If you are like me and prefer hosting your own content on your Home Server using the many varied PHP packages available, then getting PHP working on your server is a must.

Though it’s in beta, I’ve already gone ahead and installed PHP on Vail, and it works! In fact, because the built in website has been completely redesigned, it installs very easily. Only three steps are needed, in fact.

First, you’ll need to head over to http://windows.php.net, and download the “Non-Thread Safe” version of PHP for Windows. Either 5.3 or 5.2 is fine. But note, there are only x86 versions. Don’t worry, whilst Vail is a 64-bit operatong system, they will work perfectly fine. You will need to also download the Visual C++ Redistribution x64 installer, which is linked on the same page. Copy the files to a location accessible by Vail.

Now, use Remote Desktop to access your server (the username is “Administrator” and password is the one you specified). Once you’re into your Vail server, open a command prompt and run this command:

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:IIS-CGI

This installs the “CGI” component in the web server (IIS) – specifically FastCGI, which is the recommended way to run PHP, and the only supported method for PHP 5.3.x. It also provides better performance than the older methods. This process should take about 10 seconds.

Now that CGI is installed and enabled, you’ll want to install the Visual C++ Runtime.

And once that’s done, run the PHP installer. All the defaults are fine, except one. It will ask you about “Web Server Setup”. Select “IIS FastCGI” and continue.

You’re done. That’s it. Nothing else is needed now. However, if you want to check it out, create a “test.php” file that contains this:

< ?php phpinfo(); ?>

in “C:\Program Files\Windows Server\Bin\WebApps\Site\”. In a web browser of your choice, navigate to “https://{vailserver}/test.php”. You should be greeted with this:

And yup. That’s it. Simple, isn’t it? If you’re really insterested in just how difficult it is for WHS v1, check it out here: link

In fact, the only way this could be simpler, is if the Microsoft Web Platform Installer supported Vail. But it didn’t support WHSv1 (even after letting them know how and why), so why would they support Vail? It is a beta after all!

Now that’s Vail’s released, I’m sure a lot of you want to install it. Well, unfortunately for a number of you, you have headless systems (like the HP MediaSmart Server or the Acer Aspire easyStore Home Server H340) which make installation of Vail a pain No keyboard, mouse, monitor – what’s going on? Or if you’re like me you just want to set it and forget it until it’s completely installed. Which means a fully unattended installation via USB drive is about the only way to go. This can be a relatively complex procedure for the uninitiated, but the good news is, we’ve got an easy walkthrough to help you out.

What You Need

Before you begin, you’ll need a few things:

• Windows Home Server Vail Preview Installation DVD ISO
• A 4GB or larger blank USB flash drive,
• Microsoft Store Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

Step 1: Install the Win7 USB/DVD tool and start it.

Select the Vail ISO and proceed.  It will warn you that it will format the USB drive and you will lose all content.  Assuming that’s fine, proceed, and it will format, prep and copy the ISO to the flash drive for you.  That will take a few minutes depending on the system.

And this is much easier than the old method.

Step 2: Open up the Flash Drive that you used in Windows Explorer.

You should see something like this:

Step 3: Create the Unattended Installation File

Now for unattended install, you’ll need to create a “cfg.ini” file in the root directory of your USB drive.  This will contain all the information and configuration settings needed to get Vail completely installed without your input along the way. The “cfg.ini” file should look like this:

[WinPE]
InstallSKU=SERVERHOMEPREMIUM
ConfigDisk=1
CheckReqs=0
SystemPartitionSize=60

[InitialConfiguration]
Language=en-US
Locale=0409
Country=US
KeyboardLayout=00000409
AcceptEula=true
ServerName=VailPremServer
PlainTextPassword=Str0ngPa$$w0rd
PasswordHint=This Is Your Password Hint
Settings=All

“InstallSKU” and “ConfigDisk” are both settings you should just leave alone. The first is to determine which product you are installing (bear in mind, there is only one SKU you can install – there will not be a “non-premium” or standard version of Vail) , and the second controlling whether to configure the disks. Both are necessary for the install to work.

