Entries tagged with whs - Channel 10

WHS Outlook Beta

sarahintampa — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:48:00 GMT

Mike Craven has been working on a way to put Outlook on your Windows Home Server through the creation of a WHS add-in. The WHS Outlook Beta add-in will let you use Outlook right from the Windows Home Server Console to check your email, switch between Outlook profiles on-the-fly, access all of your RSS Feeds, create new tasks or appointments, and more. You will get all the power of Outlook right through the WHS Console application. The add-in will require that you use Outlook 2002 or newer and you’ll be able to customize where your PST file is stored – either on the system partition or on the network shares. This add-in has not been released yet but a working beta should be available soon. If you’re interested in testing the beta, visit this thread on the WGS Forums and let Mike know of your interest. Active beta testers will receive a copy of the add-in at no charge when the beta period is over, but for everyone else the software will sell for $29.95 (U.S.) when ready. (Thanks to We Got Served for the tip!)

My Movies Media Center Plugin

sarahintampa — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:51:00 GMT

WeGotServed has the scoop on another new plugin for Media Center - and it’s one of the more useful ones we’ve seen, too. This plugin, called My Movies, adds an extra tab to the “TV+Movies” button in Media Center and shows a list of all the ripped movies stored on your Windows Home Server, including cover art, cast and crew info, and even a link to a trailer. Of course, we can't condone ripping DVD's, but there is plenty of info on the subject.

With My Movies you are able to index your movies, browse them, stream them for viewing, share your movie database with multiple clients, and configure each client with its own parental control limitations. You can download the MyMovies plugin from here.

TV Manager Beta for WHS

sarahintampa — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:42:00 GMT

There’s a new plugin for Windows Home Server users called TV Manager which copies your recordings from a Vista Media Center PC over to your Windows Home Server for storage and management. The plugin, still in beta, actually has 2 parts to it – one part for the WHS and one for Media Center. After the plugin copies the recording to the WHS, the original is removed from the Vista PC, freeing up valuable disk space on your machine. However, the plugin allows you to still watch the recordings just like you would normally watch “Recorded TV” in Media Center. The part of this program that runs on the Home Server displays a console for managing the recordings and deleting the ones you don’t want to keep. This plugin was created by Brent Friedman of We Got Served, where you can read in more detail about the features, requirements, and updates in the latest version of this beta software. (Image courtesy of WGS)

Windows Home Server PP1 RC available to the public.

EnglishBloke — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:08:00 GMT

Microsoft have released a publically downloadable RC of PowerPack 1 for Windows Home Server.

You can grab it right now from the link at the end of this blog post.

Windows Power Pack one is stuffed full of cool features and enhancements heavily influenced by community requests and feedback.

PowerPack 1 also fixes the 'corruption bug' in Windows Home Server which affected a small set of Windows Home Server users saving to Windows Home Servers with multiple drive configurations.

This public release candidate follows the Windows Home Server teams die hard approach to taking customer feedback very seriously and the team looks forward to any and all feedback from the community regarding this release candidate.

Amongst the features included in the release are:

The ability to run Home Server Connector on x64 Vista.
Backup of the home server Shared Folders.
Remote Access improvements.
Improved Power Consumption.
Support for Chinese and Japanese Languages.

I personally have been running PP1 for a while now and I can honestly say I love it. I have had basically no issues at all. I've never experienced the corruption bug with PP1 and I run 12 drives on my WHS and save from many applications directly onto the shares. Performance has also never been better. I saw a nice CPU drop on my WHS with PP1 and haven't seen any errors in my event log for a long time :)

I think the WHS Team should be very proud of this release. It very much follows the quality of the original product. I think we've got some amazing things still to come from this team, and if the quality of PP1 is anything to go by, I think we're all going to be very happy.

Download WHS PowerPack 1 Release Candidate from Microsoft Connect

Read more details on the Windows Home Server Team Blog

Home Server Toaster Mod

sarahintampa — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:25:00 GMT

Yes, a toaster mod. A Windows Home Server modder by the name of Edgar Voorbraak sent in photos to the Home Server Hacks blog showing off his WHS build that is enclosed in an old toaster casing. He even used some of the toaster buttons to operate the computer - for example, the toaster time knob controls the fan's speed and the emergency stop button is the power button. The toaster server is green, too - it only draws 55W at full load. Inside it contains 4 HDDs totaling 4TB, 1 GB RAM, and VIA C7 1.5 Ghz processor. You can see more photos of the toaster server on the HSH blog post here. For more cool mods, check out the site's DIY gallery where you can submit your own photos too.

