Windows Home Server Thread

[PsYkHoTiK]

Soooo...

Does anyone have one?

I just installed mine on my retired FX-55 rig. Moving files into it and then going to transfer hard drives from my PC to the WHS (over 1TB).

But man I like it. Well I love it!

Easily best software I've bought all year from MS (trounces Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Ultimate).

I will post screenies sooner-ish I guess.

Also there is a huge add on following (AVG for WHS, uTorrent for WHS, etc etc) on the web that I will also try out.

[PsYkHoTiK]

I was up until 3AM last night playing around with this thing trying to set it up... And I just woke up an hour and a half ago LOL!

I have to say that it is really handy dandy. I set up a URL for the homeserver, tried doing remote desktop to my PC from my laptop. Its real neat because RD is thru the browser. (need to do some port forwarding though or turn on uPNP on your router).

You can access the admin console from the web thru RD as well. Real neat-o.

However, it is best that you access it through IE ONLY (firefox login - even with IE tabs, it has SEVERELY limited functionality - no RD functionality at all - list of computers and option to go to the WHS admin panel isn't even there).

Transferring all my files over right now. It sorta has a pseudo RAID built in. Multiple hard drives are treated as a single 'virtual' drive and you can have it so that folders can be redundant (stored duplicate copies across all the hard drives) so that if a drive fails, you won't loose your data.

It does require you to use a 'strong' password thats 7 characters long (minimum), alpha numeric with one Upper case and one Lower case letter and a symbol (bad for me who has horrible memory). Also it asks that you use the same login name as your PC login (everyone's windows should ALWAYs have a good password, even if you're the only one using it) and the password will be shared with the WHS user account.

Still moving my crap over right now so I can take out the 500GB hdd thats in my current PC and perhaps a 160GB and offload that into the WHS (so it will be just over 1TB total).

I remember reading an article on AT saying they recommended a Gigabit network for WHS. I think I may have to agree with them on this one. While mass transferring files and streaming videos from it, the playback did get occasionally choppy. I wonder if there is anyway for me to prioritize (like QOS? ).

It installs Windows Server 2003, then WHS over it. In fact if you were to connect to the server 'physically' (mine is running headless right now - Just a power chord to the wall, and a LAN cable to my network switch) the wallpaper and everything is Windows Server 2003. WHS is an admin console/client. I think its probably a cut down version / modded version of Windows Server 2003 (Server 03 is more enterprise - but definitely portable to home use). The Pseudo raid is definitely something else though. Server 03 only recognizes one of my hard drives but in the WHS admin console both show up and is managed as a single virtual drive.

Also, because I have somewhat forgotten how XP/Server 2003 is like, when I first installed this I was wondering, why can't my PC see it and why can't WHS see my PC? Then I realized that server 2003 didn't have all of the drivers for my chipset (nforce 4 SLI) so I installed that and boom it was online.

installation took ~ an hour plus but was pretty much on its own after you key in the cd key and selected the hard drives (that they made sure to double tell you that it will be wiped clean).

And I have to say, this year, I have bought some great Microsoft Software. I bought Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Ultimate in the beginning of the year.

But Windows Home Server has to be the thing that has me excited the most!

And so far, I am crazy convinced that all homes should have one. LOL!

Being able to access your network, its files and the PCs attached to it from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection is simply amazing.

I will be experimenting with the wake on LAN later (I believe I have changed the settings appropriately in BIOS).

I will post screenies later to show you guys around.

[Chai]

Trust them, you would appreciate the minimum requirement for a decent password, ever since my ICQ acc was hacked, I swore not to use a simple password again!

[zy]

web based RD sounds nice. i wonder if i can get something like that...hmmm

[ZuePhok]

FX 55 for fileserver :O

lich fella!

[PsYkHoTiK]

http://taib.rojakpot.com/whsstorage.jpg

FAPFAP SPACE!

LMAO! Yeah. FX-55, DFI NF4 SLI-DR, 2GB OCZ DDR500, XFX 7900GT LMAO!

What can I say, the only spare system I have.

That Fist you see in the screenie is an add-on (seriously, don't they have a better freaking icon?) for Wake On LAN and Shutdown for any PC on the network.

Trying to mess around to see if I can get that working (it would be teh fap when I can).

My WHS is running headless quietly underneath my table right now. lmao.

This IMO is the best MS software this year.

[ZuePhok]

ubuntu server can run headless as well and it runs fine with just 256mb of memory

[PsYkHoTiK]

Min requirements for this thing is jsut a PIII and 512 ram.

Which is why I said mine is overkill.

[ZuePhok]

would love to try it btw. what did you get this thing?

[PsYkHoTiK]

I think its great because you can do a lot of neat things and everything is really simplified. The average joe can set this up really well.

I just used my best acid test. My mom. LMAO! If she can login and upload stuff to my server using its interface, ANYONE can. lmao

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Home Server 32 Bit 1 Pack - OEM