By on September 25th, 2008

Upgrade Memory without Voiding Warranty on the HP MediaSmart Server

Based on customer feedback HP are now allowing owners of MediaSmart Server’s to upgrade the memory without voiding the warranty after research showed that some customers were installing multiple add-ins and/or additional software, which could lead to a need for additional memory.

This is great news as now upgrading the memory, in itself, will not void the warranty on the MediaSmart Server, but HP did state that damage to any part of the MediaSmart Server during the upgrade may violate the warranty on the unit, leaving the cost for repairs the responsibility of the customer.

HP also stated that they are only providing an upgrade path for memory at this time and that HP does not support any other hardware upgrade paths, such as processor upgrades, on the MediaSmart Server apart from the disk drives

Those requiring the memory upgrade will have to do it their selves as customers will not be able to send their MediaSmart Server’s to HP for the upgrade and authorized resellers will not be recommended or trained to do so either.

HP has not qualified any particular DIMMs, but compatible memory includes 1GB or 2GB – DDR2 667 MHz DIMMs and customers should not upgrade beyond 2 GB of memory. It is also a good idea to perform a backup to an external device before adding additional memory.

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By on September 24th, 2008

WHS Protects Users from Dying Hard Drives

Microsoft has published a Knowledge Base article (KB950193) for users running Power Pack 1 (PP1).

If you remove a hard drive incorrectly by NOT using the Remove a Hard Drive Wizard before physically removing a hard drive OR a hard drive experiences a physical failure THEN some files may be unrecoverable on Windows Home Server BUT only if the shared folders has Folder Duplication enabled.

This would show via a health notification in the console reporting that a hard drive is missing.

To avoid this issue make sure that you use the Remove a Hard Drive Wizard before physically removing any hard drives from your Home Server, which is available on the Server Storage tab within the Windows Home Server Console.

But, what about if a hard drive fails?
Well that is not going to be a problem either, as a small update has been made available on the Windows Update/Microsoft Update site which will resolve the problem. To receive it make sure that Windows Home Server is set to install updates automatically, which can be set from within the Console – Settings –General page, Windows Update section – On (recommended).

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By on September 23rd, 2008

WHS Technical Brief Updates

As you may be aware Microsoft publish a variety of Technical Brief’s for Windows Home Server (see here), three of which have been recently updated to incorporate PP1 information:

Technical Brief for Home Networking November 2007 Version 1.0 – August 2008 Version 1.1
Technical Brief for Windows Home Server Drive Extender October 2007 Version 1.0 – August 2008 Version 1.1
Technical Brief for Home Computer Backup and Restore November 2007 Version 1.0 – 1.1 August 2008 Version 1.1

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By on September 22nd, 2008

Block Porn with Windows Home Server

Have you thought about running a proxy server or an Internet proxy on Windows Home Server. But why would you do that?

One reason is that you could view sites that your company blocks access to (naughty!) or to control web content served in your home by blocking sites (porn etc.) or even keywords to keep pages from being served.

There are many products on the market which can do this including a free software product called FreeProxy which will do the job.

FreeProxy

Blogger Joe DiFiglia details the setup and configuration in his 4 page tutorial and details the fine tuning, how to add some authentication and also setup the Windows Firewall.

Plus a really nice feature of FreeProxy is that you have a basic working proxy out of the box, you only need to configure the service to get it up and running, which is all explained for you here.

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By on September 22nd, 2008

Add-In: TV Manager 1.0.1

Add-In TV Manager has been updated to version 1.0.1. The add-in moves your Media Center recordings to your server for storage and management. You can also watch the recordings from the TV Manager Web Interface to non-MC PCs over your local and Internet connection.

New in v1.0.1 is the ability to have TV Manager notify selected email addresses when a new recording for select shows are available for viewing. The recording is then quickly readied in the case you wish to view the recording out of the house using the new web interface.

