By on February 27th, 2010

Network Tuners and WHS

I’m sure we all know what DVBLink is now, and if not you should as its an excellent solution for having tuner cards in Windows Home Server.

Garry Whittiker and Jason Coombes join Ian Dixon in episode 245 of "The Media Center Show" podcast to discuss networked tuners using DVBLink.

Jason has all his tuners pooled in a Windows Home Server and then is using DVBLink to distribute the tuners around the network. Its an interesting solution and takes us closer to having a centralized TV tuner system. Jason is also streaming TV via DLNA to devices like PS3 and over the internet.

Episode 245 is available from here.

News • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 27th, 2010

Which Server for a Small Business?

If you are a SOHO or Micro-biz customer, a question you will eventually ask is "Which server is right for me?"

Blog “Ronaldg’s Ramblings” has a great post that looks at the various options available to you including Windows Server Foundation, SBS and Windows Home Server amongst other offerings.

You can read it here.

News • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 27th, 2010

Add-In: SabNZBd Beta 0.2.0.1

SabNZBd is a binary newsgroup downloader/newsreader available as a Windows Home Server Add-In by developer Michael Larsen.

SabNZBd Beta 0.2.0.1

SABnzbd simplifies the downloading verifying and extracting of files from Usenet (newsgroups), and uses NZB files (similar to .torrent files, but for Usenet), which can be acquired from a variety of usenet indexing services.

New features in SabNZBd Beta 0.2.0.1 are:

  • Working on German and French versions WHS?
  • Comes with SabNZBd 0.5.0
  • Will install SabNZBd as Windows System Service

More details are available from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 26th, 2010

Windows Home Server Priorities

Charlie Kindel was the General Manager for Windows Home Server until February 2009, when he moved to the windows phone team, responsible for the new Windows Phone 7 Series (and an excellent job he done with that, just like he did with WHS).

Charlie’s has a post on his blog "Charlie Kindel on Windows Phone Development", where he explains about how successful product development projects need to be focused and have priorities in place for project planning.

Of interest to us is a list of scenario priorities which were in place for the initial release of Windows Home Server:

  1. Backup
  2. Centralized Storage
  3. Remote Access
  4. Entertainment

And adjusted for Power Pack 2:

  1. Remote Access
  2. Entertainment
  3. Backup
  4. Centralized Storage

You can read Charlie’s full post here.

News • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 26th, 2010

Shared Folder Tutorial

The How-To Geek returns with another tutorial and this one explains how to access your shared folders, create and delete them, manage permissions, enable folder duplication and change folder properties too.

How-To Geek Shared Folders

You can find it here.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 25th, 2010

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 78

home_server_show_small

The Home Server Show podcast this week has Chris, John and Dave chatting about the latest Home Server news, add-ins as well as an interview with Alex Kuretz from mediasmartserver.net about the HP update for EX47x and EX48x owners.

Episode 78 is available here.

News • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 25th, 2010

HP 3.0 Software Shipping

The 3.0 software from HP to update the EX47x and EX48x range to the latest software is now available to order from HP.

To order the upgrade DVD, just visit www.hp.com and enter your product model number in the “Support and Drivers” section.  Then follow the path for your MediaSmart Server model number to order the appropriate upgrade.

CD_Encore_Install_Disc_EN  CD_Encore_MediaSmart_PC_Restore_EN_F  CD_Encore_MediaSmart_PC_Server_Recovery_EN_F

For those in the US, the price comes to $27.95 USD plus appropriate tax, whilst Canadians will have to pay $56.78 CAD plus appropriate tax.

CD_Encore_Install_Disc_EN  CD_Encore_MediaSmart_PC_Restore_EN_F  CD_Encore_MediaSmart_PC_Server_Recovery_EN_F

Those in the UK are directed to HP partner site Best2Serve who are charging £10 (currently offline).

News • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 25th, 2010

Defrag WHS Cheaply – And with a FREE Upgrade

With the latest version of PerfectDisk just around the corner, the makers Raxco Software have a pre-launch offer available for their defrag solution for Home Server users.

Until the 28th February (you better hurry!) as well as 20% off, you will also receive a FREE Upgrade to PerfectDisk 11 once released. All by using coupon code FREE11 at checkout.

You have 2 options available:

PerfectDisk 10 Windows Home Server Single Pack includes 1 PerfectDisk Pro license to also defrag 1 PC in your WHS environment – $49.99 (£32.59) $39.99 (£26.07)

OR

PerfectDisk 10 Windows Home Server Site License includes 10 PerfectDisk Pro licenses to also defrag every connected PC in your WHS environment – $99.99 (£65.18) $79.99 (£52.14)

More details on PerfectDisk 10 Windows Home Server (including a free trial) are available from here, whilst some videos detailing the features coming to PerfectDisk 11 are available here.

News • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 25th, 2010

Add-In: WHS Quicken 1.0.6.6

We mentioned last week that "The Office Maven" was completing an add-in which allows you to use the Intuit Quicken software from your Windows Home Server.

Entitled "WHS Quicken", the add-in is now available and works well at helping you keep track of your personal finances.

WHS Quicken Settings

You need to install a copy of Intuit Quicken directly onto your WHS, after which WHS Quicken will allow you to access that installed copy of Quicken using a customized remote desktop connection. So you can access that data from both the desktop of any client computer that is attached to your home network or from anywhere else using a web browser and a PC/Laptop with internet access.

WHS Quicken User Accounts Access

WHS Quicken Web Site Access 1  WHS Quicken Web Site Access 2

A WHS Quicken Connector app is also available, a small application that can be installed on any client machine that is used to connect to WHS Quicken and provides server-to-client and client-to-server interactions for both local AND Internet-based WHS Quicken connections. This allows you to transfer files from the server to the client, transfer files from the client to the server, quickly lock the connection to the server and change settings etc.

WHS Quicken Connector App - Client

WHS Quicken Connector App - Server

WHS Quicken is a full-fledged version 1.x commercial release and is available in a 21-day trial mode allowing you to try it out, without any restrictions or limitations for free. After that a single-server license for WHS Quicken sells for only $24.99 USD.

Localized in English, German, and French languages, you can download a copy of WHS Quicken using the Add-In Central add-in. Once Add-In Central is installed just open it up, select WHS Quicken from the list of available add-ins, and click on the Download button.

OR

As Add-in Central is currently still in beta and not widely available as yet, you can also contact The Office Maven (Mike Craven) directly to request a download link, if you are seriously interested in trying out WHS Quicken (BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME & EMAIL ADDRESS).

add-ins • Windows Home Server
Full Story
By on February 24th, 2010

Advanced Admin Console Walkthrough

The Advanced Admin Console add-in is designed for advanced Windows Home Server users so they can have more control over their Home Server’s.

How-To Geek Advanced Admin Console

The add-in has many features and the How-To Geek (again) has a great guide that takes you through the setup and the various features of the add-in, which you can find here.

add-ins • Tutorial • Windows Home Server
Full Story