Martin Rothschink, the author of Light-Out for WHS v1 and 2011, has been working on a new version of this popular WHS add-in for use on “Windows 8 as a home server”.
Martin just released this software for public beta testing earlier today, so if you are a fan of using Windows 8 as a home server (check out Terry’s book in the WGS store), this version of Lights-Out is for you.
“Light-Out for Windows 8” is a slight misnomer in that it will work not only on Windows 8, but also Windows 7 as well as Window Server 2008 or later.
Per Martin:
Differences between Lights-Out on WHS and Windows 7/8
- There is no WHS Connector and therefore no working communication infrastructure on Windows 8
- Lights-Out uses a special (TCP/IP based) communication protocol on port 7679
- Port 7679 is opened during installation on the Windows 7/8 “Server”, if you use another personal firewall you have to open port 7679 by yourself
- Client computers are joined during setup to their server, server discovery is handled by sending a multicast on port 7679
- There is no pre-configured SSL infrastructure on Windows 7/8
- There is no client backup handled by the server
- There is no WHS Console on the client
Known issues:
- No backup support for clients
- Mac and Mobile support only in LAN (local), not in WAN because SSL infrastructure is missing
If you have abandoned WHS, but remain in the Windows-based server universe, head on over to http://www.homeserversoftware.com/low78.html and try out the latest addition to the Lights-Out collection.
