New toys and items

Windows Home Server

Awesome! Cannot wait for the 2008 server version to come out.

 

This is a really cool OS server system that MS is being real quiet about. I have now installed it on my own home network, and three of my customers machines. It performs flawlessly.  No, it will not do stuff that you normally do on a Windows 2003 server ( it will, but why mess with it ) and now MS has opened this up to Small offices and businesses. Wow, this is the most perfect, damn near automated, all-in-system I have seen in a long time. I know, I will get flack about that last comment, but it is the truth. It was built and designed for Non-technical people.

 

What will it not do? Raided drives.

 

It has its own hard drive system setup with duplication and backups of duplication in plain format. No .bkf files to deal with, so, I can live with that easy.

 

What will it do?

 

A lot! OK, think— simple operation and management for a non-techy. You can create users ( matching local usernames and passwords on computers) and then set permissions on folders on “shared folders”. Each person that logs into a computer gets a shortcut automatically on their desktop to shared items. All of this data can be duplicated on multiple drives. WHS makes Complete workstation backups in .vhd format so that if you loose a hard drive, all you have to do is replace hard drive on workstation, boot to restore disk, and it will image your computer to the very last ( or whatever version) of backup you want. Have tested it and it took 2.5 hours for my laptop but who cares, it did it flawlessly. Not only that but it does file level backups which can be restored from 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 months, depending on what you set your backup interval for. It also warns you about when I computer has not been backed up on time, or when Windows security updates are not “up-to-date”. It can host your local website for you to the world, or a local one, share photos the same way, you can remote in to your computer using RDP from outside world and this will set it up automatically if you have a PNP router. The second setup I did the household did have such a router and with correct password entered, it did all the work of opening ports and such for services. Pretty cool.

 

I have installed AVG’s network/business server edition on all, and have had no issues at all with it.

 

Behind the scenes, this is a full Windows 2003 server. I have gone through several layers and can find nothing other than some limiting factors on services ( 10 CAL) , otherwise you get a  full 2003 server for your money.

 

And speaking of cost, I was able to purchase OEM versions for my customers for their machines I built for them under 100 dollars. Slap the sticker COA on cabinet and we are good!

 

In all cases I have been installing a minimum of 500GB X 2 drives and in one case I installed 2 X 2TB drives SATA because they do a lot of Recording video. Oh, by the way this hooks right up to your Xbox if you have it or your media center PC with no issues what-so-ever. I am personally doing audio and video across LAN, and I have a very minimum machine running this Server.

 

BOTTOM LINE

 

If you have several personal PC’s at home or small office and want it all done for you, automatically, buy this software and setup a server. Or buy one from Dell or HP.

 

Scale of 1-10 10 being best, This fricken rocks at 11.

 

I have had a server set up now running at my house for 9 months and it has run, backed up and performed flawlessly. Even file restores are simple and work awesome. This really is an awesome product for multiple computer homes or a small office!