When installing the Windows Home Server connector software the server may not be found. This may be because you are running as a restricted Vista user and if this is the case you will need to install the connector software as “Administrator”. The step by step instructions are on Tranquil PC’s Weblog.

If you are like me and enjoy testing the different features of Windows Home Server and all the different add-ins available for it then it is a good idea to set up another copy of WHS in a testing environment.

One way of doing this is within a virtual machine that allows you to install a complete copy plus applications into a virtual (emulated) computer, complete with BIOS and hardware configuration options.

This way you can create a custom test environment that can be rebuilt at any time, and can easily be restored to previous states without going through a full installation of Home Server.

For full details on how to accomplice this the website I Hate Linux has the walk through using the free Microsoft Virtual PC software.

After installing the new November update for Windows Home Server you will notice that your network health icon will turn red. With this update, you can now get a trusted SSL certificate for your <your_name>.HomeServer.com domain name.  If you have already set up remote access via the console, settings screen, you will need to quickly unconfigure your existing sub-domain name and re-run Setup to acquire an SSL certificate for your HomeServer.com domain name.

For more details on how to accomplish this, see the following post at the official Windows Home Server Blog.

We have the following troubleshooting tips for help during setup of Windows Home Server, courtesy of the Windows Home Server sub-pages over at Microsoft.

Troubleshooting tips

Having problems setting up Windows Home Server? Ensure that you’ve taken these simple steps:

• Plug in and power on your home server.

• Connect your home server with a wired network connection to your broadband router or to a switch that is connected to your broadband router.

If you’ve encountered issues while setting up your home computers with the Windows Home Server Connector software, run through this quick checklist:

• Connect your home computer to your home network (using either a wired or a wireless connection), and make sure the home computer is on the same logical network as Windows Home Server.

• Make sure firewall software on your home computer is not blocking access to Windows Home Server.

• If your computer has been joined to a corporate network (such as a corporate laptop), check with the corporate network administrator about the IPsec policy. This may block access from the corporate computer to Windows Home Server.

Microsoft are currently internally testing an x64 Connector for Windows Vista Machines, which should be available between December 07 – March 08. Unfortunately a Connector for XP x64 will not be available, but what can you do in the meantime if you want to install the Connector software on your Vista x64 machine. Well, good news, we have a solution for you.

You can easily install the Windows Home Server Connector software on Vista x64 by running the following in an elevated command prompt (Start > All Programs > Accessories and then right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as administrator”) in Windows Vista.

msiexec /i "\\SERVER\Software\Home Server Connector Software\whsconnector.msi" WHSMSI="RUNSETUP"

It will then install the connector software fine on that Vista x64 machine without running the SETUP.EXE bootstrap. Backups won’t work, but everything else will on that machine, so just disable backups for that machine in the console once it’s installed.

Thanks to Jerry Zeisler for bringing our coding mistake to our attention, which has now been corrected.

If you have installed Windows Home Server and previously had RC1 installed, or another machine on your network had the same name you are now using for WHS, chances are you might run into the situation where the WHS connector software on the client machine is always telling you that you need to “Update Your Password”.  Well, you will soon find out that no matter how many times you update it, the message never goes away.  It’s frustrating to say the least, and even when WHS says your password is out of sync with the server, you’ll find you can still access your shares and take backups.

The problem stems from the fact that on at least XP and Vista, Windows will store your credentials.  So if before you installed WHS you had another server on your network called “SERVER” then WHS gets confused about the old credentials being stored and no amount of updating your password seems to work.
If you run into this problem, on the client machine giving you problems go to your Start > Run window and type in:

rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr

This will bring up the stored credentials dialog.  Find your WHS name, highlight it and hit remove.  Logout of the client machine and then log back in.  WHS may ask you to update your password one last time.  Go head and do it and now you should notice that the WHS connector client stops falsely informing you that your passwords don’t match.

Guest Writer
Robert Stinnett
www.robertstinnett.com

UPDATE by Philip Churchill – The above did not work for me until I done the following:

————————————————————————————————–
To finish, update your user password one final time through the WHS client:

Log on to the Windows Home Server Console
Click User Accounts
Right click the user and click change password
Type your password twice, even if its the same one!
Click ok
————————————————————————————————–

Some have also had success with the following as well, but only use as a last resort.
On the Client computer go to:
XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys
Vista: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys AND C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys
and see that the FOLDER AND ALL FILES in it have Full permissions for the Administrators GROUP and SYSTEM account.