However, setting “CheckReqs” to “0″ means that it will not check against the requirements to install, and the “SystemPartitionSize” setting lets you set the System Volume size manually. However, if you change this setting, you must leave 100GBs available after the install. Which means you’d have to have at least a 120GB hard drive if you went with a 20GB system partition.  So, no CF and most likely no SSD drives for your system disk.

As for “Language”, “Locale”, “Country” and “KeyboardLayout”, I wouldn’t recommend messing with these unless you know the proper values. You can change them post-install anyway.

“ServerName” should be very self explanatory. The name can be any string, up to 15 characters in length, but cannot start with a “dash” or contain spaces, and cannot be numbers only.

The “PlainTextPassword” is just what it sounds like: an unencrypted, unsecure presentation of your password. This must be a “strong” password, which must contain at least 3 of the 4: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.  Just remember this, you’ll be using it later.

Again, “PasswordHint” is self-explanatory. This option is required, so make sure it’s set.

“Settings” configure Error Reporting (Watson) and updates.  Setting it to “All” enables both, “Updates” disables error reporting and just gets updates, while “None” does neither.  Considering that this is a public beta, I highly recommend setting this to “all”. What’s the point of testing it if you don’t get a good sampling?

Now with that “cfg.ini” file on the USB drive along with Vail, you’re ready to install Vail on that headless system of yours!

Just a couple of notes:

• If you haven’t already read the release notes, make sure you hit F12, or F8, or whatever brings up the Boot selection menu, as the install seems to fail if the USB drvice is listed first.
• The install may take a couple of hours to completely, so you may want to do this overnight or go watch a movie.
• For those with headless OEM systems, booting of USB isn’t easy. But the best way to make sure it works, is unplug all the hard drives and wait long enough for the system to start booting of the USB flash drive, and then plug the hard drives back in.
• Remember: This will wipe ALL of your hard drives, so make sure they’re empty first!

If you’d like to discuss USB installation of Vail, make sure you head over to the Vail Preview discussion forums to share your thoughts.

As Windows Home Server is touted as a media storage device, we always keep our eyes open for new devices and reviews for said devices. While the Asus O!Play HDP-R1 may not be brand new, forum member GaPony has gotten his hand on one and written a nice post reviewing the device.

I just received the O!Play from newegg today and while I haven’t spent a lot of time with it, I can say I’m pretty impressed.

Connecting to the network literally took about 2 seconds. I plugged in the cable, clicked the option for automatic DHCP IP and that, was that. I will most likely go back and manually assign a different IP Address at a later time, but there’s no specific need to do so.

Connecting to the WHS server took about 2 minutes because I have a hard time navigating those stupid little on-screen keyboards, but once I hit the Enter button, it was in like Flint.

The main menu is really quite cool, but hides the stark navigation system below. While it doesn’t have the most elegant folder navigation I’ve seen, its quite easy… much like navigating folders in Windows. I’ve tried playing .vob, .mpg, mkv, wmv, avi, .divx, files and the all played without a hitch. When playing the video_ts.ifo files from a ripped folder, the menu works initially, but I don’t see a way to call the menu back up once the movie starts. (I might need to read the manual) It plays DVD .iso files and even Blu-Ray .iso files, which frankly surprised me a little. I couldn’t find any .mov files laying around…. sorry.

Moving on, it can FF up to 32x and does it very smoothly. It can skip forward in user defined segments of 5/10/15/20/30 time slices… again pretty smoothly. Again, its not as elegant as it could be, but its as close to chapter support that I’ve seen on any device.

I was a little apprehensive about upgrading the stock 1.07 firmware to the current 1.17 firmware, but it was as easy as Asus could make it. Just copy the firmware patch onto a formatted thumbdrive, stick it in the USB slot, hit the update option and about 3 minutes later, you’re back up running.

Plugging in an external USB or eSATA HD is a piece of cake. Plug it in, turn it on, give it a minute to read the drive, and its ready to go.

