Happy Forth of July

For those of you not in the USA. Independence Day honors the birthday of the United States of America and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Have a wonderful day!

Chris Gray, lead developer for Windows Home Server at Microsoft talks about centralizing television and music onto Windows Home Server using Media Center. Integrating lights and power outlets and harnessing the power of the Web are also discussed. As Chris says:

I would also like to link to a real-time weather application so that if it was going to rain, for example, then the lawn sprinklers wouldn’t turn on.

You can find the article Customize Windows Home Server here on MSDN magazine.

NOTE: This add-in is designed to work exclusively with the HP MediaSmart Server EX47x models, and will not work with any other WHS systems.

MSS Fan Control allows the user to easily control the speed of the upper and lower exhaust fans of the MediaSmart Server. It also allows the user to configure the speed and temperature thresholds that determine how the fan speed should increase as the CPU temperature rises.

More information is available from the MediaSmartServer forums. Thanks to The Home Server Show for the information.

Due to the amount of add-ins that have been released in the last 7 days, there is a special 7 minute episode of The Home Server Show. Dubbed the 4th of July edition, show #8 looks at the latest releases for our Home Servers.

Listen here.

A big welcome to the new Most Valuable Professional’s (MVP’s) who join Microsoft’s network of exceptional technical community leaders, whose area of expertise is Windows Home Server.

• Alan Ball and from the United States
• Henk Panneman from the Netherlands
• Colin W Hodgson from the UK
• Yoshihiro Okabe from Japan

These 4 join the existing 7, bringing the total of Windows Home Server MVP’s to 13 11 (woops! Slipped on the keyboard. Thanks Andrew). Great Stuff!!!

Add-in developer Brent Friedman has a new add-in for Media Center users. TV Manager copies your recordings off to your WHS for storage and management. It comes in two parts. The first part is installed on the server for management of the Recordings. And the other part is the Vista Media Center plug-in that copies new recordings over to the WHS deleting the original. It also allows you to watch the recordings like you normally would via “recorded tv” on Media Center.

Features:

• Moves  the recordings to your WHS for storage, management, and later viewing.
• Allows you to watch the recordings in Media Center as if they were on that PC’s library.
• You can delete recordings via Media Center or the Console.
• You can even watch the recordings in other media programs (that support dvr-ms)  via ‘C:\Users\Public\Windows Home Server\’
• It is and always will be Freeware.

More information is available from Brent’s Blog.

PC Magazine has a massive review on Home Network-Attached Storage (NAS). Many units are given the once over, including the HP MediaSmart Server EX470. From How to Choose? to So What’s Windows Home Server? All the details are available here.

VPOP3 for Windows Home Server; the email server add-in has been updated to version 2.6.0d

More information and the evaluation/registered version are available, as are three new tutorial videos:

• Download and install VPOP3 for Windows Home Server
• Configure VPOP3 for Windows Home Server
• Configure Outlook Express to use VPOP3 for Windows Home Server

The Home Server Show #7 is available for your listening pleasure. As well as the latest news, in this episode AutoExit 2008 R2 developer Nick Asseloos chats about this great add-in.

Available from here.

AutoExit 2008 R2 is now available as a public beta. The add-in can be used to shut down and reboot machines in your home network all from within the console.
Wake On Lan is also supported, which enables you to easily boot up your machines remotely and you can also put the machine into hibernation, sleep, log off the user or lock the machine. And also in this new version the server can also be shut down from the toolbar.

More information is available from here.

If you missed the Windows Home Server Add-in Webcast by HP and Microsoft then it is available for replay from here.

It was good to see what the highest rated add-ins were under the following categories: 

Website Creation and Customization:

• Whiist
• WHS Customiser
• Add Website

Media and Streaming:

• TiVo Publisher
• Media Connect Controller
• WebGuide for Windows Home Server

Power Management:

• GridJunction
• AutoExit 2008
• LightsOut

Home Server Management:

• WHS Disk Management
• Advanced Admin Console
• Remote Notification

The main features which are included in Power Pack 1 were discussed:

• 64-bit OS support
• Overall performance improvements
• Remote access enhancements
• Backup to external Hard Drive
• Hard drive removal improvements
• International localization (Japanese & Chinese)
• Bug Fixes

And the HP MediaSmart Server Software Update was also discussed. As we already know, to be included in this update is:

• Enhanced media streaming experience (Packet Video) - Provides Photo thumbnails and album art across multiple DMAs (xBox360, PS3 etc).
• Server-side Anti-virus - Scans and protects data stored on the server.
• Vista 64-bit Support

But the big news from HP is that the update will be available at the same time as Microsoft’s full public release of Power Pack 1.

