Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 16th Jul 2007 21:52 UTC
Windows Right on schedule, Microsoft announced that its Windows Home Server software is off to the presses. This clears the way for HP, Gateway, LaCie, Medion, and now Iomega and Fujitsu Siemens, (both also announced today, the latter in Europe only) to begin selling their Home Server-powered hardware later this quarter.
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Actually a good Product
by embleau on Mon 16th Jul 2007 22:07 UTC
embleau
Member since:
2005-12-05

I've been in the beta test program for awhile now for this. It's actually a nice product for home users. I know everyone is gonna yell that Linux can do most of all this for free. Yes it can, but MS is making it easier for home users on this one. I'm excited

RE: Actually a good Product
by archiesteel on Mon 16th Jul 2007 22:28 UTC in reply to "Actually a good Product"
archiesteel Member since:
2005-07-02

The question is not if Linux will do more for free (that's an easy one to answer), but rather how well such a device will play with Macs or Linux PCs on the network?

Personally, I think it's a great idea...I would like to see more competition in the "smart storage device" market, hopefully with some offerings based on FOSS.

RE[2]: Actually a good Product
by Almafeta on Mon 16th Jul 2007 22:34 UTC in reply to "RE: Actually a good Product"
Almafeta Member since:
2007-02-22

As they've been working on documenting and fostering third-party development, I'd guess that it'll work exactly as well as the other OS companies want their system to work with it.

Which companies will permit this and which will deny, though, I can't guess (and won't try).

RE[2]: Actually a good Product
by Luminair on Mon 16th Jul 2007 23:33 UTC in reply to "RE: Actually a good Product"
Luminair Member since:
2007-03-30

The question is not if Linux will do more for free (that's an easy one to answer), but rather how well such a device will play with Macs or Linux PCs on the network?


It just shows SMB shares, and everyone works with those, so... the answer to your question is "just fine"!

RE[3]: Actually a good Product
by archiesteel on Tue 17th Jul 2007 05:36 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Actually a good Product"
archiesteel Member since:
2005-07-02

I was talking more about the extended functionalities. Are APIs available to implement on other OSes? These could be nice as media server + backup storage in a multiplatform environment.

RE: Actually a good Product
by Oliver on Tue 17th Jul 2007 09:29 UTC in reply to "Actually a good Product"
Oliver Member since:
2006-07-15

Easier? I don't think so, you just don't know all of the possibilities of opensource software. But of course it will be less secure as usual.

Heh...
by Almafeta on Mon 16th Jul 2007 22:27 UTC
Almafeta
Member since:
2007-02-22

This is good news. Two times out of three, when a product hits beta with rave reviews, they pull it from its expected release date and later on release a limited, 'hipper' version that doesn't capture why we were so excited for it in the first place. Now that it's in presses, we can stop working with betas and start seeing what people can do with this.

EDIT: And by 'people', I mean both end users, and third-party developers. Just realized that might have been less than clear.

Edited 2007-07-16 22:30

RE
by Kroc on Mon 16th Jul 2007 22:32 UTC
Kroc
Member since:
2005-11-10

It's a shame Microsoft didn't make the hardware themselves. Microsoft make good hardware (except for the 360 and the problems there ;) )

RE
by archiesteel on Mon 16th Jul 2007 23:03 UTC in reply to "RE"
archiesteel Member since:
2005-07-02

I agree. For all the faults I can find Microsoft (and they are legion), I've always liked their hardware. Even the Xbox360 is not a bad machine, despite its catastrophic design flaws (which, I imagine, will be fixed in the upcoming revisions). The Xbox360 controller is one of the best out there.

v RE
by brostenen on Tue 17th Jul 2007 01:05 UTC in reply to "RE"
how about if it works on windows?
by Robocoastie on Tue 17th Jul 2007 00:22 UTC
Robocoastie
Member since:
2005-09-15

"The question is not if Linux will do more for free (that's an easy one to answer), but rather how well such a device will play with Macs or Linux PCs on the network? "

Forget that, how about how well it works with windows products! I can't get my Vista box to be accessed by my XP Home laptop. So when I need something from the vista box I either open up the laptop share from the vista box (vista rig can access it, xp one can't access the vista one) or I transfer the file to my linux file server first.

