By on March 27th, 2014

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 256

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Episode 256 of the Home Server Show podcast is all about home automation:

I’m departing from server talk for the week to talk with Kevin Schoonover about SmartThings.  This is a Home Automation company that makes Z-Wave hubs and devices to interact with your home.  Use them to alert, automate, and inform.  Find out all about it in this episode.  We will explain in depth and tell you about example uses for your house and your data center.

You can find episode 256 here.

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By on March 26th, 2014

Add-In: Drive Bender v2.0.3.6 Beta

Drive Bender have released a new update to their beta build.

Version 2.0.3.6 beta has the following change log:

  • [Bug fix] When starting, a single drive can take a number of minutes to load. This delay can the result in a number of system services failing to start.
  • [Bug fix] With the "Dark" theme, disabled field have an incorrect background color.
  • [Bug fix] Text incorrect for drive offline action option.
  • [Bug fix] Minimising and restoring the Manager results in the drives list becoming corrupt.

You can find this release here.

Drive Bender ER1 Pool Management

Also of interest is that Early Release 1 of Drive Bender is not far away, and more details on the coming features can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
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By on March 25th, 2014

KeepVault 45% Discount

Its backup awareness week 2014 and to start the celebrations online backup provider KeepVault are offering a 45% limited-time discount.

The discount applies to pricing for Windows Home Server 2011, WHS Original and Server Essentials.

The KeepVault WHS Dashboard Add-In

More details for WHS users can be found here and for Server essentials users here.

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By on March 21st, 2014

Add-In: Drive Bender v2.0.3.4 Beta

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The beta build of Drive Bender has a new release.

Version 2.0.3.4 beta has the following change log:

  • [Updated feature] Updated driver to the release driver.
  • [Bug fix] When attempting to delete a file that the user does not have permission to delete, the driver is now reporting the error correctly under Windows 8 and Server 2012.
  • [Bug fix] An incorrect CRC value can be returned when a file is zero bytes in length.
  • [Bug fix] The CRC calculation on a file can cause the file to become locked.
  • [New feature] Added option to have all mount points dismount if one or more drives go offline.
  • [Updated feature] Improved drive detection when a system wakes from sleep (prevent drive offline messages).
  • [New feature] Added an option to dismount mount points when removing or swapping a drive.
  • [Bug fix] During balancing all drives are now checked to make sure all are flagged as ok (otherwise balancing is aborted).
  • [Updated feature] Added user authentication to the pooling of network drives.
  • [Updated feature] Improved the way drives are checked to determine if they are on/offline.
  • [Updated feature] Tuned a number of the DB Manager / addin themes.
  • [New feature] Drive details are persisted across reboots (i.e. is a drive goes offline, Drive Bender retains key information such as the volume name, mode and serial numbers across reboots).
  • [Bug fix] Fixed a number of issues with the new "Dark" theme.
  • [New feature] The "Dark" theme is now the default theme.
  • [Bug fix] The drives list now resized into multiple columns space permitting.
  • [Bug fix] The width of the columns in the File Access list are now retained.

This latest beta release can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
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By on March 20th, 2014

60% Off Microsoft Press eBooks

With Microsoft Press leaving oreilly.com, the guys are offering 60% off ALL eBooks from Microsoft Press for one week only.

With such titles as Windows Server 2012 R2 Inside Out: Configuration, Storage, & Essentials for just $7.99 and Windows Server 2012 R2 Inside Out: Configuration, Storage, & Essentials for just $19.20 plus many more.

60 Percent Off Microsoft Press eBooks

Just head here, choose your eBooks and use discount code WKFAREW – Deal expires March 26, 2014 at 5:00am PT, and cannot be combined with other offers. Offer does not apply to Print, or "Print & Ebook" bundle pricing.

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By on March 19th, 2014

My Movies 5 Pre Release 4

My Movies 5 Pre Release Dashboard

Pre release 4 for My Movies 5 has just been released with the following change log:

  • Added: Access to API through marking on service. To take care of existing customers using the API.
  • Change: The requirement to have same username/password on server and client machines is no longer a requirement.BR} Change: Windows Defender and Essentials Security set to exclude the full My Movies storage dir.
  • Fix: In case of incorrect values in registry, AnyDVD could show as version 0.
  • Fix: The SQL Server now have the TCP/IP protocol enabled, and correct "Private" network firewall exceptions are added.
  • Fix: The dashboard link for the Collection Management program did not work.
  • Fix: Remove Element API command did not work.
  • Fix: Removed re-occurring logging that could quickly fill up the log.
  • Fix: Nimbie processing could not start.
  • Fix: Lack of localization on cover context menu.
  • Fix: The TV Series lookup dialog was not working.

IMPORTANT – PRE RELEASE 4: The complete file storage functionality have been changed in this release. Due to this, it is very, very important that you create a database backup before installing this Pre Release.  You also need 2,500 points on your user account to use the Pre Release, or registered professionals can download a demonstration license in the installer area.

More information on My Movies 5 is available from here.

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By on March 18th, 2014

CloudBerry Backup Introduces Cloud to Local Backup

The CloudBerry Blog explains that new in version 3.8 of CloudBerry Backup is a new feature, Cloud to Local Backup:

With Cloud to Local Backup functionality comes valuable ability to automate transfer of any kind of data kept in the cloud to a local or network drive.

Cloud to Local Backup in CloudBerry Backup

Their blog post explains how to use this feature, which can be found here.

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By on March 12th, 2014

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 255

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What is an average server?

The answer could be on episode 255 of the Home Server Show podcast:

We talk about enthusiast sized servers all the time but how about something a little more normal?  John Stutsman, Christopher Courtney, and Chris Kenney all join in to discuss what could possibly be an “average” server.

You can find this week’s episode here.

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By on March 10th, 2014

Add-In: Drive Bender v2.0.3.2 Beta

Drive Bender Logo

The beta release of Drive Bender has a new release.

Version 2.0.3.2 beta has the following change log:

  • [Bug fix] Pool restore not be offered when the Manager first starts.
  • [Bug fix] Multiple queues of the same type could be created causing conflicts.
  • [Bug fix] Notification icon was not returning to the correct color.
  • [Bug fix] The duplication manager could crash is there is no available mount points.
  • [Updated feature] Added the "Dark" theme.
  • [Updated feature] Themes can now be changed without restarting the Drive Bender Manager (Server addin does not support this feature).
  • [Bug fix] When a duplication task is being rescheduled, the rescheduling can fail.
  • [Updated feature] Updated internal file copy/move routines to improve file locking issues.
  • [Bug fix] Opening the Running Tasks windows could cause them Manager to hang.

This beta release can be downloaded from here.

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By on March 10th, 2014

Down Time Apology

Apologies for the 39 hours of downtime.

From Sunday to Monday mswhs.com was experiencing downtime due to a host error. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and can inform you that everything is back to normal.

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