Developer website ASP Free have a list of top add-ins for Windows Home Server which writer John Aubrey recommends.
Whiist, P80, Advanced Admin Console, Drive Labeler, uTorrent, Fireplay, Web Folders 4 WHS and Photo Sync are all taken a look at, which you can read here.
If you reside in Germany and purchase a Acer Aspire easyStore H340 from selected retailers you can receive a free entertainment package.
Comprising the following 5 movies:
As well as free 30 day access to over 8 million songs using the Napster music flatrate service.
After purchasing your Acer Aspire easyStore H340 you will find a coupon in the package with a link to the 8 million songs. The movies can be obtained by filling in the coupon and returning it to the address specified. After which, the films will be shipped directly to your mailbox.
More details from here (in German).
Lead program manager on the Windows Home Server team Mark Vayman chats about his role on the team in this short 3 minute video.
Mark who is an engineer on the development team and is the owner of the storage stack (Drive Extender) in WHS, has a home built Home Server at home which has 8TB of storage space for his collection of videos, photos and recorded TV.
As of today (19th Jan 2010) Japan now has the Power Pack 3 (PP3) version of the Windows Home Server media.
At the moment the rest of us in other parts of the world have to make do with the WHS DVD only having Power Pack 1 on it, which takes a long time until Windows Update updates it up to PP3 status.
Sources tell us media with PP3 is not long away for other countries.
Pictures courtesy of ASCII.jp
Paul McFedries has updated his mammoth 800 page Microsoft Windows Home Server Unleashed book. Due to be released on March 29, 2010 the second edition of Paul’s book has been updated to include details on PowerPack 1, 2 and 3.
Here’s what the publishers Sams have to say:
Microsoft Windows Home Server Unleashed, 2nd edition, is the most comprehensive, practical, and useful guide to Windows Home Server – including Microsoft’s major updates in PowerPacks 1, 2, and 3. Top Windows expert Paul McFedries offers tips, techniques, and shortcuts that can’t be found in any other book. McFedries covers all facets of running Windows Home Server: setup, configuration, file/folder sharing, networking, digital media streaming and sharing, backup/restore, monitoring, Web and SharePoint site deployment, performance optimization, maintenance, customization, and more. This edition thoroughly covers new Windows Home Server enhancements: " Support for Windows 7 libraries, backup/recovery, and Windows Search 4.0 " Recorded TV archiving " Windows Media Console Quick View " Drag-and-drop remote file uploading " New options for downloading remote files " Windows Media Center Connector " Remote Access Configuration and Repair Wizards, and more McFedries presents comprehensive coverage of every essential Windows Home Server security technique for both local and remote users. He also presents a full section on advanced Windows Home Server power tools, command line management, and automated scripting techniques. Throughout, he demonstrates key techniques through real-world examples, and presents network configurations that readers can easily understand and use in their own home environments.
- Practical, hands-on coverage of all facets of working with Windows Home Server, from configuration to media sharing, backup/restore to performance optimization
- Packed with tips, tricks, shortcuts, examples, and sample network configurations
- Includes thorough coverage of security for local and remote users
- Contains a full section on Home Server’s most advanced tools
The book is currently available as a "Rough Cuts" format, which is an evolving manuscript version that you can read online or download as a PDF and print. A Rough Cuts book is not fully edited or completely formatted, but you’ll get access to new versions as they are created.
More details including the full table of contents are available from here.
The ioSafe is a backup device which is ideal for Home Server users to backup their backups as it is fire, water, shock and crush resistant and is a good defense measure if a fire, flood, hurricane or what ever else, decides to destroy your Windows Home Server box.
The Home Server Show podcast have just posted a great video of the ioSafe where they drop it, set fire to it, hose it with water and then drop it from a massive height, and yes you guessed it, the internal solid state hard drive survived.
Recently version 1.00 of Lights Out was released, (which we looked at here), which now enables you to monitor not only your computers to keep your WHS running, but can also monitor other IP sources.
These IP sources can be anything in your home network that as its name implies will use an IP address. These can be static or DHCP served IP addresses, so sometimes can be a little difficult to track which devices you would like to monitor. For instance in my home setup I have routers, a Blackberry, (a Bold which supports Wi-Fi), a Squeezebox Duet, a XBox 360 and a Nintendo Wii amongst other devices!!
I can now use Lights Out to monitor both the Squeezebox (music player), and the Xbox which I also use as a media center extender, to see whether the WHS machine can shut down depending on whether these devices are still using my centrally stored media.
However, with the large amount of IP addresses that have been allocated by DHCP from the router, how do I tell which device is which from the IP address? The short answer is – I don’t! I use the MAC address finder as found at http://coffer.com/mac_find/ to tell me what device owns this MAC address. I can then name the device appropriately in Lights Out.
Have you heard of systems built around an Intel mini-itx mainboard that do not always power on after a mains failure?
If so, Tranquil PC have the solution for you in the form of the TPC0105. A module which like a little robot presses the power button for you each time the system has power applied to it.
The Intel mini-itx (Atom 230, 330 and N510 powered) main boards have had issues with AC Power recovery where the boards do not automatically power back up again after power disruption. An important feature for many Windows Home Server installations, where the servers are tucked out of the way.
This hardware fix in the form of the TPC0105 has been tested on ALL Atom powered Mini-ITX main boards, with a 100% success rate and will be available from the middle of February at a reasonable price.
More details are available from here.
MediasmartServer.net has details of a process documented by technical contributor "ymboc" on how to successfully clone and upgrade the Windows Home Server system drive.
This is handy for if you want to upgrade your smaller stock system drive to a larger one or for when you need to replace a failing system drive which is still working well enough to make a clone.
By using disk imaging software, changing DiskID numbers and changing some values in the registry you can have your cloned system drive up and running without any error messages, and don’t worry as "ymboc" documents the 30 steps necessary for the process.
An update for you on the DVBLink software we mentioned the other day which using one scenario allows you to install your tuners into Windows Home Server and watch on a small factor PC via Windows Media Center in your TV room.
On the Media Center TV setup i cancelled the signal detection and manually added a satellite source and then choose how many DVBLink tuners I had configured on my Windows Home Server, which in my case was 4, and all went well.
For our folk in the US it seems that at the moment ATSC/CableCards and analogue tuner cards are not supported, although US satellite is with Genpix tuner cards.
Since DVBLogic the makers of DVBLink are a European company luckily its not the same for us the other side on of pond here in Europe where most of the tuner cards are supported as long as they are BDA compatible, which most are.
More details are available from here.
UPDATE: The Digital Lifestyle.com has re-posted a setup guide with their own comments to make the setup process a lot easier. You can find it here.