Caspian Member since:
2006-01-01

you know this is a known issue correct? And with about 2 minutes of google searching, you could have fixed the problem?

You can sit there and complain all day, or you can actually do something about it.

Here you go though, since it wasn't worth your time to look for the fix anyways.


Solution

For computers running Windows XP to appear on the Network Map diagram, you must download and install the LLTD Responder component. With the LLTD Responder, a computer running Windows XP can respond to other Windows Vista computers on the network that are attempting to create a network map.



To install the LLTD Responder to a computer running Windows XP



1. Download the update for Windows XP from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=70582



2. If you are prompted to do so, restart your computer.

After your computer running Windows XP restarts, generate a new Network Map with the computer running Windows XP included.

Good news
by Robo on Tue 17th Jul 2007 00:34 UTC
Robo
Member since:
2007-07-17

This is great news. This is the best piece os MS software they have ever released imo. I have been running it at home in beta for about 6 weeks and it is brilliant. A real backup burden is now gone from me and it serves files well and your server is accessible from outside (e.g. from work or where ever).

v Give me a break...
by brostenen on Tue 17th Jul 2007 01:00 UTC
RE: Give me a break...
by ronaldst on Tue 17th Jul 2007 01:21 UTC in reply to "Give me a break..."
ronaldst Member since:
2005-06-29

Try installing other apps on that device. Where's the SDK? 24/7 uTorrent/eMule DLs? Your device doesn't even come close to what a WHS can do.

The only thing I have against the WHS is that IIRC it can't replace a home gateway... Yet.

RE[2]: Give me a break...
by flanque on Tue 17th Jul 2007 01:55 UTC in reply to "RE: Give me a break..."
flanque Member since:
2005-12-15

That may be true, but I would much prefer a hardware gateway router.

RE[2]: Give me a break...
by Epyon on Tue 17th Jul 2007 02:35 UTC in reply to "RE: Give me a break..."
Epyon Member since:
2005-11-21

The only thing I have against the WHS is that IIRC it can't replace a home gateway... Yet.


Something about keeping my files on a box directly on the net doesn't sit well with me...

RE[2]: Give me a break...
by Wrawrat on Tue 17th Jul 2007 02:55 UTC in reply to "RE: Give me a break..."
Wrawrat Member since:
2005-06-30

The only thing I have against the WHS is that IIRC it can't replace a home gateway... Yet.


Which is probably a good thing. Not only it would make it a single point of failure for your home network, but it could expose your personal data directly on the net. Since gateways are regulating network traffic, they are inherently more vulnerable than simple firewalls restricting accesses.

While a separate gateway doesn't necessarily make your network or your data safe, it's already an additional layer of protection, which is always welcome when wired on an hostile Internet.

Forgot to say
by brostenen on Tue 17th Jul 2007 01:02 UTC
brostenen
Member since:
2007-01-16

Well... Forgot to say, that the discarded computer was not mine, it lay in a dumpster...

v The Argosy-Network Case
by brostenen on Tue 17th Jul 2007 01:10 UTC
wow its amazing how l4me people can be
by cchance on Tue 17th Jul 2007 03:22 UTC
cchance
Member since:
2006-02-24

lol u can really tell the idiots that don't read what the WHS is for...

It gives you remote access to all of your internal network window spc's remote desktop ... it also performs full unattended backups of your windowspc...

just put your pc's to sleep ... WHS wakes them, backs them up and puts them back to sleep at night it works wonderfully...

people compairing this to a frigging USB harddrive are idiots hell even to higher end NAS's are idiots ... considering all a decent nas does is SMB and FTP... This does that and so much more...