This device doesn’t offer thumbnail navigation for movies… just preview mode or list mode, but its snappy and works well (and saves me time not having to round up thumbnail images). This device is strictly an intranet device, which helps keep things simple. You can us the UPnP to access a server program like PlayOn for Hulu and other stuff, but its really too slow to be useful. On the other hand, streaming your movies from PS3MediaServer work quite well, just not as elegantly as the PS3 does it, and quite frankly there’s no need. This device doesn’t require the services of a PS3MediaPlayer, TVersity, Twonky, or other streaming server because it handles everyting natively… to include DTS and DTS-MA, so far as I can tell at this early stage.

If you’re looking for a straight forward, no frills, easy to use, media player, this might just be the one. Whether connecting to a 30TB server or to a 150GB external HDD, or anything in between, its has been quite functional. The sound and picture quality has been excellant in my testing of from 480p DVDs to 1080p Blu-Ray rips.

At $87.99 (with free shipping) from newegg.com, it may just be too good to pass up. I would strongly recommend it to my friends looking to play there movies from hard drives, or from their PCs over a LAN.

Check out the original forum thread here.

One of the bigger flaws of Windows Home Server is the restore process.  Not only do you have to rely on the router and other network hardware, but your experience can alo vary depending on the client computer. Even having the right drivers doesn’t mean that it will work all the time, that is, assuming you can even find the correct working drivers.  It’s point of huge frustration for many.

Wouldn’t it be great to have the ability to connect a hard drive to the server and restore any computer to it? It’s just one of those things that would make Windows Home Server just soo much better. Well, there may just be a way.

Well, on the suggestion of the forum member Shidoshi, I investigated an executable file that is installed with the Home Server Connector software and is present on the server itself too:  “clientrestorewizard.exe”.  Don’t believe me?  You can check yourself.  It runs pretty much exactly like a normal full client restore, however you need to be *very* careful about the disks you select. If you aren’t, you may be instore for another restore!

What does this mean to you?  Do you have a laptop or netbook that you need to provide drivers for to be able to restore it, but it still doesn’t work?  Do you have a backup of your friends or parent’s computer who doesn’t leave with or near you? Or you just want to do a HDD upgrade but don’t want to wait three hours for the slow network to finish?

This is not supported, for many reasons. The least of which, just mentioned above. So this is definitely an advanced “at your own risk” guide. If you have any concerns about data loss, do not follow this guide!

I only had my server available to test this one, so pictures may vary or may not be accurate. But it should work on any computer with the client Connector software installed.

There are a number of other things that you will likely need to do also, like marking the boot partition as active, or editing the boot.ini file.  I’ve verified that this does in fact work, and if you noticed above, there is a chance that you can and may wipe the wrong disk.

So, that’s how to restore a client computer without using the client restore disk!

I’m sure by now, you’ve already seen my post on how to install Tomcat on your custom built (or non-HP) home server. If you haven’t, you may want to check it out here.  One of the things that I mentioned was that there are some special considerations for installing on the HP MediaSmart Servers. Well, the EX485 and EX487 already have Tomcat installed and configured, so you won’t need to even bother with this. And though I don’t have a EX490, EX495 or the DataVault, I’m pretty sure it falls under the same category as the EX485/487 and uses the same or upgraded software. (HP, feel free to send me one).

However, there is a bit of extra work on getting it to work on the EX470 and EX475 because while it has a java server installed, it’s not Tomcat. Jetty was used for these systems and is a lot more difficult to use, and configure. While I would rather just replace Jetty (as HP has done), but the less monkeying with stuff, the better.

What you will need:

• Apache Tomcat – Grab the “Windows Service Installer” from the bottom part of the page

Instructions

Start the Tomcat installer. Agree (and read) the license agreement, and then proceed to the options. You’ll want to enable the “Service” and “Examples” options, and if you want, the “Native” option also. After that, you should be able to just use all the defaults and it should pick up the location that Java is installed.  If not, the location is “C:\jre1.4.2_13″, so use that if it wants to use the below path (which is incorrect).

