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The Windows Home Server is based on the Windows Server 2003 Platform, but watered down so that everyone can use it. It's meant to be a headless server - meaning that it doesn't require a keyboard, monitor or mouse. It can be entirely controlled by the admin console.
I've had my Microsoft Windows Home Server for about five months now. I first heard about it at the AMD - Microsoft Power Together Tour back in November. I was impressed at the features that it had. I really wanted something at home, that my whole family could use easily. People who weren't good at computers. I also liked its ease of use for me also. I didn't want to have to configure a Windows Server 2003, and I didn't want to learn. I wanted a very basic server, that I could use without having to read and study on how to use it. Plus it's only $150.
The software came with 3 discs - an installer disc, a systems builder disc, and a Windows Connector Disc. The Windows Connector disc allows the other desktops in your computer to synchronize files, and make recovery backup images, and store it on the Windows Home Server. If your computer fails, you can recover your computer directly from the Home Server. Here's the problem - The connector software does not work for Windows Vista 64-bit computers yet. So, I can't use this feature yet. Microsoft, please come up with something soon. I want to test this feature out.
Data Back-up
The Windows Home Server allows you to plugin multiple hard-drives to your server - both internal or external. Once you add the hard drive into the "pool" Windows Home Server will back up or mirror the data on the server onto the hard drives. If one fails, the others will have complete backups of your data. It has premade folders for Music, Photos, Videos, eBooks, and Software which are meant to be shared on your network. Also, if you have any Vista 32-bit or XP computers with the Windows connector, it will make image back-ups for each computer and store it there. Supposedly you can recover computers by using the Windows Home Server.
Media Center
Being the Windows Home Server, it automatically creates shares for you to access your media. The server is meant to store all of your media. You can access your media from your desktops, and XBOX360 and Media Center PCs and play over the network. It's great to have all the media in your house in a centralized location. Setting this up is a breeze. From what I remember all you have to do is just turn one option on in the console.
Administrator Console
Everything that a Basic user needs to do is found in the Administrator console. From adding users, who can access your computers and files, to choosing folder permissions, to choosing which folders you want backed up can be controlled here. There are also Add-ins which can be installed to enhance your server. With an Add-in like Photo Gallery, you can create a photo gallery with just a few clicks, and show it to all your friends. It creates a gallery, and shrinks pictures for you. Your viewers have the option of viewing the full-sized image, and also allows them to view the EXIF data.
If you have desktops that allow you to Wake-On-LAN, which basically allows you to turn your computer on from a whole other location via the network. You can control this from the admin console also.
It also lists all your computers and their technical specifications. Another feature is to show you each computer's health, and the overall health of your network.
You are limited to creating 10 users however. For those in your home network, it's good to give them each a user account. However, for your friends, a tip is to just make a generic Friend account so you don't run out ouf user accounts. More details on what user accounts give you later.
Web
This is one feature that really turned me onto using Windows Home Server. The ability to register a subdomain from Microsoft at http://user.homeserver.com. With this URL, you can have access to your network from anywhere you are as long as you have access to the Internet and a browser. The users you created in your admin console, can login with their username and password to access your network through here, if you have permitted them to.
From this URL, you can allow access to the users on your list to download and upload files to your server. Your data is shown in the form of a list. The user can then check off what they want to download. The server will zip the file for them, and send it over. It's identical to if you were to download a file from any website. Users can also upload a file. The only problem here is that it doesn't show you a status, and you are pretty much stuck on that page. If you go to another site, the upload will stop. Overall, I like this feature because it allowed users to access my files, without knowing how to use an FTP client, which I had used before. Now, even my parents can view their pictures from wherever they want.
Furthermore, if you allow remote access, the users can login to your desktops and use your computers through an internet browser. Yes it is a little slow, but if you need to, you can. Of course, just setting up remote desktop and port forwarding your router would allow the same use, and more efficiently. But again, the Windows Home Server is for people who don't know all that stuff.
You can also access your admin client through your URL. It does try to block out the Start bar, and doing other things, but I got around it. If you would like to know how to access more of your server, just give me a shout over in the how-to section of our site, and we'll try to answer your questions. I'll post a how to in the IT section in the next few days.
Final Thoughts
I really like my Home Server. I'm sure Server 2003 is a lot more powerful, but for the time it would take me to learn how to do things, and the amount of features it has, I might not want it. It's also a lot more expensive. I purchased the Home Server for a mere $150, so it is really cheap. There are some software issues here, as it is based off of Windows Server, and not a lot of consumer products are compatible with it, such as my Logitech Skype Phone. There are also some problems with my Brother 7020 All-in-one Laser Printer also. However, installing ColdFusion, Office, Nero, and uTorrent was not a problem.
For the most part, I'm happy with it storing and backing up my data. The web client is also a very good feature, that my family and friends make extensive use of.
Once, Microsoft fixes their Windows Connector with Vista 64, I'm sure I'll be even happier with it. |
