“Microsoft Case Studies” highlights Bunten and Associates, a small accounting firm who incorporate a HP EX490 MediaSmart Server in their business.
The case study explains how the firm utilize Windows Home Server amongst their Windows XP and Windows 7 workstations, which you can read about here.
The first beta release of TwonkyMedia Server 6.0 is now available.
With the most important new feature being aggregation, here’s the release notes:
New in Version 6.0:
Changes:
You can download beta 6.0 from here.
Openfire is a piece of software which enables you to have an instant messaging (IM) server running on a Home or Small business network, enabling you (in this case) to have Yahoo, AOL and Windows Live (MSN) running directly from Windows Home Server.
HomeServerLand takes you step by step through the process of getting the software setup and configured which you can find here.
The Home Server Show podcast #86 takes a look at cloud services and your Windows Home Server. As well as the weeks Home Server news and views.
You can catch it here.
ServeTheHome.com has a guide to using the AutoExit Add-in from ASoft.
The guide takes you through the installation of the add-in plus it takes a look at the various features available too.
AutoExit is a must-have Windows Home Server add-in for anyone using their WHS to manage multiple PC’s. The amount of electricity one can save each evening can add up to several dollars per month. For users of Windows 7 premium, and less expensive Windows 7 variants, there is a potentially significant amount of time savings using AutoExit versus physically shutting down PC’s.
You can read it here.
So you have your Windows Home Server, with its four built-in drive bays already maxed out with storage. How are you going to expand it so you can rip the rest of your movie collection or store all of that TV you record on the Media Center?
Perhaps you can expand by connecting standalone external USB hard disks, but the thought of all of the cables and power bricks put you off. Instead why not look at using a five drive expansion case, and good start would be to consider the Sans Digital TowerRAID TR5UT-B.
I will start off by saying that this device is a little bit over specified for a Windows Home Server, because it has a very comprehensive RAID capability. I know there is debate over whether a WHS server should or shouldn’t have a RAID array connected to it, but for the purposes of this review, I am going to leave the RAID off and review it as a simple Port Multiplier eSATA controller connected to an HP MediaSmart server.
The How-To Geek has a nice tutorial in getting the add-in Addin Central up and running.
The tutorial also takes you through the various settings available for the add-in which enables you to find add-ins right from within the Windows Home Server console as well as notifying you when updates to your installed add-ins are available.
You can find it here.
Senior Product Manager with Microsoft’s Windows Server Marketing team Mark Pendergrast will be hosting a live Q&A Coffee Coaching session on the "HP StorageWorks X500 Data Vault & Windows Home Server".
So if you have questions, you may ask them on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 between 9:00 – 9:30 US Central Time.
You can access the meeting using U.S. Phone No. 1 866 409 2889 Passcode: 862-0356 or by using the Virtual Room link:
https://www.rooms.hp.com/attend/default.aspx?key=EP2AKVKUD8
IMPORTANT NOTE: Prior to this event you’ll need to test your browser. To do so please click the following link:
https://www.rooms.hp.com/testsetup/default.aspx
The How-To Geek has a "Complete Guide to Networking Windows 7 with XP and Vista" which also highlights Windows Home Server as:
…an ultimate setup that creates a centralized location to share files between all systems on your home network, regardless of the operating system…
You can read their guide here.
The Western Digital (WD) range of hard drive known as EARS come from the factory with their sector size set to 4K, which isn’t compatible with Server 2003 (and Windows Home Server).
Thankfully the Home Server Show blog has a guide on how to set up the HDD for use on Windows Home Server by either using the supplied jumber or by using the WD Align software.
The guys test the drive and report its results which you can find here.