Once you’ve finished installing it, it probably won’t start. Why? Because Jetty is already using the same default ports.  So head over to “C:\program files\apache software foundation\tomcat 6.0\conf\” and open up “server.xml”.  You may want to download a “real” text editor like Notepad++, notepad2, or the like as the built in notepad program doesn’t read the file right and may prevent tomcat from starting.  Once you’ve opened it, find ‘<Server port=”8005″ shutdown=”SHUTDOWN”>’  (should be right near the top) and change the port number from “8005″ to “8015″ or something else distinct.   Now find “<Connector port=”8009″ protocol=”AJP/1.3″ redirectPort=”8443″ />” and change this to “8089″ (ideal if you want to install the 2.5 update).  Once you’ve made these changes, save “server.xml”.

You’ll probably have to start the Tomcat service now. Either just reboot the server, or open up Services console (located in Administrative Tools, or by running “services.msc”). It should be near the top and named “Apache Tomcat 6″, or similar. Start the service, and leave this console open, you’ll need it later.

If the Tomcat service doesn’t start here, you may want to download and install the updated java runtime, either to the same location or another and use that here.

After it’s started, try opening “http://localhost:8080/examples/servlets/servlet/HelloWorldExample” on your server, if you installed the examples that greets you with “Hello World”.

After that’s done and you’ve verified that it’s working, we’ll need to reconfigure jakarta to work with tomcat.  Jakarta is the connector for IIS and Tomcat that passes IIS web requests to tomcat.  HP did you a favor and already installed and configured it.  Now all we have to do is hi-jack it.

So, now head over to “C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP MediaSmart Server\jetty\conf\” and open “workers.properties”. Set the file to the following:

worker.list=ajp13,tomcat6

worker.tomcat6.port=8089
worker.tomcat6.host=localhost
worker.tomcat6.type=ajp13

worker.ajp13.port=8009
worker.ajp13.host=localhost
worker.ajp13.type=ajp13

Save the file, close it and now open “uriworkermap.properties” in the same folder and add the following line to the end:

/examples*=tomcat6

This last file configures what directories will be passed on from tomcat to IIS. Right now, this enables the “examples” directory to be passed on and accessible from the remote access website. If you need to add more, like subsonic, add “/subsonic*=tomcat6″.

Now open up the Services console again and restart the “World Wide Web Publishing Service” .

Once that is done, open up “https://mydomain.homeserver.com/examples/servlets/servlet/HelloWorldExample” on any computer and you should be greeted with a familiar “Hello World” page.

Wikipedia defines Tomcat as a servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation which implements the Java Servlet and the JavaServer Pages (JSP) specifications from Sun Microsystems, and provides a “pure Java” HTTP web server environment for Java code to run.  What does this all mean, and why is it important?

Well for starters, the built in web server on Windows Home Server is not capable of serving up JSP.  This means you have to use a different server to do this.  Why would you want to? Well, VMWare Server for one uses this method, and HP uses it with the EX485 and EX487 machines and a different server to do the same on the EX470 and EX475 for the webshares and photo gallery stuff.  But the main goal of this tutorial is going to be getting SubSonic Media Streamer installed.  But we will get to that much later.

Originally, I wanted to get Subsonic installed, because it is a nice package (check it out, it’s worth at least looking).  There is a Windows installer, or you could just install Tomcat. Both require you opening up another port. Which is something that I don’t like doing if I can avoid it.  Looking into solutions to my problem, I ran across “Jakarta”. For those with MediaSmart Servers, you may recognize this. I know I did.  Jakarta is a connection software that allows “IIS” (the built in web server for WHS) to redirect to Tomcat and serve up those JSP pages.

What does this mean to most people?  It means using “https://myserver.homeserver.com/subsonic/” instead of “http://myserver.homeserver.com:8080/” and some more control about what’s available over the internet.