I posed a question to you readers a couple of days ago regarding the version information displayed on the Resources tab within the console.

My clean OEM install after Windows Update showed the following:

Whilst my friends server and others from the WHS forums were showing:

As you can see my “Windows Home Server Backup & Restore” was the only item which was updated to version 6.0.1500.6 whilst the bottom screen shot shows all components updated to the latest version.

Why? Well, I have the answer for you. I had an anonymous email from a reader stating that my version number of 1500.6 on only the backup component is the correct behavior for an RTM system upgraded via Windows Update. And systems that have all versions showing as 1500.6 are installs built from a “second edition” of WHS that has incorporated the update 941913 from Microsoft.

So all new RTM media from the last few weeks have the Windows Update download incorporated into the CD/DVD media. Tom from Ramblings Of a Home Server User also confirmed this, explaining that a newer version of Windows Home Server was released, known as a Media Refresh.

So, rest assured, in both instances both system are upgraded as expected.

I have a question for you readers, that will hopefully cure my problem. Since upgrading Windows Home Server with the update from Windows Update on the 25th September my Resources tab within Settings on the Console shows that only the “Windows Home Server Backup & Restore” item was updated to version 6.0.1500.6. All the other components remain at 6.0.1500.0.

But a screen shot from a friends PC shows ALL components being upgraded to the latest 6.0.1500.6.

The Windows Update Knowledge Base Article KB941913 shows that all components should have been updated to 6.0.1500.6.

Posts within the threads here and here on the WHS Forums shows that others are still at version 6.0.1500.0 apart for “Windows Home Server Backup & Restore” which the same as me is the only item to be updated to version 6.0.1500.6.

So over to you, dear readers, what should it be?

After installing the latest update to Windows Home Server (941913) it asks you to re-boot, once you have, the console icon in the system tray will change to red on the client machines. On clicking on the icon a window will appear, stating that that you need to upgrade your Windows Server Connector.

You will need to click Upgrade. At this point your machine will proceeded to uninstall the ‘old’ version of the Connector software and install the updated version.

Some people are experiencing the new version not getting installed. If this is the case with you we have 3 solutions that you can try:

1) Firstly navigate within your Shared Folders to, Software, Home Server Connector Software and click on setup.exe (not WHSConnector.msi) to install the connector software.

2) If this does not work you will need to remove your existing “Windows Home Server Connector” software from add and remove programs and reinstall the new version using setup.exe from the location stated above.

3) And thirdly pjtaylor from the WHS forums had another update problem and a solution:

Within the Home Server Connector Software folder, I noticed I had two SET*.TMP files that were the same approximate sizes as the SETUP and MSI files but with newer timestamp’s (6/9 as opposed to 6/7). I renamed those accordingly, ran SETUP and all now seems to have connected okay.

So to clarify if you have two temporary (TMP) files which are similar in size to the WHSConnector.msi and Setup.exe files within your SERVER\Software\Home Server Connector Software folder this is what to do:

• Delete or rename the WHSConnector.msi and Setup.exe files.
• Rename the smaller temp file to setup.exe
• Rename the larger temp file to WHSConnector.msi
• Reinstall the connector software using the new setup.exe

UPDATE: Joel Burt has stated that the Windows Home Server Team have determined the cause of this problem and are working on a resolution. In the meantime they suggest using step 3 as listed above or another option is to copy Setup.exe and WHSConnector.msi from the folder C:\WHS on the server to the “\\server\software\home server connector software” path.

If your WHS has time bombed by changing the system date or for any other reason, you will see the following message:

“The Evaluation period for this copy of Windows has ended!  Windows cannot start. To continue to use Windows, please purchase and install a retail copy of this product!”

If this is the case first check the system date and time in the bios (on the server) and correct if necessary. If this does not work you will have to reinstall your Release Candidate (RC) copy of Windows Home Server again. As long as you select “Server Reinstallation”, your data (including shared folders and backups) will be safe.

When you come to activate you’ll be told that the product key has been used the maximum number of times. Now that the beta has ended new keys are not available so when prompted use the activate by phone option , the wizard will supply the phone number, which varies depending in which region you live.

Make sure you have your RC1 product key handy so the Microsoft operator can activate it for you and remember after the “Server Reinstallation” you will need to recreate the “Users”.

For those of you wishing to upgrade from the Release Candidate to the final RTM version of Windows Home Server Tom Ziegmann in the WHS Forums has the following advice for you:

To upgrade from Windows Home Server Release Candidate (RC) to Windows Home Server RTM, you must boot from the RTM DVD, and select Server Reinstallation as the setup option. This will upgrade your server, and you should not have any data loss.

