By on December 01st, 2011

iHomeServer for iTunes

iHomeServer for iTunes Agent

iHomeServer for iTunes is an application that runs iTunes as a service on Windows Home Server both v1 and WHS 2011.

iTunes normally runs as a desktop application which requires you to be logged into your desktop at all times in order to play music or video remotely. Many people are now using Home Sharing to share a single iTunes music/video library with other iTunes clients, however, most know the frustration of trying to keep the iTunes always open on your computer.

There’s nothing more annoying than trying to stream music to your iPhone or iPad only to find that iTunes isn’t running, or worse still has crashed, on your computer! What’s the point of having all of your media centralised if you can’t access it?

Enter iHomeServer for iTunes! iHomeServer for iTunes installs an agent on top of a normal iTunes installation and runs iTunes in the background as a service.

iHomeServer now support iTunes 10.5 so new features such as Wifi sync and iCloud purchase synchronisation are also available to your iTunes Media Server!

iHomeServer is available as a free 30 day trial after which it will cost you $30

More information is available from here.

Other Software • Windows Home Server
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By on December 01st, 2011

Add-In: Drive Bender for WHS v1.2.2.0

The DE type add-in for WHS 2011 users has had an update.

Drive Bender Logo

Version 1.2.2.0 of Drive Bender includes the following changes:

  • Update: Many improvements to file duplication, including a more verbose duplication feature.
  • Bug fix: Under certain conditions a networked connection to a Drive Bender mounted drive can be dropped by Windows. This is the result of incorrect NTFS "File Id" handling.
  • Update: Lazy duplication has been removed from the Drive Bender options.
  • Update: Improved performance for file/folder enumeration across a pool.
  • Update: Improved pool recovery process.
  • Update: You are now able to change the volume label of a drive letter mounted point via Windows (i.e. F2 the drive in Windows explorer).
  • Bug fix: A large number of files no longer cause an error when using the duplication feature.
  • Bug fix: Many minor interface bugs have been fixed.

Drive Bender for WHS 2011 is available as a 30 day trial after which it will cost you $40 for private use.

More details on Drive Bender are available from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on November 30th, 2011

Child Site Add-In Being Developed for WHS 2011

Gordon Schmidt has been working on a WHS 2011 add-in with his brother, which will extend the ISS IIS functionality of the platform.

The idea is that the add-in will enable you to create a child site off from the parent yourservername.homeserver.com/?.

This idea was done before in version 1 of WHS with the add-in P80, but its great to use a similar add-in for 2011 users being developed.

add-ins • News • Windows Home Server
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By on November 29th, 2011

Add-In: Advanced Admin Console 2011 RC Refresh

The Release Candidate Refresh of the add-in Advanced Admin Console 2011 is now available.

AAC 2011 RC Dashboard

This refresh has been released as the previous version expires tomorrow so update now!

Since its release in late July 2011 the Advanced Admin Console 2011 Release Candidate has proven that it’s ready for its final release. No bugs have been reported and I’ve got plenty of emails from users telling me that it’s fulfilling their needs and it’s running smoothly on their servers.

In order to test the update check and upgrade installation mechanisms there will be a final test release (version 0.9.6) dubbed the “Release Candidate Refresh”.

You can find the download here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on November 29th, 2011

CrashPlan+ and WHS Backup Plan

DavesComputerTips explains how he incorporates CrashPlan+ into his WHS 2011 backup plan.

All well as WHS backing up all his computers daily, Dave Hartsock also utilizes the following:

  • Photo, music, and document files are stored locally on each computer and synced to a corresponding user folder on the Windows Home Server 2011 box over the network. This creates a “central” location to access the files over the network while creating a backup of each user’s files locally. This ensures there are two copies of each file and all files are available locally if there is no network or internet connectivity.
  • Crashplan runs on the Windows Home Server where is silently backs up the photos, music, and other irreplaceable documents to the Crashplan servers overnight – I pay for the “Crashplan+” service for this feature.
  • Crashplan also sends these files to a family member’s computer located in another city, which in turn backs up that computer’s files to my server.