The webcast ended with a special offer from New Egg, which enables you to save $75 on the purchase of a HP MediaSmart Server, which is good for either the EX470 (500GB) or the EX475 (1TB). During the checkout process enter the following code HP75MS, but hurry as the offer ends 8th July 2008.

illustrate the people behind the dBpoweramp software are making the transition from a software only company to one which offers software & hardware. Their first new product is RipNAS: dBpoweramp Ripper + NAS + Windows Home Server

When tasked with building a ripping appliance, high design goals were set, resulting in:

dBpoweramp CD Ripper: securest of the secure
Case: winner of Intel’s SFF design contest
PerfectMeta™: using 4 metadata providers: AMG, GD3, MusicBrainz and freedb simultaneously
Laptop 2.5″ hard drive(s): 3.5″ drives are too noisy for the living room!
Windows Home Server
Streamable to uPnP, DAAP (iTunes) and SqueezeCenter (Slim Devices)

What it Does

CDs are loaded one at a time into the slot loading CD drive, RipNAS retrieves the highest quality metadata through PerfectMeta (being headless means no user overview of metadata, PerfectMeta was designed for hands off Metadata retrieval), and ripping takes place to a lossless format. When completed the CD is ejected and audio is shared over the network, ready to be shared and streamed to one of the many network audio players (Sonos, Slim Devices, etc). Quality is assured through the use of AccurateRip.

If ripping in secure mode, any in-secure tracks are separated out to highlight them as having errors.

And of course having Windows Home Server onboard, RipNAS can backup and be used as a data store.

Audio Formats Supported
It is clear the audio world is split into different camps, depending upon which devices are being used on the Network, these 4 main modes are configured with ‘command CDs’, allowing configuration changes with out the need to connect a computer to the RipNAS:

• FLAC: main choice and supported by most network audio players,
• Apple Lossless: first choice for any Apple based player,
• Windows Media Audio Lossless: Microsoft based players (XBox 360)
• mp3: devices with no lossless audio support

The RipNAS is due to be available from early august as two models:

• RipNAS Secure: features as above, in 320GB, 640GB and 1TB models. Optionally the 640GB and 1TB models will offer RAID 1 mirroring across 2 drives (actual storage space available will be 320GB and 500GB). Pricing is expected to start from $999++
• RipNAS Value: the value series will use a different case, be active cooled and traditional 3.5″ drives in 500GB and 1TB models. Ripping will not include a secure mode. Pricing++ will be competitive with the HP Media Smart in consideration of the addition of Ripping abilities

More information is available in the following forums at illustrate.

As well as the free HP MediaSmart Webinar this Wednesday (25 June), Microsoft has announced two further webinars. The first is scheduled for July 22nd and is on digital photography with the MediaSmart Server and the other is mobile warriors with the date to be announced.

More details are available from here.

If you are testing Power Pack 1 Public Beta it is important that your bug reports (if any) go to the right place. The bug reporting form on MS Connect should be used for this, as this is the only way that the Home Server team can track and subsequently fix any issues that you bring up.

Every submitted bug report should include accompanying CAB numbers so that the Home Server team can look at the logs and try to help resolve the issue.  Depending on whether you are experiencing an issue related to your home server, your home computer, or both, you need to submit the logs and the CAB numbers for your home server, your home computer, or both as well. 

This CAB number can be obtained once the Windows Home Server Toolkit has been installed. More information on how to install the Toolkit, and how to get a CAB number from your home server or home computer are available from Pages 21 and 22 of the Release Documentation that is downloadable from Connect.

On thing to note is if you are using the Vista 64bit version of the Windows Home Server software then the Windows Home Server Toolkit can not be installed on it. In this case Zip the following folder and upload it with your bug.

XP Machine:
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Home Server\logs

Vista Machine:
%SystemDrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Home Server\logs

Home Server logs:
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Home Server\logs

The Home Server Show Podcast number 6 is available with the latest in Home Server news. This weeks show details lots of great add-in’s and is available from here.

The Windows Home Server Disk Management Add-In may have compatibility issues with Power Pack 1 (PP1).  The Windows Home Server partner team  is working with the add-in author to identify and resolve the potential compatibility issue.

In the meantime it is advised that you refrain from using this add-in in conjunction with Power Pack 1.

