Add-In: Remote Alert 1.4.1

The add-in Remote Alert has had an update.

Remote Alert 1.4.1 Network Activity

The add-in allows you to monitor remote access attempts to your Windows Home Server, with real-time reporting using the WHS Health task tray icon.

Change Log:

  • Under certain conditions the Activity page would display duplicate sessions and resources in use – this bug has been fixed.
  • Network Activity Monitor has been refactored to add support for multiple network interface cards where the fastest connection will be automatically tethered. This behavior may be overwritten by naming your primary connection to the default “Local Area Connection”.
  • Revised update available checking mechanics, these are now polling the Add-in Central DB to check for updates available.
  • IP Connections blocklist import dialog window would sometimes hide behind the main console window has now been fixed.
  • Remote Access availability scheduler timer now supports 24 hour time formats
  • Improved Website section, performance, bug fixes such as session reload, improved “Remote Access Activity Only” and “Media Collector” filters.
  • Added DNS and Whois lookup option to Website section.

Remote Alert 1.4.1 IP Address Restrictions

Many new features have been added including DNS, Whois Lookup and automatic BLOCK options to the website section.

Remote Alert 1.4.1 Website Tab

More feature details inc. the download are available from here.

Mailbag 26th October 2010

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Upgrading HP LX195 to 64 bit
Backup two Windows Home Servers to each other
Windows Home Server Random Backups
USB 3.0 Hard Drives Going Missing
System Drive Showing as Unhealthy
Windows Home Server UPS Power Restorer

It’s been an extremely busy week as you will see below, some very old problems springing up and a lot of people have been contacting with failing system hard drives. This is always a concerning trend, as Microsoft don’t really provide an easy step by step process to changing a hard drive in Windows Home Server v1, although it can be done both scenarios below should be undertaken with meticulous attention to detail, as either could cause a loss of data. One thing I can reassure users with is that in Windows Home Server “Vail”, the process of changing your system drive has been much improved.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Upgrading HP LX195 to 64 bit

David Asks:

Is there any way to upgrade my HP LX195 to 64-bit capability so VAIL can be installed? e.g. replace the CPU?

There is much confusion with the new Windows Home Server Vail Edition, and that in most part is caused when trying to install the new OS on a 32bit system. Vail is a 64bit only OS so most current Windows Home Server won’t be able to directly upgrade from Windows Home Server v1 to Windows Home Server Vail.

In this case David the HP LX195 already has 64bit architecture, so you will be able to install Vail onto the HP Home Server without having to make any hardware changes. Although you won’t be able to upgrade from WHS v1 to WHS Vail, you will have to do a clean install.

Backup two Windows Home Servers to each other

Ken Asks:

We have a Windows Home Server at home and another at our small retail business. Is it possible to back them both up (all or selected portions) to each other? Any idea when the next version of WHS (Vail) will be released?

I covered this slightly last week, and it seems to be getting some interest. I think Microsoft should have given people to the ability to backup and restore there servers properly from the start, or at least in Power Pack 3. Unfortunately this isn’t the case and people are now looking for ways to backup there server in the event of a system drive failing just like Chris’s WHS below.

As I said last week, I am aware this can be done but personally I haven’t tried to set this up. If you were planning on doing something like this, I would approach with caution. Something like this could cause problems with WHS Drive Extender if you tried to backup the shares as well as the system drive, for this reason I would only backup the system drive if you was to attempt it. For me the pros just don’t out way the cons.

One thing that might alleviate your fears in the future is the arrival of Windows Home Server Vail, which has got in-built backup and restore facility. I can also tell you that it works very well and will certainly backup and restore not only your shares but your entire WHS, even if you have got a failed system drive. Unfortunately though I am not privy to the release date at the moment, although I am reliably informed it could be as early as February next year.

Windows Home Server Random Backups

Mark Asks:

I have been running Windows Home Server for quite a long time, it’s is a fully updated HP EX485.

For some reason one of the 3 clients it backs up doesn’t backup regularly. Two of the 3 client’s backup fine every day, those machines stay home and are on from 5am-10pm. The third client is my work laptop so it leaves with me weekday mornings and is on the network at home from about 5:30pm until 10:00 PM. The backup window on my WHS is 5:00am-10:00pm.

On weekends when the third client is online at home all day it backs up fine. I have configured the client’s settings numerous times with no luck.

I have personally experienced these kinds of problems many times, my mother has 2 laptops and 1 desktop her Windows Home Server has lights out installed so once they turn on one of the 3 machines it turns on the server. However it seems that because the machine is on before the WHS it, refuses to backup the machines, unless one machine is turned on and the server then boots and then another machine is turned on, this will then backup the later machine.

These kinds of scenarios have been happening for a long time with Windows Home Server v1, unfortunately I have not been able to find a pattern to why it happens hence I am not able to give you a resolution. The only way I have made sure that all the machines are backed up is to, manually right click the WHS tray icon and click backup now.