ShareMaster Gadget for WHS

sarahintampa — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:45:00 GMT

The Home Server Hacks blog has just announced a new Windows Vista Sidebar gadget just for Windows Home Server users. This gadget, called "ShareMaster for Home Server," gives you quick access to the Windows Home Server's standard shared folders (Music, Photos, Public, Software, Users and Videos). The gadget has six icons on it that correspond to those six shared folders on the server. Clicking an icon on the gadget will open up that network shared folder. What's even cooler, though, is that you can drag and drop files onto the icons themselves to automatically move them from your PC to your Home Server. That's handy! This is definitely a must-have tool for any Windows Home Server owners. You can download the gadget from here. (image via Home Server Hacks)

Building a Green Windows Home Server

sarahintampa — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:57:00 GMT

I've been following a very interesting series of posts over on the Home Server Hacks blog. They detailing, step-by-step, the process of building a $400 "green" Home Server. The server is encased in a Shuttle KPC housing, which is, according to the Shuttle web site, a low power consumption appliance, using only 55 Watts when in use and 33 Watts when idle. To go even greener, you can use Western Digital Caviar GP series drives. There are five parts to this post about building the green WHS and you can began reading the series here. It's a great idea, and just in time for Earth Day, too!

A New Home Server from Avideus

sarahintampa — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:39:00 GMT

The We Got Served blog has the scoop on another home serving offering, this one from Avideus. The Avideus HSE Home Server, like the Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo and Velocity Micro Netmagix servers, will be based on the Intel SS4200-EHW Server design. The company, based in San Marocs, CA, are currently offering a free 1 TB upgrade until May 15th if you buy from the site at PCAlchemy.com (just choose the option from the drop-down box). For more details on the specs check out the WGS blog or the manufacturer's web site.

Custom WHS with 11 Drives

sarahintampa — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Via the Windows Home Server Team blog I heard about some crazy, custom-built Windows Home Server in an Alienware case sporting 11 drives. Of course I had to check this out for myself. Whoa, it's true! This guy in Kuwait is retrofitting an older Alienware case to accommodate 11 hard drives and one optical drive and posting the progress to his blog. Here's Stage 1 and here's Stage 2. He's going to be using 1TB drives - wow! We're definitely looking forward to seeing the final results.

UK Discount on WHS via the WGS Blog

sarahintampa — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:01:00 GMT

If you haven't already heard, the We Got Served blog is one of the best places to find Windows Homer Server news and tips. So, when I saw that they were offering a discount to their readers towards a purchase of a Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo Home Server, I had to pass the info along. It looks like the discount is only applicable to UK visitors, since the URL is to a .co.uk site, but for you guys, you can receive an exclusive deal on both the Scaleo 1900 and 1500 models.

To activate the discount, visit the Fujitsu-Siemens online shop via this URL:

www.fujitsu-siemens-shop.co.uk/privilege
username: home
password: server

SHOUTcast for WHS

sarahintampa — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:17:00 GMT

SHOUTcast is an internet radio app that lets you listen to radio stations worldwide. But I just discovered that you can set up your Windows Home Server to be your very own, personal SHOUTcast server, which lets you listen to internet radio anywhere in your home. The steps are posted here on the We Got Served blog. The instructions are a bit involved for reposting here, but it could definitely be a great weekend project for WHS'ers. And the best part is, it's free!

PerfectDisk for WHS

sarahintampa — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:04:00 GMT

Today, the guys at PerfectDisk announced on their blog that a new build of PerfectDisk 2008 for Windows Home Server is now available. This new version includes full integration with the Windows Home Server console, where PerfectDisk 2008 will now have its own tab.

The PerfectDisk software defrags and optimizes disks which leads to better performance and reliability. Their "Space Restoration Technology" also helps create a large piece of contiguous free space so there is less fragmentation in the future while also improving write file access, whereas typical defragmenters only focus on read file access.

If you already have PerfectDisk installed on your WHS, you'll need to remove that first before installing the latest version. Installation instructions are here. The software for WHS is only $39.99, or you can purchase a Home Site License and get 10 licenses for your network for $99.99.

Orb on Windows Home Server

sarahintampa — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:36:00 GMT

Orb is a cool web application that lets you stream media from your home computer to any internet-connected device, be it a PDA, mobile phone, computer, or laptop. Since Home Server users tend to have most of their media stored on their WHS box, the most logical place for them to install Orb would be on their server. Thanks to this walkthrough, you can learn how to install Orb on your WHS - a perfect project for this holiday weekend. Read the how-to here on the "We Got Served" blog.