CrashPlan Backup Plan

It’s a great way of utilizing CrashPlan+ with our Home Server’s.

You can read his guide here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on November 29th, 2011

Add-In: StableBit Scanner for WHS 2011 v2.0.0.1261 BETA

The advanced hard disk surface scanner and monitor add-in StableBit Scanner for WHS 2011 has had an update.

StableBit Scanner 2.0 UI

Version 2.0.0.1261 BETA includes the following changes:

  • Added per-disk settings.
      These settings are stored in the Scanner’s store and are associated with a particular disk.
      They are not stored on the disk itself.
        * Give your disks a custom name.
        * Disable SMART.
        * Disable Direct I/O.
  • Added option to "ignore" SMART warnings. Ignore is intelligent, where it will re-issue the warning
      if any of the problem attributes change. There is also the option to permanently ignore all SMART
      warnings on a per-disk basis. To access this feature, a new button will become available on the SMART
      dialog when you have SMART warnings issued for a disk.

StableBit Scanner  is available as a 1 month trial after which it will cost you $24.95.

More details on StableBit Scanner can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on November 28th, 2011

Migrate from WHS v1 to WHS 2011

MissingRemote have a article on migrating away from Windows Home Server Drive Extender which explains how to migrate your data out of the drive pool from version 1 of WHS to Windows Home Server 2011. The explained process will also work if you intend to move to any alternative "drive pool" solution, such as FlexRAID, unRAID, FreeNAS, or the couple of 3rd party add-ins which are available for WHS 2011.

WHS Computer Management

Its a great comprehensive guide which you can find here.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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By on November 26th, 2011

HP ProLiant MicroServer for $250

Deal-of-the-Week

Some of you may be aware that in the UK HP have been offering £100 cachback on their new ProLiant N40L MicroServer. Now our US readers can have a piece of the action as Newegg are offering $100 off this server which comes with 2GB of RAM plus a 250GB hard drive which is ideal to install the WHS operating system on. But hurry as this Black Friday saving ends tomorrow 11/27.

HP ProLiant MicroServer

HP ProLiant N40L Ultra Micro Tower Server System AMD Turion II Neo N40L 1.5GHz 2C 2GB (1 x 2GB) 658553-001

Deal of the Week • Windows Home Server
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By on November 25th, 2011

Acer Aspire easyStore for $300

Deal-of-the-Week

The Acer Aspire easyStore  with Windows Home Server v1 is currently on sale at Newegg for $299.99 down from $499.99 saving $200 and that’s complete with 2GB of RAM and a 2TB hard drive installed – Nice!

Acer Aspire easyStore H342

 acer Aspire Easystore Tower Server System Intel Atom D510 1.66GHz 2C/4T 2GB AH342-U2T2H

Deal of the Week • Windows Home Server
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By on November 25th, 2011

2 Year Unlimited WHS Cloud Backup for $45

Deal-of-the-Week

CrashPlan+ online backup is the ideal solution for Windows Home Server users wishing to backup their data to the cloud. Although a WHS add-in is not available it is very easy to setup, affordable and reliable and is what we use here at MSWHS.com

And the good news is that they currently have a special Black Friday holiday offer with a 50% saving. Since you are backing up the server an unlimited Individual plan is fine and this offer is fantastic:

1 Year is normally $60 currently down to $49.99 which after the 50% discount means you only pay $24.99 or even better value is for 2 years which is normally $120 currently down to $89.99 which after the 50% discount means you only pay $44.99.

That’s $44.99 for 2 years unlimited backup for your Windows Home Server and if you buy it as a gift subscription (even it its for you) you also get approx. another month free too as gift subs don’t expire until December 25, 2012 for 1 year subscriptions and December 25, 2013 for 2 year subscriptions.

More details on this promotion is available here whilst you can purchase at these rates from here.

Deal of the Week • Windows Home Server
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