Podcast – About Us!

I done a podcast today for the PerfectDisk Blog, which is a blog run by the people behind the defrag tool PerfectDisk 8 and is about everything you need to know about defragmentation. In the podcast I explain who I am, I go through some of the details of Windows Home Server and end with some info about our site here. The podcast is less than 10 minutes in length so it should not bore you too much.Eye-rolling

Read the PerfectDisk Blog entry with a link to the podcast.

Readers to the Rescue

We started earlier in the week with a reader asking for advice and since then we have a few more questions from Windows Home Server enthusiasts, or a potential one at least.

First up is Michiel who asks:

What are the best settings for WHS “Power Options”?
Is it possible to turn the hard disks off after 30 minutes for instance?
As a satisfied beta-tester I plan to have WHS in my home-computer-infrastructure. I want to know what the best settings are for energy saving (without turning WHS complete off 🙂

Regards,
and thanks in advance!

In this world of ever increasing electricity bills, good question Michiel. Next we have Scott who asks:

1) Can I use a Terminal Server client running on another PC on my LAN to get a “conventional Windows” interface coming from an WHS box? (ie, not the WHS admin interface)
2) From within Terminal Server, can I run Internet Explorer and install app’s like Windows Media Player — on the WHS box?

thanks,  -Scott

UPDATE 1: For those of you that don’t know about Terminal Server, Scott has pointed out to me that it is just a way to get a window on one PC that shows you what’s happening on another. You can use it to “make things happen” on another PC over a network. But the question is whether you can only get a WHS interface from a WHS box, or whether your can also get a “regular” Windows interface, and install/run other Windows applications.

UPDATE 2: Apparently, according to a thread on the WHS forums, using Terminal Server to control the desktop of a WHS device is a violation of the WHS EULA (however, I gather that may not apply to a handful of other specific tasks). So, that’s basically a deal breaker, which really is too bad.

This question is a follow on from the one Scott asked earlier this week which has now been updated and if you know your Terminal Server stuff then please give Scott a helping hand by leaving a comment.

Stop False Password Nags from the WHS Client

If you have installed Windows Home Server and previously had RC1 installed, or another machine on your network had the same name you are now using for WHS, chances are you might run into the situation where the WHS connector software on the client machine is always telling you that you need to “Update Your Password”.  Well, you will soon find out that no matter how many times you update it, the message never goes away.  It’s frustrating to say the least, and even when WHS says your password is out of sync with the server, you’ll find you can still access your shares and take backups.

The problem stems from the fact that on at least XP and Vista, Windows will store your credentials.  So if before you installed WHS you had another server on your network called “SERVER” then WHS gets confused about the old credentials being stored and no amount of updating your password seems to work.
If you run into this problem, on the client machine giving you problems go to your Start > Run window and type in:

rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr

Stored_Passwords

This will bring up the stored credentials dialog.  Find your WHS name, highlight it and hit remove.  Logout of the client machine and then log back in.  WHS may ask you to update your password one last time.  Go head and do it and now you should notice that the WHS connector client stops falsely informing you that your passwords don’t match.

Guest Writer
Robert Stinnett
www.robertstinnett.com

UPDATE by Philip Churchill – The above did not work for me until I done the following:

————————————————————————————————–
To finish, update your user password one final time through the WHS client:

Log on to the Windows Home Server Console
Click User Accounts
Right click the user and click change password
Type your password twice, even if its the same one!
Click ok

————————————————————————————————–

Some have also had success with the following as well, but only use as a last resort.
On the Client computer go to:
XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys
Vista: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys AND C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys
and see that the FOLDER AND ALL FILES in it have Full permissions for the Administrators GROUP and SYSTEM account.

Virtual SCALEO Home Server

For those of you that don’t know, Second Life is a 3-D online virtual world entirely created by its Residents. The infrastructure of user-built virtual worlds, is where people interact, play, trade and otherwise communicate.

image3 A virtual SCALEO Home Server from within the Green Island

As of October 17th 2007 Fujitsu Siemens Computers has opened the virtual gates to their Island in Second Life. Their green island includes Showrooms, conference meeting rooms, the headquarters of Fujitsu Siemens Computers in Second Life the Highlight-Tower, a shop and lots more.

Thanks to the German Homeserver Blog.

Podcast – Is Windows Home Server what the average home user should run out to get?

Popular software and game news site neowin.net have a weekly NeowinCAST podcast. There News Edition for October 18th 2007 includes a discussion on Windows Home Server and should the average home user run out to get it amongst other topics.
The part on WHS is 32 minutes into the podcast and lasts for approximately 10 minutes in this 50 minute podcast.

Webcast on the Windows Home Server Toolkit

The Windows Home Server Toolkit technical overview is the title of another live web seminar being offered on Microsoft’s Partner Program web site.

The Tool Kit is a collection of utilities that can help users diagnose Windows Home Server installation and operation related issues within their home networks. This webcast will give a technical overview of the Tool Kit functionality and it’s usability.

So join the Home Server Team for 1 hour as they demonstrate and discuss the recently released Windows Home Server Tool Kit on the 1st November at 9.00AM PDT. Another good one, not to miss.

For details and free registration.
For times in different Countries/time zones, see this page.

Windows Home Server SDK

For those of you wishing to tinker and write add-ins for Windows Home server, then don’t forget the Windows Home Server Software Development Kit (SDK) in it’s final version is available to help you.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb743248.aspx

avast! WHS Edition AntiVirus Updated to 2.1 Beta

The guys and girls at alwil software have been really busy.They have just updated their antivirus solution for Windows home Server to version 2.1 beta to include the following improvements:

  • Finally sets the firewall exceptions correctly on all OS’s (i.e. communication with the WHS console should now work immediately, unless a 3rd party firewall product is installed on the client machine)
  • Improved on-access scanning performance (applies to the WHS and Vista-based client PC’s)

The beta 2.1 server package is now at version 4.7.18 and the optional client software is at version 4.7.1066.

avast! WHS Edition is scheduled to be released in the first half of November 2007, so hurry if you want to beta test.

Installation instructions and downloads available from Avast.
Help to provide feedback in the WHS section of the Avast forums or by email to whsbeta@avast.com.

Windows Home server Review – Sysadmin Made Easy!

hwz_logo

Another comprehensive review of WHS is online. Entitled Windows Home Server – Sysadmin Made Easy!, the 7 page article can be found at the Asian HardwareZone Community website. The review first looks at the minimum requirements for Home server and then goes through the client installation. Backup and restore and user accounts are looked at and shared folders are discussed alongside server storage. Finally remote access and the Windows Home Server community are given exposure.

Installing software direct on the server – where to install

When installing software on the Server directly, it is fine to use the default installation directory (usually C:\Program Files) especially for utility software like defragmentation tools, anti virus solutions and third-party backup software. But remember the system drive C: has only 20GB allocated to it (in the RTM version), so installing too much software on the C: drive will eat into that space.

You can create directory’s on the D: drive and install to them as long as it is NOT in the D:\shares folder or subfolders. It is best practice to create folder(s) in the root of your D: drive and to stay out of the folders you see already present.

ddrive 

As you can see from the above image, apart from the Program Files folder on the C: drive, I have created an additional one in the root of the D: drive. Also present is an Incomplete folder for torrent files that are in the process of being downloaded.