Do not attempt to upgrade from RC to RTM from within Windows itself. It will not upgrade properly, so only upgrade by booting off of the DVD, and selecting the Server reinstallation option.

If you are having problems installing the Windows Home Server Connector on your home PCs and having “join” issues, there is some great troubleshooting information to be found here.

Well I went from Beta2 to the CTP build and yesterday to RC1. The sata hard disks were discovered correctly and no additional storage drivers were needed as was the same with the previous two builds. I did not even have to generate a new product key as any unactivated ones unused from the CTP build will work.

During installation the following screen appeared.

After checking, it carried on without any problem. This is the same screen I got in the CTP build also!

Under one hour later and after numerous re-boots all was completed but I noticed that I did not have network access. A check of Device Manager confirmed my suspicion that the LAN driver was not installed along with an SM Bus driver as these were not present on the CTP build either.

Being two popular drivers* I do hope when the product goes RTM that these drivers are on the installation DVD.

After I installed the Connector CD Software on my 2 Vista and 1 XP Pro machines the following error appeared when right clicking on the WHS icon in the taskbar and then selecting “Shared Folders”.

If I had the Connector Software CD in the drive the error did not appear. After some head scratching and a re-boot of each client machine the error disappeared. So after the Connector Software CD install make sure to re-boot the machine!

I checked the Date & Time on the General Tab under Settings and noticed that even though the time was correct that it was set to Pacific Time (US & Canada) under Time Zone even though I had set UK for both items in the setup “Regional and  Keyboard Settings” screen during the server installation.

I also had Windows Update On to install updates automatically but found that after several hours, pressing the Update Now button on the same tab still found “lots” of updates. Two re-boots later and all of them were installed.

Apart from these minor niggles, this is an excellent build and appears more “solid” than previous releases.

*LAN Device = Integrated Realtek RTL8110SC Giga LAN Controller.

*SM Bus = “Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller – 27DA” from an Intel 945G & ICH7 chipset.

As reported from posters at Microsoft’s WHS Forum the WHS setup can fail will all sorts of errors where the root cause was either a corrupted download, an unverified burn of a DVD/CD, poor quality media, mismatched media (e.g. DVD-R used in a DVD+R drive) or malfunctioning CD/DVD-ROM readers.

In the previous Beta 2 and CTP releases the bootable setup DVD was changed from using the XP generation WinPE, to the Vista generation WinPE (WinPE 2.0). It appears that WinPE 2.0 is more susceptible to media failures than the older generation was. This could be due to its much greater memory requirements or the way data is laid out.

So what can you do to make sure that your install is error free?

Use a CRC check utility to verify the ISO file you downloaded was not corrupted. I use the FREE HashCalc.

My Windows Home Server RC -  Installation DVD.iso with the correct CRC32

These are the CRC32 Checksum Value’s (Meaning it was generated using the CRC32 algorithm). Make sure that they match. If not then part of the download is corrupted SO re-download.

Windows Home Server RC – Home Computer Restore CD.iso = 0×103F20B6
Windows Home Server RC – Connector Software CD.iso = 0xF7B64B77
Windows Home Server RC – Installation DVD.iso = 0×3E3EBF25

Use a DVD burning software package that supports verification (e.g. DO NOT use dvdburn.exe). If you use Nero, make sure you turn on the data verify option on the page before you start the burn. If instead you use my favourite Asampoo Burning Studio make sure that you “Change Options” from the “Burn a CD/DVD/Blue-ray Disc from a Disc Image” menu to allow the verify option also. Another good FREE program is ImgBurn, just make sure again that Verify is ticked.

Do not burn your media (especially DVDs) at “maximum” write speed. Use a lower speed setting in your burning software to reduce the risk of errors. I personally use half the speed for DVDs and 40x for CDs.

Use high quality media that is matched to your writer and reader and that you know works well.

Make sure that the machine has at least 512MB RAM. WinPE 2.0 in the mode we use it in (WIM) requires something well north of 256MB and will fail in obscure ways if there is not enough memory.

Check that the BIOS in your server is the most recent. In some cases, a PC will not boot any WinPE 2.0 based disk (including Vista RTM) until the BIOS is upgraded to the latest version.

Windows Home Server setup has been extensively tested. If you encounter any failures during setup, including notifications of corrupted or missing files, blue screens, or other faults it is most likely due to a DVD/CD problem.