Here’s a quick tip if you’ve ever needed to restart your media center or home server when connected over Microsoft Remote Desktop connection, it is possible by clicking on the desktop, then hitting control+f4 on the keyboard, the brings up the Shut Down Windows dialog, which offers you all the normal control including restart and shut down, not normally offered to remore desktop users via the start menu.
Shadow copy is a service that was first build into Windows 2003 Server and provided the same service as Mac users now enjoy with Time Machine many years before Apple ‘invented’ it, it provides a way of accessing file that have been changed or delete, often at multiple different times due to the way Shadow Copies are setup to collect changes every 12 hours.
This can be really worth while if you’ve ever been caught accidentally saving over a document or erasing a folder, as you can look thought the folder at in any of it’s saved states and either restore or copy the contents to a safe place.
The service works on the server and client pc can then be used to access the folder cache with the properties menu, and the previous version tab. This is fantastic because it puts the power back into the users hands, without the need of any server administator’s assistance.
Unlike the other Windows Server, the Windows Home Server, Shadow Copy needs to be enabled within a remote desktop session, by right clicking on the drive letter (normally D:) and selecting the Shadow Copy tab, then enable. This will setup your server to take a snapshot every twelve hours. The space this service uses won’t be reported to windows and doesn’t have an detrimental effect on performance, but can save you bacon on those rare occasions.
You may want to change some of the default settings if you are just using your Windows Home Server for private use, I suggest removing one of the snap shots to make it once every 24 hours and including Saturday and Sunday in the schedule.
The Acer EasyStore is a great little home server, but it comes with some over zealous customisation that you might want to remove, this included the custom Acer home page which is nothing more than a branding road block for most users. To remove this simply…
Check out the Acer EasyStore server on Amazon US for further information
I’m pretty excited about the next version of Windows Home Server, especially as it’s based on the excellent Windows 7 Server code base, lets hope Microsoft decided to be a little looser with the information rather than waiting until a build leaks.
So to summarize, none of this is official at all, and while some people are claiming the screenshots are fakes, they sure look pretty solid. Of course most disappointing if these rumors are true, is the lack of Media Center functionality built-in….but still some good things to get excited about.
From a feature perspective it appears that Vail;
- Is in fact based on server 2k8v2 (x64 only)
- Based on the wim the leaked version is “ServerHomePremium”.
- There is no notable MCE functionality.
- News channels are beginning to pickup on the leak now that the iPad has peaked.
Plus the remote access side look amazing, I’ve never seen this kind of interaction or performance from just a web interface. Very impressive…
via Missing Remote and ZDnet
Here’s a great guide from the Tech Arena forum for how you can easily setting your Windows Home Server to accept a VPN connection, useful if you’re travelling and need to access your network directly rather than via the web server.
Create the VPN Network Connection on your WHS
Get the access of your server using a remote desktop connection or via the Advanced Admin Console addin. Move to “Control Panel” – “Network Connections” and select “Create a new connection”. Select “Set up an advanced connection”.
Select “Accept incoming connections”, and then “Allow virtual private connections”. At the “User Permissions” screen, select the user to whom you want to get the VPN access. Select “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)”. Choose “Properties” and specify IP addresses in a range outside of the ones that are normally used by your DHCP. Confirm by selecting OK, then Next. Click Finish.
Now set up an exception in your firewall. You may need to forward port 1723 in your router to the Home Server IP address.
Setup the VPN Connection on your Laptop
On your laptop, run “New Connection Wizard” by going to “Control Panel” – “Network Connections”. Now select “Connect to the network at my workplace”. Then select “Virtual Private Network” connection and give a unique name to this connection.
Then enter the website name for your home server eg. xxx.homeserver.com. Then select “Do not use my smart card”, “Next” and “My Use Only”. After clicking “Next”, select the check “Add a shortcut to this connection to my desktop” and click “Finish”.
Test the connection by clicking on the shortcut created on your desktop. Enter the username and password. If the connection is setted up properly, test it to make sure everything was done correctly.
Make sure that VPN connection is active and the laptop is connected to the server. Then install the connector software which will be found in the Software shared folder on the server.
Buy Windows Home Server from Amazon US or Amazon UK
via Techarena
I’ve been a big fan of this addon for a while, it creates a user interface to view, upload and stream content from your Windows Home Server onto your iPhone (or other smart phones for that matter).
The setup can be a bit trying, it has improved in recent versions, but there are a couple of tricks to effortless mobile connectivity…
1. Always use the most recent addon on the server AND app on the iphone, updating one without the other does cause connection issues.
2. Remember to configure each user in the addon settings within the Home Server
3. Don’t forget to open the port 8169 on your home router (you’ll need to have remote access switched on obviously)
More details can be found at Compugeeksoftware
If you’re having trouble getting remote access working on your Windows Home Server, here’s a list of ports I recommend opening up…
443 – Secure Web Server Access (https)
4125 – Whs Connector over Remote Desktop Protocol
80 – Web Server Access (http)
3389 – Remote Desktop Protocol
8169 – WHS Mobile Addon
1723 – VPN PPTP
Photo by Tim D
The next big land rush seems to be happening within the online storage and backup space, with offering from Amazon S3 and Rackspace, the cost of massive online storage has plummeted in the recent years, to the point when its accessible to even home users and enthusiast.
Here are three services I’ve looked at and started using recently…
An amazing application for day to day file backup and synchronisation, the service comes with a very minimal desktop client that creates a dedicated folder to sync your files into.
I have been really impressed by the quality and simplicity of this service, the way it manages to keep track of changes to documents with the minimum of effor is quite amazing. I have a large folder of images which I regularly rename or reorganise and the smoothness at which it follows, moves and renames files on the remote server without the need to completely reupload the files is hugely impressive.
On top of all these great features, you can get started with a 2gb account for free. The only fly in the ointment is that to upgrade your storage things get pretty expensive, to the tune of $9.99 a month for 50gb ($99.99 for a years worth up front) or $19.99 a month for 100gb ($199.99 for a years worth up front).
Great application for archiving and backing up your photos, and when combined with a service like Microsoft’s SkyDrive with it’s 25gb of free storage, it creates a great solution to backing up your images online.
Unfortunately one of the Skydrive limitations means that your will probably end up focusing only on photos as each file is limited to 50mb. Gladinet does contain a file divider to limbo around this limitation, but for ease of mind I’ve decided to keep this archive for photos only.
This is an interesting service, the two features that attracted me the most were its Windows Home Server integrated software, which makes backup and uploads an automatic feature rather than having to reply on regular archive uploads.
The other was the price, I managed to get 40gb of storage (with no upload or download costs associated with products like Jungle Disk) for only $38 a year, this makes it a perfect service for backing up my work to (which can change quite regularly).
Remote Alert is a Windows Home Server add-in that provides remote access notification, additional security layers and remote access activity logging. Remote Alert permits WHS Administrators to monitor remote access attempts to their Windows Home Server. Any attempt to log on to the WHS via a web browser is reported in real-time using the WHS Network Health task tray icon.
And it gets even better if combined with WHSTweet, as this will alert you though a tweet or direct mail message.
via Home Server Land .
I’ve installed this addon and am very impressed with the integration if you do build your own Windows Home Server
Information on a genuinely interesting little utility was posted in the WGS forums on Tuesday. Normally, your computer will recognize your WHS as a computer on your network. If you would like it to show up a drive under “My Computer”, try out this automated version of Jesse Torres’ instructions on how to do just that.
via We Got Served