just filesharing.

If this affects my hosting sites (even my blog to post a picture), filesharing and WHS for all reasons good or bad. What can be done to gain back are access to our property in which we pay for?

I would like to pass this on since I am a huge Microsoft fan and user, but also inform and help anyone using WHS under any of these providers may notice time-outs or degraded speeds if used from outside their home network or sharing items with family members outside the network.

Well this is not good news. Three of the biggest suppliers of Internet services are starting to use so called “data filters”. What’s your opinion?

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Posted in News, Windows Home Server. 39 Comments »

French Home Automation Webcast

October 22, 2007 — Philip Churchill

Microsoft enthusiast and evangelist Benjamin Gauthey has posted a two minute Webcast in French showing a D-Link IP camera being remotely controlled via the web sites pane within the remote management interface of Windows Home Server.

Available from here.

English translation by Google.

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Posted in News, Remotely, Windows Home Server. 2 Comments »

Tick, Tock … What’s Up with the WHS Clock? – Time Synch Problems

October 22, 2007 — Philip Churchill

One thing that surprised me when I was installing Windows Home Server was the fact that it didn’t ask me for a time zone.  Sure enough, when it finished booting up after the install the time was 2 hours off for me.  WHS defaults to GMT -8, which is great if you live in California, but not so good for the rest of us around the world.  Luckily, this is a simple fix and by going into the management interface and going to settings you can change your time zone.  A small detail, but one that can drive you crazy when you are tracking down problems and times aren’t synchronizing up in the log files.  Not to mention when WHS is trying to schedule automatic backups!

A second problem that several WHS users are reporting is that WHS is not synchronizing up correctly with the default time servers.  I experienced this same error myself when I noticed an entry in my Event Log saying the time service hadn’t updated in over 84,000 seconds and was giving up.   Going back into the settings tab and looking at time in the WHS console I noticed the following error.

 Date_and_Time

I tried all the built-in time providers, and none of them would work.  Finally, another WHS user suggested using the IP address of time-a.nist.gov (129.6.15.28) and problem solved – the time synched just fine! 

It’s too early to know if this is a bug in WHS or isolated to a few people – but if you are having time synchronization issues, you might want to give this a shot.

Guest Writer
Robert Stinnett
www.robertstinnett.com

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Posted in Tutorial, Windows Home Server. 8 Comments »

Backup Windows Home Server via FTP

October 22, 2007 — Philip Churchill

Remote or off-site backups are a great solution for those who wish to protect their WHS files from fire, flood or theft. This adds a great layer of redundancy in case of catastrophic loss. For WHS there are a few remote or on-line backup options out there (iDrive-E, Mozy, Carbonite) and some even offer a WHS console add-in (Jungle Disk, Keep Vault). But these services either charge a monthly or per GB fee, which can quickly get expensive! Also, your precious files are in the hands of some unknown holder. But there is another solution and all you need is your own remote web site server with some extra storage space.

Personally, I use Handy Backup on WHS to run a weekly FTP upload of “special” files to my remote web site server. This gives me a great layer of redundancy for no additional cost per month because I already pay a monthly fee for the web server. My web server is cheap! I use a company called BlueHost for my web site needs. It’s only $6.95 US a month and is cheaper still if you pay up front for a year. You get 300 GB of storage, 3000 GB of transfer and a free URL if you need one, plus a ton of extras. Heck, that’s better than many of the fee based backup options listed above! So, if you want a more economical and customizable remote backup solution for WHS…then this option may be for you. All it takes is a basic understanding of the FTP protocol, a cheap web host plan and an hour to set up Handy Backup on WHS.

This article lists the steps necessary to set Handy Backup to run as a WHS Service and backup files to your off site server via FTP. This will allow Handy Backup to run in the background without being logged into a user account. This setup can also be used to create backups within your network as well. This was tested on WHS RC1 and the OEM (RTM) versions during October 2007.

Step 1: Get the software

The software comes with a 30 day trial or you can buy it for about $39 US.

Don’t bother to pay the extra money for the Run as Service! You are going to do it manually for free! Handy 5.8.0 comes with a 30 day trial for the Run as Service. Again, you’re going to set it for free!

  • Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools-Here
  • Marcel’s AnyServiceInstaller Tool- Here

It’s a zip file, so you may want to get it on your PC, unzip and place the .exe in a share folder with the other three files.

Step 2: Install Software

  • Log into WHS via Remote Desktop. Drag all three files from your share folder to the Desktop.
  • Install the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools.
  • Install Handy Backup.

During installation, install links to the Start Menu and the Quick Launch Menu.

During installation, tell Handy to open when finished.

Once started click on File>Settings. At the top click General. Uncheck “Launch Agent at Windows Start Up” and “Show Splash Screen at System Startup.” This is to reduce the annoyance factor at logon time.

If you paid for your license, install your key so you don’t forget.

Close Handy Backup.

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Posted in Backup, Other Software, Tutorial, Windows Home Server. 24 Comments »

avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition – New Beta

October 22, 2007 — Philip Churchill

For those of you beta testing avast! WHS Edition, we have some good news if one of your client machines is a Vista-based laptop.
Due to the way Vista uses profiles within the Windows firewall, the service within Avast! does not communicate with the server correctly. This will be fixed in beta 3 which will be released today or tomorrow, which will be available at the normal place.

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Posted in Other Software, Windows Home Server. 3 Comments »