The Lenovo IdeaCentre D400 Home Server gets review at Maximum PC who give it a 7 out of 10 rating.
Their short review also has some benchmarks compared to a home brew Windows Home server, which you can find here.
Wayne Small’s backups started to fail on his Windows 7 PC which even hung when also trying a manual backup.
On inspecting the log files it became apparent that the fail was happening at the VSS Snapshot attempts.
Wayne run the VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS command as well as running a script to re-register the VSS writers which resulted in his backups now running the way they should.
You can read his story here.
"Setting up WebDav on Windows Home Server" is an article which is available at AwsomeGeeks.com.
It’s always convenient have access to your files from on or off network. However, sometimes it’s also essential for other people to have access too, especially if you collaborate together. Services like Dropbox are great, but if you’re not willing to shell out money to upgrade your storage space, you’ll need to look for a better, preferably free alternative. Enter WebFolders4WHS…
The article takes you through the installation and configuration of WebFolders4WHS and also provides a great tip for speeding up the mapped network drive too.
You can read it here.
DVBLink Server Network Pack version 3.0 is out, allowing you to watch your favorite TV channels not only inside your house, but also over the Internet using a browser interface wherever you are.
The DVBLink Server Network Client stays at version 2.1 to ensure interoperability with the currently available release version of all DVBLink source products and all existing DVBLink network pack users will upgrade for free as the new version of Network Pack will pick up their registration information automatically.
The one big addition to the DVBLink Server Network Pack v3.0 is that it allows streaming TV over the internet:
Streaming is done in Windows Media format that does not require any special codecs to be installed on the client side
A 20 day fully functional trial version of DVBLink Server Network Pack v3.0 can be downloaded from here. (ZIP file)
ASUS have taken a rather different path for their home server, forgoing the traditional four bay caddy design favored by other manufacturers for a sealed case that can hold two internal disks. So this is only a small capacity server then, aimed at users who don’t want to store a great deal of information? Well no, because if you spin the TS mini around and look at its rear, you will find six x USB 2.0 and two x eSATA connections meaning that you can expand the storage of this little server far beyond the limitations that its two internal drive capacity suggests.
Finished in shiny black with a silver top grill, the TS mini is an attractive little server which takes up no more space than a couple of hardback books, 245mm (h) x 96mm (w) x 204mm (d) to be exact.
The power button is on top, and the front panel has four status LEDs to let you know what’s going on. Having no hard disk caddies to slide in and out means it has no doors to open, which this gives things a nice clean and uncluttered look and a decidedly solid feel.
Around back you find the afore mentioned USB 2.0 and eSATA connections along with a gigabit Ethernet port.
Ian Dixon from "The Digital Lifestyle".com has posted the agenda for the Windows Media Center/WHS user group meeting which is taking place this Saturday (12th June 2010) in Birmingham in the UK.
Its great to see a session on an introduction to Windows Home Server Vail which will be hosted by fellow friend and MVP Andrew Edney from UsingWindowsHomeServer.com
So if you haven’t registered already head over here for the FREE registration details.
If you are using DVBLink v3.0 RC1 than a patch has been posted for the Network Pack which fixes the following issue:
To apply the patch, stop the DVBLink service and copy TVWebServer.dll into dvblink2\Sinks\TVWebServer and then start DVBLink server again.
Remember this patch is only for DVBLink v3.0 RC1.
You can download the ZIP file from here, whilst more information is available in the DVBLink forums.
Twonky have just released version 6 of TwonkyServer, the software which brings the connected home together.
TwonkyServer is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, and the Windows version works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Home Server.
Here’s some of its features:
TwonkyServer version 6 is priced at $19.95, there is upgrade pricing from previous versions and a trial version is also available.
More information is available from here.
Microsoft tech.ed 2010 North America starts today in New Orleans, LA until June 10th.
This annual event is the Microsoft premiere technical education and networking event for any technology professional interested in learning, connecting and exploring the current and soon-to-released Microsoft technologies, tools, platforms and services.
What’s of interest to us is that there is a session on Windows Home Server:
TLC-52 | Windows Home Server
Session Type: TLC Demo Station
Track: Windows Server
Level: 200 – Intermediate
Windows Home Server helps home users and small businesses store, protect, and access important data, both in the home or office and on the road. Windows Home Server provides a centralized hub for your important home and work documents, enabling you to search and find what you need. Using your personalized Web site address provided by Windows Home Server, you can access your computers and documents, so you don’t have to take it all with you. Windows Home Server also provides the ability to add storage and software add-ins allowing it to grow with your business as a long-term solution.
More details on the Microsoft tech.ed 2010 North America event are available from here.
First was FolderShare which then became Live Sync and then there was Live Mesh also. But soon there will be Windows Live Sync which will have the Live Mesh technology ported over to it.
So although Live Mesh is going, its features are still available in the new improved Windows Live Sync, which should be released by the end of this month in beta as part of the Windows Live Essentials package.
The improved Windows live sync now includes the features which were previously in Live Mesh (which many Windows Home Server users use), mainly the ability to sync your data directly to the cloud and the remote desktop feature where you can connect to the remote computer using one of the two available ways – using Windows Live Sync on another computer, or using the Windows Live Devices website.
When installing the new Windows Live Essentials, it will automatically remove Live Mesh it is already installed, and you will also need to set up your folders for syncing again.
Once setup you can sync with other computers you have Windows Live Sync setup or to SkyDrive using the SkyDrive synced storage where you get 2GB of free cloud storage, although 25GB is available on the actual SkyDrive storage itself for sharing Office documents and photos over the web. A comparison chart is available here.
Now on a bad note Live Mesh offered 5GB of free online storage and the new Windows Live Synch (only) offers 2GB, so we have lost 3GB of data storage, but as a plus Windows Live Sync will also support Windows Home Server Vail.
The Live Mesh MSDN Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/b/livemesh/p/faq.aspx did have a post (which since has been pulled, although it has been reproduced here[UPDATE 11th June 2010: The post is now back]) entitled "Windows Live Sync beta: FAQ if you used Live Mesh beta or the previous version of Sync", which posed the following:
Q: Why isn’t the Sync beta supported on Windows XP or Windows Home Server?
A: Given the growing popularity of Windows 7, we made the decision to invest our resources in building the latest version of Windows Live Essentials – including the new Sync – to enhance the Windows 7 experience. The newest generation of Windows Live Essentials includes innovative technology, including HD video file formats that aren’t supported on older operating systems such as Windows XP. As such, we made the difficult decision not to make this version of Windows Live available for Windows XP.For Windows Home Server users, the new Sync will work with the new version of Windows Home Server (code name “Vail”) – currently in preview.
This is great news and we look forward to beta testing Windows Live Sync.
More news on what’s new in Windows Live Sync is available from here.