However, this tutorial is only for people who don’t have MediaSmart Servers, because the EX48x series already has Tomcat installed, and the EX47x series has some special considerations for installing, that I will not cover here but will definitely cover later.

What you will need:

• Java – Get the most updated one. I recommend the Offline as it won’t have to go and download stuff also.
• Apache Tomcat – Grab the “Windows Service Installer” from the bottom part of the page
• Jakarta binary for Win32 – it should be named “isapi_redirect-1.2.28-chunking.dll”, and if this causes issues, grab the one without the “chunking” in the name.

What to do

First, download all three of these files to a place you access them. Preferably the Home Server desktop, or copy them to it.  Once you do that, run the Java installer.  It’s default location should be absolutely fine, but just keep a note of where you install it to.  (Should be “C:\Program Files\Java\jre6″ by default).

Once Java is installed, start the Tomcat installer.  Agree (and read) the license agreement, and then proceed to the options.  You’ll want to enable the “Service” and “Examples” options, and if you want, the “Native” option also. After that, you should be able to just use all the defaults and it should pick up the location that Java is installed.

You’ll probably have to start the Tomcat service now. Either just reboot the server, or open up Services console (located in Administrative Tools, or by running “services.msc”).  It should be near the top and named “Apache Tomcat 6″, or similar.  Start the service, and leave this console open, you’ll need it later.

After it’s started, try opening “http://localhost:8080/examples/servlets/servlet/HelloWorldExample” on your server, if you installed the examples that greets you with “Hello World”.

After that’s done and you’ve verified that it’s working, we need to configure it and IIS to work with each other.  in the Tomcat directory (should be “C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\” by default), and create a folder called “ISAPI”.  Copy the Jakarta dll file (isapi_redirect….) to this folder and rename it to just “isapi_redirect.dll”. Right click it and select properties.  If the “unblock” button is there, click it and then click Okay.  If it isn’t, don’t worry. Now, right click on the ISAPI folder and select properties. Open the Security tab and add “NETWORK SERVICE” to the list of users.

Now create a text file in that same directory named “isapi_redirect.properties”.  Open this file up in notepad and add the following to the contents of the file:

extension_uri=/jakarta/isapi_redirect.dll
log_file=C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\logs\isapi_redirect.log
log_level=info
worker_file=C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\conf\workers.properties
worker_mount_file=C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\conf\uriworkermap.properties

Save the file and close it. Now go to “C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\conf\” and create “workers.properties”. Set the file to the following:

worker.list=wlb,jkstatus
worker.ajp13w.type=ajp13
worker.ajp13w.host=localhost
worker.ajp13w.port=8009
worker.wlb.type=lb
worker.wlb.balance_workers=ajp13w
worker.jkstatus.type=status

Save the file, close it and now create “uriworkermap.properties” in the same folder and set it to the following:

/examples/*=wlb

This last file configures what directories will be passed on from tomcat to IIS.  Right now, this enables the “examples” directory to be passed on and accessible from the remote access website.  If you need to add more, like subsonic, add “/subsonic/*=wlb”.

Once that is done, you’ll need to open up “Internet Informational Services (IIS) Manager.  Navigate down to “Web Services Extensions” and right click on it, and select “Add a new web service extension…”. Name the Extension “Jakarta” and then click the “Add” button.  If everything is in the default location, use “C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\ISAPI\isapi_redirect.dll” for the path to the file.  Click okay, and then check “Set extension status to Allowed” and then click Okay.

Open up “Web Sites” and right click on “Default Web Site” and select properties. Open up the “ISAPI Filter” tab.  Click “Add”, set the filter name to “Jakarta” and the executable to “C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\ISAPI\isapi_redirect.dll”.  Click okay twice and then right click on “Default Web Site” select “New >” and “Virtual Directory”. Use the “alias” of “jakarta” and use “C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\ISAPI” for the folder. Set the options for read, script and execute. Click Okay, and open up the Services console again and restart the “World Wide Web Publishing Service” .

Once that is done, open up “https://mydomain.homeserver.com/examples/servlets/servlet/HelloWorldExample” on any computer and you should be greeted with a familiar “Hello World” page.

Now you have a fully working Java server installed, configured and serving pages to the outside world.

Next, I’ll be going over how to install and configure Apache Tomcat on your HP MediaSmart Server Ex470/EX475.

Do you use Firefox? Want to be able to sync your bookmarks between computers and don’t want to use someone else’s server or to have to set up another server on your system? Xmarks (formally known as FoxMarks) allows you to sync your bookmarks, and recently rolled out a version that is designed for using your own server.

Basically, they cut out everything that wasn’t absolutely necessary to just sync bookmarks and passwords.

What you will need

• WebFolders4WHS Add-In
• Firefox with Xmarks “BYOS Beta” Extension installed
• Remote Access to Windows Home Server

What to Do

You’ll need to enable and configure your Remote Access website first.

Once you’ve verified that it is working, download and install the WebFolders4WHS Add-In on your server.

Once that has finished and you’ve logged back into your server’s console, open up the page for “Web Folders”. It still won’t work right now, as the components are not installed or configured yet, so click the “Setup” button here, and then click the “Setup” button on the settings page that it brings up. It will bring up a couple of pages, warning and such.

It will  ask you what you want to use for the web folder name. Note this setting, as it is the folder for the URL that we will be using in a bit.

After the Add-In has finished installing, you’ll need to use Advanced Admin Console or Remote Desktop to open “Internet Information Services” located in Administrative Tools.

You should see the window open up, and the computer’s name appear on the left side.

Right click on the server, and click properties. At the bottom of the box, click on “MIME Types…”. On this page, click “New…” and for extension, fill out “.json” and for the MIME Type, fill out “application/json”.

Click all the “OK”s, and then reboot your server. (The WebServer service needs to restart, and this is the easiest way to do this).

Once that’s done, log back into the console, and open the “Web Folders” page.

“Web Enable” the appropriate user folder(s) here. Remember your web share name? Good, you’ll need it now. If not, click on the Setup button here, and check the “Web Shared Folder” name, as that is what we want right now (default is “WebFoldersShare”).

Once this is done, navigate Firefox, or another web browser to “https://myserver.homeserver.com/WebFoldersShare/”. (Replace myserver with your remotes access identifier)

You should be prompted for a user name and password. Enter the credentials for your user account on the server, and you should be treated with a list of the “Web Enabled” folders that you have access to. Right click on your user account’s folder (should be your user name) and click “Copy Link Location”.

Now, install the XMarks “Build Your Own Server” extension.

Once you’ve installed it and restarted Xmarks, you’ll be prompted to go to the settings or to just cancel. Well, what are you waiting for! Click on “Go to Settings”.

Here you will see a page with spaces to specify a username, password, bookmark URL and password URL. Use the same user name and password you use for the server. You will have to specify a file ending with “.json” for this to work.

Paste the URL from above to both the bookmark URL and the password URL. Add “bookmark.json” to the bookmark URL, and “password.json” to the password URL.

After everything is filled out, click “Synchronize Now”, and everything should go fine.

Done

Now your bookmarks are synced with your personal Xmarks server! Enjoy and abuse.

Additional Info

If you want to sync your passwords too, open the Xmarks’ settings page and go to the “Sync” page. Check the “Passwords” box. This will immediately bring up a page to create your “PIN” or to enter your previous PIN. This pin is an encryption key that encrypts the password file.

Also, if you use NoScript like I do, you can set it to use a bookmark for the configuration settings and sync that on all the computers that use this set of bookmarks too!

One of the most demanded features for Windows Home Server has been the integration of a Bittorrent client. Your Home Server is an always on device meant for file storage (and more). And if you already have a machine set to use a torrent client, it makes absolute sense to migrate that to your Windows Home Server box. Always on, always connected, and lots of room.

Before I talk about the add-in itself, there are a couple things to keep in mind: uTorrent is a normal program and not a Windows Home Server add-in itself.  And as such, requires jumping through a number of hoops to get it running when no user is logged on.  (WGS Wiki tutorial here on how to set it up) Unfortunately, there is no torrent client available that will run as a service natively yet so you are stuck jumping through these hoops for now.

Marcel Nouwens has writting a nice Add-In for Windows Home Server that grabs information from uTorrent’s webGUI and displays it in the console.  It does just what you would need it to: it displays a list of your torrents, their status and other information about them.  It also lets you add, remove, stop, start, and force start torrents.

On the settings page, you just need to supply the full URL for that you would access the webGUI with.  For my server, that is “http://ummon:16655/gui”.  You would need to change that info based on your setup.  You also need to supply the user name and password to get it working too.

However, it doesn’t display any other information that you would find in the webGUI, such as a list of files in the torrent, a list of peers, detailed statistics, and related info.  To me, it is a good concept, though it feels like it needs more work.  And personally, I use a URL shortcut in the Advanced Admin Console to get the same functionality and more out of the uTorrent webGUI.

Author: Marcel Nouwens
Version Reviewed: 1.1.1.0
Release Date: 11 July 2007

More info: Download | Discuss

One of the major considerations for Windows Home Server is that you are not going to be logging onto the server and have programs launching all the time.  You’re going to load the console, use it for what you need and that is about it. So you want programs that will run automatically, and don’t require you to log in to the server.

For those who don’t know, that is a “Service” in Windows – a program that runs in the background. One that you never directly see or interact with, and which starts before you even log in.  It has no GUI of its own, and no need for direct interaction.  Many such services do have interfaces that are not part of the program, but do allow you to change the settings for it.

Those who are technically inclined will see the reason AnyService Installer is great for Windows Home Server.  But for those that don’t know why, AnyService Installer allows you to set up any program as a service, running without having to log on to your server and without interaction.

However, not every program is a great candidate for AnyService Installer. Remember, you won’t be able to directly interact with the program.  So either the program needs to be one that doesn’t actually need any interaction (such as ShoutCAST DNAS) or has an alternate means of interaction (such as uTorrent’s WebGUI).  But for the programs it does work for, it means that as long as your server is on, the “service” is running, so for those like me, it means it is up and running 24/7.

Configuring a program as a service is very simple.  You do need to install the Windows Server 2003 Resource Toolkit first.  But once you have that installed, all you need to do is run AnyService Installer.  There are three main entries settings, the location of the toolkit files, the program you want to use and a name for it. Simply configure those settings, and you’re off and running.

Author: Marcel Nouwens
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Release Date: 11 July 2007

More info: Download | Discuss

Looks like the 64-bit version of the WHS Toolkit is now available.  For those of us running 64-bit versions of windows, this is a long awaited program.

And I only discovered this after submitting a couple of bugs on Connect for Windows 7!

Available for download:
WHS Toolkit v1.1 x64 (3.1MB)
WHS Toolkit v1.1 x32 (3.1MB)

A lot of people have experienced slow transfer speeds to and from their HP MediaSmart Server, and some have had problems with it dropping connections all the time.  One brave  user has found a solution to this problem and has shared it with us. Blackprint has walked through the steps, written a tutorial and included pictures on how to update your NIC driver (aka ethernet driver).

Before starting, I want to warn you that not only is this very likely not supported by HP, but can result in losing network access to your server all together.  Now to turn it over to Blackprint:

You might be thinking “Why would I need to do this?” well I can tell you, from my experience, it solved the problem of my slow network speeds. I was getting around 200KBps and now have a steady 9MBps over wireless-n. Be warned: it can be risky because if it goes wrong and the ethernet port stops working, you will have no access to your box, so only update at your own risk.

What you will need

• Remote Desktop Connection
• The Driver

What to Do

Firstly, we need to check what driver version you currently have. Remote Desktop into your Home Server, right-click on my computer and click on manage. Go to Device Manager, expand Network adapters, right click on the SiS191 and go to properties.