Changes since 1.0

  • Added Single-sign-on for Web Interface
  • Created Web Interface
  • Fixed Ghost Recording Bug
  • Removed Console Tab
  • Added Email Notifications
  • Removed ComSkip — Had too many problems and people didn’t understand "Experimental"
  • Fixed Move Errors
  • Changed Air Date to the date recorded.
  • Allowed Client install on Non-MC PCs.

The download and a 12 page PDF document is available from the developers site, Brent’s Blog.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on September 22nd, 2008

One Mans Backup Strategy

Digital photography enthusiast Ian Weatherburn has been blogging about his Backup strategies, which includes having his office computers configured as RAID-0, using a Drobo unit with 4TB of storage along with synchronization software Allways Synch.

But that’s not all! Next is an Intel NAS RAID-5 Server which has 4 500GB hard-drives configured as RAID-5 which does full-system backups and backups of all other purchased software, music and any other important data that Ian has. These full system backups are generated using the software Acronis True Image Home which runs on each workstation.

Finally Ian has also recently just installed a Windows Home Server on his network to determine it’s efficiency.

As Ian states:

Does this all sound paranoid? Possibly? Overkill? Probably? But then again, I take comfort in the fact knowing that my data is secure and redundantly stored in the event of failure. I say again – hard drives fail! It’s just a matter of time. Have you backed up your data lately?

What’s your opinion, what do you reckon, overkill?

You can read Ian’s full blog entry here.

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By on September 18th, 2008

Installing SqueezeCenter on Windows Home Server

Blog “Home Automation Direct” has a step by step guide on how to install SqueezeCenter 7 on Windows Home Server.

SqueezeCenter from Logitech is a powerful and free Open Source software that will power any Squeezebox, Transporter or any software MP3 player on your network and includes the following features:

  • Web Interface—control the player and manage playlists from a web browser
  • MP3 & WMA Internet radio
  • Alarm clock
  • Automatically imports iTunes library and playlists (Windows and Mac)
  • Automatically imports metadata tags
  • Browse and search by title, artist, album or genre
  • Shuffle and repeat albums or songs
  • Create, save, and import .pls, .cue and .m3u playlist files
  • Displays current date and time when not playing
  • Open protocol and command line API—easy to control from other applications
  • Expandable through 3rd party plug-ins and skins
  • Supports multiple synchronized players
  • Cross platform Open Source software, written in Perl (GPL)
  • Listen from any computer using an MP3 software player (Winamp or iTunes)

    • The directions can be found here.

    Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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    By on September 18th, 2008

    Pimp My Server – Big Time!

    This must be the mod of mods. A user by the name of “Diehard” has posted images of his MediaSmart Server modification, where he inserts the insides of a PopCorn Hour device (a Digital Media Streaming product designed for end-users, enthusiasts and professionals) into his server.

    Mod of Mods

    Modder “Diehard” stated:

    I just have to finish the install. make a cable to connect the main board in the video connector. run a network cable for the popcorn out the back between the USB ports and the Esata. Power for the popcorn.

    I loose the top drive bay but that’s OK, 3TB plus the Esata is plenty.

    More pics are available from here.

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    By on September 18th, 2008

    Makeover for Dedicated HP MediaSmart Server Site

    MediaSmartServer.net the site designed for HP MediaSmart users has had a makeover, with some cosmetic and feature oriented updates.

    The Wiki is still there, a new frontend and the heart of MediaSmartServer.net the forums with a new color scheme and forum software upgrade. So if you are a proud owner of HP’s MediaSmart Server or are thinking of purchasing one, head on over.

    The HP MediaSmart Server Enthusiast Community

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    By on September 17th, 2008

    Obtain and Install a Secure SSL Certificate on WHS

    MediaSmartHome.com has a tutorial on obtaining a secure SSL certificate for a custom domain name and installing that certificate on the Windows Home Server.

    Web Server Certificate Wizard

    We are shown how to obtain the custom SSL certificate and how to get into the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager on the Home Server to import the new certificate.

    Read it here.

    UPDATE: The tutorial has been removed from MediaSmartHome.com but is still available at MyHomeServer.com.

    Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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