MS Windows Home Server

50% Off Working With Windows SBS 2011 Essentials

Working with Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is a new book by fellow MVP Andrew Edney, Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford which is available in Print, Ebook or Safari Books Online:

Set up and manage your own efficient, low-cost network

Get up and running quickly with Windows® Small Business Server 2011 Essentials—and learn how to use this network solution to organize and help protect your business data. This hands-on guide provides extensive walkthroughs and tips to help you successfully deploy, manage, and support your company’s network and applications. All you need is minimal IT knowledge.
 
Discover how to:
•Plan your network infrastructure as your first, critical step
•Configure and maintain the network to help protect your data
•Create user accounts and connect client computers
•Manage shared server folders and set up permissions
•Install network printers and determine how they’re shared
•Inspect your network’s health with Performance Monitor
•Provide security-enhanced remote access via the web or a VPN
•Troubleshoot problems and be prepared in the event of a system failure

If you currently order direct from O’REILLY and use the coupon code DDBZS during checkout then you can get either the ebook version (ePub, Mobi, PDF) for $17.99 or both the ebook and print version for $31.49 a saving of 50%.

Want to see what’s in the book?
There is a 23 page PDF sampler available for direct download here.

WHS 2011 and the HomeGroup Feature

Gordon Schmidt enabled Homegroup on his WHS 2011 build but noticed once done that it allowed any user on the network to have access to all of the shared folders that he has on his Home Server:

“This is not what I want and was a show stopper for me in implementing Home Groups into my production architecture.”

You can read his account here.

WD vs Samsung 2TB Storage Hard Drive Shootout

CCL Online, a British online computer store has a review of the 2TB WD and Samsung hard drives. In their shootout each green drive is taken through synthetic tests and some real-world transfers to allow a comparison of what you can really expect.

Which one should you buy? You can find out here.

The New HP ProLiant MicroServer

The HP ProLiant MicroServer has been refreshed with some new hardware and a software version too.

The chassis remains the same but inside is now a 1.5 GHz AMD Turion II Neo N40L processor, an upgrade from the previously used 1.3GHz AMD Athlon II Neo chip. An extra gig of memory is now added as standard including the 250GB hard drive for just $349 (£219 + VAT), which makes the base model an ideal home for Windows Home Server 2011.

And for the small business/micro business user there is also a model which now comes with Windows SBS 2011 Essentials, 4GB of RAM and 2x500GB hard disk in a RAID configuration for $899 (£565 + VAT)

More details on these models are available from both HP USA and HP UK.

Video: ProLiant MicroServer with SBS Essentials 2011 Video

HP have a new video advertising the great ProLiant MicroServer with SBS 2011 Essentials on board:

The ad claims that this complete solution is available for less than $1000

Its green utilizing a 85%+ efficient PSU and is the perfect first server solution for the small business supporting up to 25 users with a configuration that includes RAID storage.