Computer Shopper online has a short look at at HPs EX490 MediaSmart Server.
In their first look report, writer Alan Lu had this to say:
Our initial impressions of HP’s MediaSmart EX490 are positive, but it will face stiff competition from the latest NAS models, such as Netgear’s upcoming Stora which can also automatically post your photos online.
You can read it here.
Fellow Windows Home Server MVP Olaf Engelke has written a great post on How to Troubleshoot Network Connection Problems with Windows Home Server.
Available on the official WHS Forums the how to explains what to do when:
..you try to install the Connector software from CD, the shared folder \\Server\Software\Home Server Connector Software or the Website http://server:55000 the server cannot be found at some point. The same can happen at a later time, if you try to open the console from the context menu of the already installed Connector. The error messages may vary, they may look like Server not found, The operation cannot be completed at this time or Password incorrect.
Olaf goes through 3 different methods to resolve this problem, which you can find here.
For those of you who don’t know, Tekzilla is tech internet television and the latest episode 110 looks at how to build yourself a Windows Home Server (10 Minutes in).
Maximum PCs Editor in Chief Will Smith chats to host Patrick Norton about hardware for your home build as well as some useful tips, which you can watch here.
The latest edition of The Home Server Show podcast is out and this weeks episode has some great chat about the HP MediaSmart Server’s as well as the latest news, listeners emails and off course the add-in of the week.
Episode 60 is available from here.
We have talked about P80 in the past but now developer Kris Rodenhausen has released P80 as a proper add-in which can be installed and uninstalled like other add-ins via the console.
P80 is a website that you can view via your homepage and gives a central overview of various kinds of information that you normally would need to query from all kinds of places (WHS Console, RDP etc).
P80 provides a lot of information into one compact website, which also has the advantage that it can be viewed using a web enabled mobile phone, which you can also use to shut down and reboot your machines too as long as you have AutoExit 2008R2 or 2009 installed too.
More information is available from here.
Microsoft employee Scott Hanselman explains how he recovered a PC by using the Windows Home Server recovery CD although it hadn’t got network drivers installed.
Since the PC being recovered was only used on a dial-up connection network drivers had never been installed so naturally the restore process stopped in its tracks. But by using a USB stick and a trip to Dell,s support site things were back on normal.
You can read Scott’s adventures here.
PCMag.com has an article on how to buy Network Attached Storage (NAS) with some general tips as well as reviewing 9 devices.
Out of the 9 devices reviewed the Acer Aspire easyStore H340 only got a 3 out of a 5 star rating whilst the HP MediaSmart Server EX487 got an impressive 4.5 out of 5. Both units are fully reviewed alongside the likes of the Apple Time Capsule and the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo.
Full details here.
Computer tech site Bjorm3d (B3D) had a problem with their computer not restarting after benchmarking some new hardware.
Luckily there was a Windows Home Server chugging along in the basement and after a recovery things were back to normal again.
There are a lot of good backup programs (for example Acronics has some good backup functionality in their imaging-program) but what I like with WHS is that it takes care of everything behind my back. It was so easy just selecting the date I wanted to “go back to” and then have it re-image all my harddrives (you get to choose which drives you want to bring back) and after an hour or so (it was much faster with my WD-harddrive).
The full story is here.
Launched at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the A2000 is a barebones server unit, which means that it comes as a case complete with motherboard and power supply, but without RAM, disks or an operating system.
It’s powered by the VIA C7-D processor running at 1.5GHz and comes with the VX800 chipset. The VIA ARTiGO A2000 uses a custom Nano-ITX motherboard. On Via’s own website they state that the motherboard is “optimized for system stability in always-on home server, streaming and download applications. Its silent ball-bearing fan ensures that the system is remains sufficiently cooled without creating unwanted noise.”. The implication here being that VIA have purposely designed the unit to work as a Windows Home Server unit.
Gizmodo is reporting that the LX197 and EX490 from HP are going to be available down under.
Both machines will be available in Australia on October 22 the same day that Windows 7 is officially released to the masses. It’s strange to see that yet again the EX495 will not be released in Aus the same decision HP came to for the UK as well.
More info at Gizmodo.