I have noticed that Windows Home Server doesn’t always backup straight away as soon as the dedicated backup time arrives, I am thinking that this may have something to do with this in the week for you. I would like to collect more scenarios about this so I can investigate further to try and find a resolution, if anybody has more instances please drop me a message via the “ask a question” at the top.

USB 3.0 Hard Drives Going Missing

Ronald Asks:

I just installed a two-port USB 3.0 card in my WHS. Driver installed fine, and at first all drives worked well. Then one of the two drives connected to this two-port (one drive per port) card would intermittently report as ”missing” – coming in and out, then after the drive was no longer ”missing” there were file conflicts.

I tried restarting the machine several times – always with the same result. (OK at first, then this one drive would intermittently report as ”missing”, then there would be file conflicts).

I decided to remote into the machine (it is headless) and see if I could check and repair the D: drive. I right clicked on that D: drive, pulled up the error checking tool, told it to try to fix everything, and then restated the system. That was only a half hour ago, and with the 8 TB of space I’ve got I assume that this process could take some time, but not having a keyboard or a monitor on the machine I don’t know how it’s going. Should I be concerned?

This sounds like you may have a faulty USB Hard Drive, USB 3.0 Card or USB Cable. The reason you are getting file conflicts is because Windows Home Server starts to move data over to new drives once added for file replication (that is if you have file replication turned on).

When a hard drive keeps dropping out during data transfer, you will inevitably get corrupted data if it drops out enough/often. My advice would be, find the problem first, such as above, and then you need to do a CHKDSK which it sounds like you may have already done. CHKDSK can take a long time on a big drive, more so because you have told it to check every sector of the drive and make sure the data is ok, if not recover it, this is fine but Windows Home Server sees the D drive as all the drives put together, which basically means your 8TB of storage will all be CHKDSK’d.

You shouldn’t get any issues from doing a CHKDSK, although it will take hours to do the amount of storage you currently have. If after this CHKDSK has completed and there are still problems, remove the drive from the WHS console and then do a CHKDSK on a separate machine on the drive and make sure that comes back ok, only when you are sure the errors have been eradicated should you re-add the drive to the WHS console.

System Drive Showing as Unhealthy

Chris Asks:

My system drive is showing as unhealthy. Assuming it’s not going to recover, what is the bay way with the least hassle to get the system back to good health?

This is very murky water with Windows Home Server v1, Microsoft’s official response to this is to run repairs on the drive, you can do this by going into the WHS console and clicking on “server storage” you can then right click the problem drive and select “repair”, if that fails, replace the drive.

Microsoft’s way of replacing the system drive is to remove the old drive, install the new drive, then run the Windows Home Server installation disk, taking the “Server Reinstallation” option when prompted.

This is a very poor way of allowing people to remove and replace/upgrade their system drive; the one problem with this is that you will lose all of your backups, users and computer information within the WHS console. Admittedly no data is lost as all your shares will be completely intact but it will take hours after the WHS install for the shares to be re-built.

The other option for replacing the system drive is to use drive cloning software, something like “Acronis True Image Home 2010” will do the trick, and it’s very easy to do but attention to detail while going through this process is imperative.

There are many good and useful guides on the internet on how to go through this process, one I think is very easy to follow and very detailed is Alex Kuretz post over at mediasmartserver.net you can find it here.

You can use this same process for upgrading your WHS system drive, I must point out that this is not a solution to back up your Windows Home Server System drive, and of course this carries the risk of possibly damaging your Windows Home Server installation or could even result in data loss.

Windows Home Server UPS Power Restorer

John Asks:

I’ve got my WHS plugged into a UPS and have all the options set to gracefully turn the server off in the event of a power failure.

Have you heard of any product or UPS that will cause the server to turn it-self back on when power is restored?

I am aware there are some UPS systems that will bring the server back on after a power outage; they work by using Wake-on-LAN (WOL) to turn the system back on, they also monitor the current before turning the system back on to make sure a second outage isn’t imminent.

My experience with these types of UPS have only been in a business environment, although this type of hardware is out on the market, I believe them to be very expensive and not really aimed at the domestic user, although please let me know if you do find something suitable for a Windows Home Server user, we can definitely do a review on it if advantageous to our users.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

www.lpower.co.uk | Quality Laptop Batteries, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, 12 Month Warranty.

The HP ProLiant MicroServer Video

HP ProLiant MicroServer

Microsoft and HP’s The Coffee Coaching channel on YouTube have posted a 6 minute video on the HP ProLiant MicroServer, the affordable AMD Athlon II powered small business server.

An ideal home for Vail?

Add-In: AVA Media for Windows Home Server 1.6.0.3

The CD/DVD ripping add-in for Windows Home Server users has had an update.

Version 1.6.0.3 of AVA Media includes the following changes:

  • Added: Support for Nimbie NB11 DVD/Blu-ray media center copying.
  • Added: Event Handler functionality
  • Added: Mede8er meta-data storage.
  • Update: Dune interface improved.
  • Update: TViX interface improved.
  • Change: MetaData files moved to user customization
  • Fix: AnyDVD is now set to be silent to prevent popups during disc identification.