UPDATE: For those of you enquiring what the compatibility issue is: When using the Disk Management Add-in to “remove” or “rename” a disk, the drive no longer shows up in storage. Since this can have a severe impact on a Home Server we wanted to let people know as soon as possible.

Now available on the download section of Microsoft’s Connect website is the just released German version of Power Pack 1. Both the update package and full ISO’s of Power Pack 1 German edition are available for download.

To give you some ideas on how to test Power Pack 1 (PP1), the Windows Home Server Team is posting weekly Feature Focus documents on Microsoft’s Connect website. Posted last week was Feature Focus of the Week - PC Applications. And this week the second feature focus of the week, Backup and Restore was published as well as the third one; Disk Removal. All three documents are available in .doc, .docx or PDF formats.

Gaen Smith posted the following in the Windows Home Server Forums - One man’s experience with Power Pack 1:

I have had nothing but positive results with PP1!!!  I am running a homebuilt WHS with a Intel 3210SL Server Board, Dual Core Xeon Processor, 4 GB of DDR2 800 memory, 12 Seagate 500GB HD and 3 VFD displays (to monitor system states 24/7).  I have over 1TB of uncompressed DVD’s (I own em) 500GB of Windows Lossless Audio Files, and over 500GB of system files.  I have added an extra 2 500GB drives using eSATA connectors.  When the corruption issue first raised it’s ugly head it hit me pretty hard, so I reloaded and only had one drive for WHS and shared the others using standard share practices and over the last week have been copying then migrating my disks.  I also backed up over 300GB worth of files at a time to my two external SATA disks and not one hitch!!  I have 6 computers doing full backups and sharing audio and video files with the OS’s ranging from WINXP Pro, WINXP Media center 2005, Vista Home Premium, and Vista Ultimate.  As a test I even had all 6 running uncompressed HD movies simultaneously and not one hiccup.  My Roku is also performing flawlessly.  My hats off too the WHS team, this is what a good product is about and now I am pushing it to family and friends.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

In a new market research study, senior analyst and author of the new report Ted Theocheung of the diffusion Group (Dallas) states that the home server is poised for significant growth. Below are highlights from the report:

• The big winners in this emerging product category being consumers and not PC companies.
• The Windows Home Server will initially gain acceptance from a small group of enthusiasts, with consumer companies dominating this area with more user-friendly products in the long term.
• Home server shipments have been forecased to rise from 1.2 million this year to 90 million in 2015.
• Early adopter enthusiasts, like us are using PC-based systems, but CE devices will bring home servers to the mainstream.
• A new wave of home servers from CE companies will hit in 2010 that challenge the PC products. And by 2012 the CE devices will make significant strides against the PC models.
• Ultimately service providers will become a main conduit for providing the CE systems, outpacing retail sales of PC-based systems.

More details on the report are available from here.

The website management add-In for Windows Home Server; Whiist has been updated. Now at version 0.82 Whiist has the following features:

• Quickly create new websites on your home server.
• Create new photo albums to share with family and friends in a few simple steps.
• Create public content, or restrict access to users of your Windows Home Server.
• Easily customize your public and private Windows Home Server Homepage links.
• Fully integrates with the Windows Home Server management console.
• Customize your Windows Home Server homepage

Developer Andrew Grant says that the latest version is compatible with the MediaSmart Server and also with PP1

More information on this great add-in is available from here.

For a list of reviews on the Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo Home Server 1900 head over to TestSeek who are showing four reviews from the likes of PC Pro, VNU and Trusted reviews.

LogPoint Performance Monitor is an add-in that creates a graphical representation of your Home Server performance data while monitoring the disk speed (read/write) and tranfers per second.

LogPoint are also in the process of finalizing the development of the Windows Home Server LogPoint Management Console. This will give you most of the LogPoint functionality on your Windows Home Server network; allowing you to monitor and manage the devices on your network.

LogPoint Performance Monitor can be downloaded for free from here. Thanks to Jerry Wade for the details.

The Innoventions Dream Home is the latest attraction in Tomorrowland at DisneyLand in California. The Dream Home is showcasing cutting edge technologies including Microsoft Surface, Windows Home Server and Windows Media Center.

Built in collaboration between Disneyland, Microsoft, HP, Life|ware and home-builder Taylor Morrison the Innoventions Dream Home is both a show and a showcase, offering guests of all ages a hands-on experience with new in-home technologies

The experience includes guest interaction with the residents of the Dream Home - the fictional Elias family – who will welcome all guests into their new home. Members of the family move from room to room, utilizing the technology as they prepare for a big celebration. Guests who enter the Dream Home can observe and play with all its high-tech technologies.