Automate Your Home with Your Windows Home Server

sarahintampa — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:33:00 GMT

For home automation enthusiasts, comes a plugin for Windows Home Server called "Embedded Automation's mControl for Windows Home Server." With this WHS plugin, you can configure and control everything in your home from lighting to AC to thermostats to security cameras from directly within WHS or from any other networked devices like Vista Media Center, Xbox 360, Windows Mobile phones, or any of the new Windows Media Center v2 Extenders. mControl can be used to control a couple of devices or it can be expanded to control all aspects of your home with no need to purchase additional software packages. All you need is mControl. You can download a free trial of mControl for WHS from here to try it out.

Photosync for Windows Home Server

sarahintampa — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:40:00 GMT

Photosync is a cool WHS add-in that lets you automatically sync the contents of your "Photos" folder on Windows Home Server to Flickr. The latest version, beta 2, offers some enhancements like the ability to name the flickr images based on the file name, the ability to create "sets" based on the file name, and the ability to set photo permissions. If you need help with the installation, check out Tech Republic's web site, where they put up a really great step-by-step installation guide - with screenshots!

Windows Home Server Add-In: Advanced Admin Console

sarahintampa — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:11:00 GMT

One of the best things about Windows Home Server is the ability to extend its "out-of-the-box" functionality by the use of add-ins, just like you can with you with your web browser.

The Advanced Admin Console Add-In is a cool one for WHS Admins to have. With this, you can quickly jump to Administrative areas from within the Home Server Console including the Control Panel, Printers & Faxes, Administrative Tools, Start Menu, My Computer, My Network Places, Workgroup, and Network Connections.

Additionally, this add-in lets you launch a Command Prompt, PowerShell, Task Manager, and the Registry Editor.

This is great add-in for IT Professionals who are already familiar with running Windows Server 2003, as it gives you access to more advanced functions. Because the extra functionality provides was not something intended, there are a few little oddities you should be aware of if you try to use this add-in, but they aren't anything an IT guy or gal like you can't handle. Just read up on them first.

When you're ready to kick it into high gear, download the Advanced Admin Console from here.

The Best Routers for WHS

sarahintampa — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:31:00 GMT

A popular Windows Home Server website, "We Got Served," recently posted a list of the top ten recommend routers for Windows Home Server, specifically, the HP MediaSmart server. The guys on HP's MediaSmart team had been working on a series of tests for a range of popular routers and had developed a “Top 10″ list of routers that they’ve found to auto-configure consistently well with WHS. If you're thinking of building your own WHS-based network, these are the ten best routers to use:

D-Link DGL-4100 GamerLounge Broadband Gigabit
D-Link DGL-4300 GamerLounge Broadband Gigabit
D-Link DIR-655 Wireless Xtreme N Gigabit
D-Link EBR-2310 Ethernet Broadband
D-Link WBR-1310 Wireless-G
Linksys WRT150N Wireless N Broadband
Linksys WRT54G3G-ST Wireless G for Mobile Broadband
Linksys WRT54GC Compact Wireless-G Broadband
Netgear WPN824NA RangeMax Wireless Router
Trendnet TEW-631BRP Wireless N Draft

My Windows Home Server: Family Only Photos

nhodge — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:13:00 GMT

I have just returned from a weekend in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. Being a family gathering over two days, many digital photographs were taken. And mostly not by me.

And I gave my camera to my 5 year old neice and sent her outside to take photos. Soon, the camera returned full of photos and no battery charge.

Returning to Sydney: how do I share the 220 photos? An avid Flickr.com user; I could upload them all there. By using Flickr family/privacy settings and ensuring the extended family could all see without sharing to the world. That would require some administration, and I just loath paperwork.

Solution: Use the Windows Home Server! After reviewing add-ins, I decided on Andrew Grant's Whiist.

Here is the install process:

Step 1: download the .msi from Andrew's web site. Simply drag this into your Windows Home Server's Software\Add-Ins directory

Step 2: Go the Windows Home Server Console for Windows Home Server Settings, Add-ins. Whiist is listed as an add-in that can be Installed. Install it.

Step 4: Manage Websites now appears next to Server storage. Click on this, and then Add a web site

Step 5: Adding a simple photo album to share pictures, so the second option is the best choice.

Step 5: Setting the URL, and the shared folder on the server (path)

And here we have the photo gallery. Beauty is, I can now share the many private family photos to a limited audience.

Result: send email to a very happy Mum. Windows Home Server. Keeping Mum's happy since 2007.