More details are available from here.

Add-In: MSEN – Microsoft Security Essentials Notifier for WHS 0.0.0.1

You may be aware that Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) now works with Windows Home Server, installing fine and giving malware protection to the server. But there is no way of telling if a virus has been detected or if your virus and spyware definitions have been updated. Well, now you can courtesy of "Maplegrove Partners" who have just released MSEN – Microsoft Security Essentials Notifier for Windows Home Server.

MSEN 0.0.0.1

MSEN allows you to receive notification to your client computers of definition updates, scans on your hard disk, and detected malware.

Features:

  • Instant notification to clients when Security Essentials has new information.
  • Hassle-Free install and no configuration required.
  • Status reports without opening your console or using RDP.

Although this is the initial release, "Maplegrove Partners" are still looking to add functionality in future versions as well as support Windows Vail which is great news.

More information on this release is available from here.

WHS Presentation Resources

The GreatLakes Geek show interviewed MVP Kevin Royalty at a Windows Home Server presentation he was doing at the Greater Cleveland PC Users Group earlier this month.

Kevin Royalty at GCPCUG

The 13 minute interview (via 2 videos), is accompanied by Kevin’s slides from the user group meeting. A massive 80 slides on WHS itself and a smaller 35 slide deck on WHS Vail.

The slides and videos are available from here.

DVBLink v3.2 Beta1 Public Beta

DVBLink have released v3.2 beta1 of their products for public beta.

Their great software which enables you to use a Windows Home Server for housing tuner cards includes the following changes:

DVBLink TVSource
– Added EPG from the stream (EIT packets) support
– TeVii S660 support (changed tuner name)
– Support for new TBS tuners drivers
– Digital Devices CI module support
– Terratec H7 dvb-t tuner support (changed tuner name)

DVBLink Server Network Pack
– Guide listings in a webbrowser and remote timer recordings programming
– IPhone streaming support

General
– Added Chinese and Polish languages
– DVBLink channel number assignment when doing EPG channel mapping (for example for Sky xmltv listings)
– EPG program information overwrite on each update. This means that previously incomplete EPG data will be overwritten with a newer one when it becoms available.

Installation details plus the download links are available here.

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 109

home_server_show_small

Episode 109 of "The Home Server Show" podcast is up with the weeks WHS news.

Taken a look at this week is the Western Digital 3.0TB hard drive drive and an interview with up and coming Add-In author Christian Johnson.

You can catch it here.

The Western Digital 3.0TB Hard Drive

WD Caviar Green Hard Drive

Yesterday Western Digital (WD)announced the availability of their new offerings in the Caviar Green line. The $189 2.5TB model and the 3.0TB priced at $239. Both models are SATA 3 Gb/s, come with 64MB of Cache and being of the Green variety only consume 6 watts during read/write operations and less than 1 watt during standby/sleep. But off course being an advanced format drive this hard drive will be of no use for version 1 WHS users, but ideal for those of you currently testing Vail.

More information is available at WD, whilst hardware review sites AnandTech and LegitReviews give us their reviews.

Matt’s Mailbag 19th October 2010

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Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click ask a question above!

Arthur Asks:

Is there an app which allows me to stream music from my WHS to my android phone?

Currently there is no app current or planned available to view any WHS resources via the Google Android platform. Although if anyone does learn of such an app or maybe you are developing an app, please let me know, we can then review and post about it on the site.

Matt Asks:

I’m new to WHS, but I am really interested as I want more than just a NAS for my home.

1. Can files be shared with WHS as it is with a business network?

2. Can all kinds of files be shared, not just media, such as Excel?

Matt, Windows Home Server has no restrictions on what content or media type such as Excel or Word you share around your home network. What you share on a business network could also be shared over a home network via Windows Home Server. I have seen many instances of Windows Home Server being used in both domestic and business premises.

Matthew Asks:

Can I use WHS with computers running different operating systems at the same time? I have read there’re compatible OS’s, but I wanted to make sure all could exist on a WHS driven network at the same time.

Windows Home Server resources can be used by a number OS’s on a single network; however only Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Apple OSx (with some fiddling around and only via time machine) can be backed up. Windows Home Server Vail has the native ability to backup Apple OSx straight out of the box, although there is no plan currently to extend this support to other OS’s.

Teckset Asks:

I have a HP Media Smart Server EX485 and a homebuilt OEM WHS. I’ve heard briefly of some people connecting two WHS machines (with different names) together so they backup each other up.

Is that really possible and are there any guidelines or advice you might have?

I haven’t attempted it yet, but I would think I would only need to backup the OS partition for each WHS. Added the Driver Extender partition would cause problems, I presume?

I am aware this is possible but personally I haven’t tried to set this up, I would approach very carefully if you were to set something like this up. Yes it could cause problems with the drive extender and yes I would only backup the system drive if attempted, for me the pro’s just don’t out way the cons’s.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click ask a question above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk