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HOWTO: Get Ready to Install Windows Home Server

July 9th, 2010 | Add a Comment

For those of us that have gotten three-quarters of the way through a server install only to realize we’d missed a critical step, here’s a great Windows Home Server pre-installation checklist from Home Server Land. While some of the tips are just common sense (Back up your data before you start! Make sure you set up backups after installation is complete!) there are some good gotcha-avoiding pointers on topics such as setting up Remote Access and password creation guidelines. Well worth a read for WHS first-timers and veterans alike. … Read entire article »

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Plextor Introduces Consumer Home Server Line

Plextor dips their toe into the home server market with the introduction of the Plextor PX-NAS2 series. There are three flavors of the PX-NAS2, all of which feature two drive bays. The PX-NAS2-BL1 doesn’t include any drives, but lands at a fairly stiff (for the consumer market) $225 MSRP. The PX-NAS2-1T1 (MSRP $355.00) includes 1TB of storage across two 500 GB dives, and the PX-NAS2-2T1 (MSRP $565.00) boasts 2TBs total, across a part of 1 TB drives. That’s quite a price premium when good quality 1 TB drives are readily available at around $100, and while I’ve historically had a good experience with Plextor products, I think they need to be a bit more aggressive with their … Read entire article »

HOWTO: Install Windows Home Server on a Home-Built System

We Got Served continues their excellent Get Started series on how to build your own home server with a post this week on Installing and and Configuring Windows Home Server software. Also available and highly recommended are the first two installments, What Is a Home Server and Build Your Own Home Server. … Read entire article »

Acer Enters WHS Market With easyStore H340

Acer has launched the Aspire easyStore H340, their entry into the pre-built Windows Home Server market. It’s an impressing little package, with am Intel Atom process, 1TB of storage, 2GB of RAM and 3 open bays for expansions, all for under $400. This should rock the boat a bit at HP. Their cheapest Windows Home Server-based system is the MediaSmart LX195, which runs just under $400. While the LX195 is also Atom processor powered, it has half the RAM (1GB compared to 2), 640GB of hard drive space out the box, and is only expandable via attaching additional drives to the USB ports on the back.The easyStore H340, on the other hand, handles expansion like HP’s … Read entire article »

Tranquil PC Introduces Two Models Of Its SQUASH Server

UK-based PC maker Tranquil PC has rolled out two versions of its flagship home server, lovingly dubbed the SQUASH. The SQA-5H-2000 and the SQA-5H-1000 both run Windows Home Server, and differ only in the amount of RAM and hard drive space. The SQA-5H-1000 is the entry-level unit with 1GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive space and four spare hard drive bays for expansion. The SQA-5H-2000 is their top drawer unit, boasting 2 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive space and four spare hard drive bays for expansion. The only downside for those of us in the US? There’s no domestic distributor yet, so we’ll have to pay for overseas shipping, and like most things purchased in British pounds, … Read entire article »

Microsoft Drops Windows Home Server Prices For OEMs

Although by almost any measure its first year has been a success, Microsoft announced a 30% drop in the Windows Home Server licenses price for OEMs last week on the Windows Home Server team blog. That means that VARs and vendors, such as HP with their MediaSmart servers, will pay less for the software. It also means the street price – what you could expect to pay in a retail store – will likely drop as well. It’s tough to pinpoint exactly what a high-volume vendor like HP is paying per Windows Home Server license, but it should be interesting to see what downward pressure this will have on the pricing of their popular MediaSmart … Read entire article »

My Movies For Windows Home Server Adds New Features

My Movies for Windows Home Server was released at the tail end of the summer, and already they’re adding new features. From ehomeupgrade.com: (The software) is adding CD ripping to the list of features, according to the 1.0.0.7 announcement of My Movies for Windows Home Server. Brian also comments to We Got Served that the CD ripper will encode music tracks to MP3 or WAV copy and gather its corresponding metadata from FreeDB.org. … Read entire article »

What PC Reviews HP’s MediaSmart EX470

British tech mag What PC has a (mostly) positive review of HP’s MediaSmart ex470. One of their beefs is the price – 400 British pounds comes out to about $650 US dollars – which would probably make me gripe as well.. … Read entire article »

Does Anyone Actually Want A Home Server?

Junko Yoshida questions the demand for wireless home networks with a central server hub in a piece in EE Times this week: I remember hearing about a digital future in which every home has a server, “just like a furnace in the basement.” This “basement server” – connected to digital cable, satellite, DSL and so on – is envisioned as delivering music, video and multimedia content to a variety of digital consumer devices throughout the home. Technologists, typically demonstrating a rather complex user interface, have shown how I can pick any song, video clip or movie that fits my mood, and summon it instantly to any TV anywhere in the house. This, they have said, is a … Read entire article »

Welcome To Home Server News!

Welcome to Home Server News. Here you’ll find, over time, a one stop shop for all things home server related, from news and articles, to HOWTOs and reviews. We’ll be updating the site frequently, so visit again soon! … Read entire article »