Click on the driver tab. The latest version (at time of writing) was released 03/03/08.

If your driver is before this version and you are experiencing slow network speeds, it’s time to update.

Extract the zipped driver file, somewhere in the Shared Folders is fine. Open the Setup.exe in the sgl206a folder.

Follow the installation through, if you see this message click Continue Anyway.

The driver will install and if done correctly it will ask to restart the server. I recommend restarting ASAP. If the server seems unresponsive for a couple of seconds during the install, it was normal in my case. I must have reinstalled this driver a few times during the writing of this tutorial and have had no problems.

Done

You can check the new driver version by following the initial instructions above. Remote Desktop into your Home Server, right-click on my computer and click on manage. Go to Device Manager, expand Network adapters, right click on the SiS191 and go to properties. Click on the driver tab.

Additional Info

The driver link may become out of date. You can get the latest driver from the SiS download page. Read and accept the agreement. Select Windows Server 2003, Network Driver, SiS191 and click Go. Choose a location to download from, I recommend choosing as close to your home as possible to get the best speed. You can then follow the instructions above.

WHS Outlook is an add-in that integrates Microsoft Outlook® with the Windows Home Server Console application. As the author, Mike Craven explains on his website:

WHS Outlook allows a single installation of Microsoft Outlook to be shared by up to 10 different client PC’s via the Windows Home Server Console. Using the Remote Access features of Windows Home Server, you can even gain full access to all of your Microsoft Outlook e-mail, contacts, calendar, etc. from anywhere in the world that Internet access is available.

The add-in has already received mixed reviews from the community.  The two maon negative points that have been made it are that firstly, it is a commercial add-in, and therefore required payment. Secondly, you could just run Outlook on your home server and remote desktop into it without the need for Console integration.  Both are very valid points that I won’t dismiss.  But I’ve been running both the first beta and the latestest Beta 2 release and I really love this add-in.  It is a wonderful email solution that is specifically developed for Windows Home Server.

Yes, you can “just” run Outlook from remote desktop, but the whole point of Windows Home Server is to be able to manage the home server from any computer via the WHS Console.  WHS Outlook enables Outlook to be tightly integrated into the WHS Console.  The buttons and menus that you would normally need for Outlook are cleverly placed in a toolbar.  Most of the buttons have drop down menus that allow you to perform all of the standard tasks your require straight from that toolbar.  Plus a few others, such as listing all windows created by Outlook and the ability to bring them into focus, or a general purpose menu button that has pretty much every menu option that you would normally need in the course of using Outlook.

Mike Craven has enabled the add-In so that it can launch links in emails and RSS feed entries on your client computer, via your default browser.  For me, this is absolutely awesome – I use Outlook for my feed reader and have 20 or more feeds on it.  It loads them inside the console if you are using the web interface but other than that, it works great!  And this is not something you could do by just running Outlook on your home server!!

The add-in as downloadable as a free trial that lasts 21 days before it stops working.  At that time you can uninstall it and use Outlook normally, or you can purchase the add-in for $24.95.  

There are a few things to note about Outlook and WHS Outlook.  The first and most important is that Microsoft technically requires that you have a seperate licence for each computer running Office or Outlook.  That means if you have Office 2007 running on one PC at home, you would have to get another copy to install, one on your server, and the other on what ever computer.  While I doubt this will stop some people, this is the offical licensing policy.  Another thing, is that I would recommend configuring Outlook exactly how you want it working before installing or using WHS Outlook. This way, you have less chance of issues with it.

It is currently in it’s third beta, but feels pretty much complete.  Mike has said he currently doesn’t have plans to work on either a web interface for WHS Outlook, or another add-in he had mentioned: “WHS Office”.  This is mainly due to the fact that he does make a living from the programs he writes.  He will continue to support the product and update it, but there are no plans for further development.

If you feel that this is a product worth paying for, and want to see further development from him, let Mike know by heading over to his website and purchasing a copy! I know I’m probably going to buy a couple copies for friends!

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