It’s great to know that the Ellis family are using Windows Home Server to store and back-up what’s important in the Innoventions Dream Home.

More information is available from here. Thanks to WindowsNow, the source for Windows Vista News for the information.

UPDATE: On The Media Center Show #161 Ian Dixon talks to Jason Leonardelli from Life|Ware about the Innoventions Dream Home.

I new add-in is being planed called WHS DupFileManager which will will be an active duplicate file manager looking for file dups that live in any shares (or user defined subset of shares/directories) on the Windows Home Server and will move the duplicates to a “Duplicate Share”.

Although there is a similar add-in entitled DupeCleaner, WHS DupFileManager will provide a better user interface for the end user.

A beta version will be available within the next week or so and developer wombat94 would like some feedback on what features you would like to see in this version.

More information is available on the Windows Home Server Forums, which is also the place to leave feedback and feature suggestions.

Beta 2 of BitDefender Total Security 2009 has just been released  and includes an enhanced feature set:

• Online Backup: BitDefender 2009 offers users the ability to backup sensitive data online to ensure it is secure if something goes wrong – like your computer is stolen or a hard drive failure. Unlike competitive offerings, BitDefender Online Backup offers incremental, versioned and differentiated backup modes to better meet customer’s specific needs.
• Increased Privacy Protection through Instant Messaging Encryption: Supporting Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, BitDefender 2009 ensures that no one can eavesdrop on instant messaging traffic between two PCs with BitDefender installed
• Increased Storage Protection with File Vault: With BitDefender 2009 File Vault, a secured storage space for personal information or sensitive files kept locally in your computer, encrypted data is stored that is invulnerable to theft or to a security breach.
• Improved Integrated Online Security: BitDefender Total Security 2009 provides users a full range of proactive protection technologies for secure everyday online activities such as banking, shopping, browsing or socializing. Web, email and Instant messaging traffic are now scanned in real-time for viruses, spyware, phishing and identity theft attempts.
• More control via Home Network Management: For home users, BitDefender 2009 provides the ability to manage the security of a home network from a single location. BitDefender software from other computers in the network can be remotely configured, while tasks such as scans, tune-ups and updates can be scheduled and run.
• Other Improvements include: an improved Gamer mode, a Laptop mode, increased performance with lower resources consumption, enhanced usability, and firewall (IDS and IPv6 support) support.

Make sure you work through the test cases, but hurry as you only have 9 days left to beta test! and thanks to The Home Server Show for the heads up.

To download beta 2 or to sign up for the beta program, do so here.

VPOP3 for Windows Home Server (Beta) is a Windows email server designed for Windows Home Server which will work with any Internet email account which supports POP3 or SMTP methods for incoming mail, and SMTP for outgoing mail. It will also work without an Internet email account at all, using direct SMTP email reception and sending.

The add-in includes a built in spam filter which can detect over 90% of spam and offensive email. VPOP3 also has a full Webmail server built in, enabling you to read and sent email  including viewing your address book etc all from within the same browser.

Message archiving, a mailing list server and autoresponders are other included features which are available in a 1 month free trail version after which VPOP3 for Windows Home Server (Beta) is available for a yearly price of £40 ($82).

More information including the trail are available from here.

Part 2 of Building a Windows Home Server - Craftsman Style has just been published.

After we detailed part 1 of this story the other day, this woodworker has built his Windows Home Server into a wooden cabinet, the craftsman style home server. You can read the full story here.

In the Podcast Windows Weekly 63, hosts Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte talk about Windows Home Server (amongst other things). Around 30 minutes into the program, the features available in Power Pack 1 (PP1) are discussed as well as Jungle Disk for Windows Home Server, an online storage solution powered by Amazon S3.

You can listen online or download the MP3 file from here.

The Home Server Show Podcast is now at episode 5 and includes an interview with Alex Kuretz from MediaSmartServer.net along will the usual mix of news and announcements.

Listen to it here.

As we announced last week a copy of Windows Search 4.0 is available for Windows Home Server users. If you would like to know what is new, check out the following article at Maximum PC.

Thanks to Paul Scott who sent us the link to an article about running both Linux and Windows Home Server on a HP MediaSmart Server.

The guide goes through the 14 steps necessary to accomplice this using a free copy of Microsoft Virtual Server and a Linux