... Ya it cant replace a home gateway router but it wasnt meant to ... not yet... they said eventually for a future version they might add a light mail server and routing functionality but thats still up in the air

steampoweredlawn Member since:
2006-09-27

If you're going to call people idiots, you should at least attempt to do so in a grammatically correct manner.

ummm ...
by cchance on Tue 17th Jul 2007 03:24 UTC
cchance
Member since:
2006-02-24

Something about keeping my files on a box directly on the net doesn't sit well with me...


Hate to say but atleast your files are behind a proper corporate gateway from MS... on a very very solid server.. WHS just like win2k3 and win2k8 are rock solid and quite secure.

Not to mention your WHS server isnt directly on the net, its meant to be behind a router or firewall. As was pointed out by wrawrat

It's amazing
by embleau on Tue 17th Jul 2007 03:51 UTC
embleau
Member since:
2005-12-05

It's amazing how many people don't educate themselves on a product before bashing it.

WHS is MORE than just a NAS. Yes it acts as a home network file server, but it does more.

1. Remote Access - It allow secure remote access to your network even if it's behind a firewall. SECURE, so don't freak out. MS has an OPTIONAL Dynamic DNS service they are launching with WHS. But ut will work with others like DynDNS.org...

2. Media Center Serving - It works closely with Media Center PCs, Media Extenders, and Xbox360.

3. Headless - It does NOT require you to have KVM connected to it. It is configured and maintained completely from a Web interface. You still can use a monitor and Mouse/Keyboard to use a console on it.

4. Automated Backup (Best Feature) - Once the client is installed on Client machines, WHS can wake up PCs using Wake on LAN. It will not only backup files, BUT whole HDD Images. It uses a compression techique where if all PCs have same system files, it will only store one copy for all PCs. Automaticaly can do this every night. It will not do full backups every night but just update the "image" for each PC. But the nice thing is.....
If you computer takes a dump, you use a special Boot CD on the "dead" computer. It boots the machine and connects it to the WHS and restores that machines image ... AUTOMATICALLY...

So hopefully everyone now will see this is more than just a "simple" USB hard drive for file sharing or a Simple NAS.

yet another PC
by netpython on Tue 17th Jul 2007 06:38 UTC
netpython
Member since:
2005-07-06

you need to purchase a full-blown server from one of Microsoft's previously mentioned hardware partners

As stated in the article the targeted audience are people with media scattered accross multiple PC's. Woudn't it be more convenient to buy a software only package instead of yet another PC?

RE: yet another PC
by yak8998 on Wed 18th Jul 2007 00:47 UTC in reply to "yet another PC"
yak8998 Member since:
2006-07-28
ubuntu home server
by bedo on Tue 17th Jul 2007 06:40 UTC
bedo
Member since:
2006-01-03

ubuntu recently started ubuntu home server

http://www.ubuntuhomeserver.org/

RE: ubuntu home server
by jadeshade on Tue 17th Jul 2007 06:46 UTC in reply to "ubuntu home server"
jadeshade Member since:
2007-07-10

community project, not official (or not yet, anyway)

RE: ubuntu home server
by Almafeta on Tue 17th Jul 2007 07:58 UTC in reply to "ubuntu home server"
Almafeta Member since:
2007-02-22

That's a bit off-topic, but why not start submitting articles on that project too? ;)

Hmmmm....
by islander on Tue 17th Jul 2007 11:43 UTC
islander
Member since:
2007-04-11

"Under Microsoft's current plan, it won't be selling Windows Home Server as a standalone software product. Instead, you need to purchase a full-blown server from one of Microsoft's previously mentioned hardware partners. The good news is that the hardware requirements for Windows Home Server are relatively modest. All you really need is a hard drive and the basic guts of a PC."

That looks pretty contradictory to me.You can only get it with new hardware yet stating its fit to run on older hardware.Guess the hardware vendors and Microsoft have to get their digs out of our pockets first.

re
by trinitrotolueen on Tue 17th Jul 2007 12:53 UTC
trinitrotolueen
Member since:
2006-10-03

It appears to be malware writers who easily make servers from users windows machines. So i wonder why MS doesn't offer a software addon that turns the box into a home server.

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