Media streaming is a hot topic among WHS users. There are many programs and devices out there all vying to be your media application of choice. One such program is a WHS add-in called WebGuide for Windows Home Server. This add-in enables you to remotely access, listen, watch and stream your music, photos and videos stored on your home server while away from home.
Installing the add-in is as simple as any other add-in. Copy the msi installer to your D:Software/Add-ins folder, open the WHS Settings dialog in the console and install the software from the Add-ins tab, as shown below.
Once installed, the add-in needs to be configured to work with WHS. Open the WHS Setting window and click on the Webguide icon.
Clicking on the Configure WebGuide button brings you to this window. You will need to enter the administrator password at this point. You can either click on the Start button to automatically configure WebGuide or click on the Advanced button to configure the options manually.
I chose the Start (automatic) method originally to see what problems WebGuide might report to me. Sure enough, WebGuide reported that I needed to configure a router port on my router. My router is not PnP, so off I went to complete that little task.
Clicking on OK brings you to this screen.
Once back in the console, I returned to the WebGuide configuration screen to see what was in the advanced screen. The following pictures gives you an idea of what WebGuide requires and what it can do for you. Tool tips help you along the way.
There is a Help option to explain what everything does for you. This brings you to a wiki on the author’s website. Unfortunately, there is nothing specific to the WHS version of WebGuide.
So, we are now ready to try out the add-in. Actually, the answer is perhaps. If all you have are files that Windows Media Player recognizes natively, yes. If not, you would have to download a codec package and install that. For the moment, let’s assume that we have WMP compatible files only and see how the add-in works.
Remote log on to your WHS. You will notice a new icon under Web Sites. Click on the WebGuide icon
which will bring you to this screen. Clicking on the Pictures button
brings you here. From here you can peruse your picture folders as desired. You will notice along the top that there are options to go from Pictures to Music and Videos directly. Going to the Music page
brings you here. Since this was the first time I opened WebGuide, it was in the process of cataloging the music folders.
Once cataloged, you will see something similar to this:
Clicking on a song/album will highlight the item at the bottom of the page. From here, you can create a playlist, stream the song in a player built into WebGuide or download it to listen in WMP.
The first time you use the streaming option, you will be asked to choose a bandwidth, as can be seen below.
The following picture is what you will get when using the built-in player.
It was now onto the video section. This is where I ran into all sorts of problems. I rip my DVD’s using the native TS/VOB format. I have no idea if this contributed to my problem. Perhaps it may have been the result of that I do not have my soundcard enabled on my WHS, or perhaps something else. I did install the correct codecs to be able to view these movies, but I was still unable to get this section of WegGuide to work. The following picture illustrates what I saw. I returned several times to this area, and nothing changed. I was able to get to one point where it got down to 7 items waiting to load, but WebGuide caused me more serious problems.
As can be seen in the following picture, a network service became a bit heavy on usage. It actually may have been higher, except I also run BOINC on my WHS. It pegs in at about 50% CPU usage, also. Between the 2, my CPU was running constantly at 100%. When I took this picture, I had shut down BOINC to see it the network service usage would climb higher. It did not, but if I left it there long enough, it may have taken more.
Killing the service caused me all sorts of havoc. I would have to restart my WHS. Trying to go to a different section of WebGuide became impossible if I left it in the video section too long. And the network service CPU usage did not decrease. To put it mildly, not a good thing.
And that is about all there is to the add-in. It has lots of potential. It works and yet it does not. Codecs are perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of Windows. I rip my CD’s in FLAC format, and I could never get WebGuide to see them, only the mp3 files that I have on my WHS. I suppose it is possible that if I looked long enough on the WebGuide website and/or in the WebGuide forums, I may have been able to find an answer to my problem. In the words of Willy Wonka, “So much time and so little to do”
One must remember that one of the major criteria I have when I look at an add-in is how easy is it to get working. I just cannot see the Average Consumer getting very far with this add-in. Of course, it is possible that other users may have a different experience than I. And it may depend partially upon what video/audio formats a person uses.
Perhaps an indication of where this program stands is that it was released in January 2008. An update to this program is sorely needed, in my opinion.
Author: Doug Berrett
Version Reviewed: 4.113
Release: 18Jan2008
