Comments on: Windows Home Server: Up Close And Personal

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:31:04 +0000

You all, and I mean you all, need to be lined up and individually slapped. OK.. wait a minute, not Jeff, but the rest of you sniveling punks line up.

Punishment dished out as follows:

1. One slap – Not understanding that the green light industrial design is only one take on what it might look like, and sniveling about it

2. One slap – Not bothering to figure out what it is, and sniveling about it.

3. One slap – Bad mouthing it because you are a Apple sniveling punk.

4. One slap – Praising it because you are a MS sniveling punk.

5. Two bitch slaps, and an intervention – for being hopelessly lost in Linux land and sniveling about it.

By: jan

jan — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 13:13:20 +0000

Why use windows to serve files? Why?

I have an old 1200 Mhz with linux and it has done the job well for over 6 years now and rebooted a couple of times.

Windows is known to spread virus, trojans and has to reboot every night.
Why use it? because it look cool??

By: Braniac

Braniac — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:26:10 +0000

I believe the idea with the lights on the MS unit is that they glow green when everything’s good, yellow for a problem, and red when it’s down.

And it’s more than a NAS. It’s a trimmed down version of Windows Server 2003.

By: Collin

Collin — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:08:42 +0000

As HTPCdrmr above says, did anyone actually bother to learn the details of the product before bashing it?

If you watch the video at Channel 9 you’ll learn something. You’ll learn that it’s aimed at both sides of the market: a) the non-geek home user who wants to plug it in and (almost) forget about it and b) the geek (you lot) who want to “tinker” with it.

It’s not “just a NAS” either. Go watch the video and learn what it is.

By: Guamish

Guamish — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:36:40 +0000

“Free Personalized Domain”.

all in all, i want this sucka.

By: HTPCdrmr

HTPCdrmr — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 02:00:14 +0000

You folks ought to try and learn something about the product before you bash it. The unit in the pic is a prototype as stated in a previous post, Microsoft isn’t packaging it, OEM’s will. Who cares what it looks like, what does it do….

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=270965

Windows Home Server will be able to do a lot of things (as sated aboave), one of which is allow someone like myself to develop home automation software, which is actually pretty cool if you ask me. But hey, WHS isn’t meant for your typical “iPod” user, it’s meant for those of us who wish to use our brain every once in awhile.

Obvioulsy no offense to those of us who have an iPod and tinker on the side.

By: PicaroMT

PicaroMT — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:19:04 +0000

It’s not just a NAS. It’s a NAS, automated backup, wireless access point, VPN server, etc. Only mjr Paranoid has read the article. Also, those of you who commented on its appearance did not notice the line that said this is only a MS prototype. MS will not make these. OEM’s will.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:42:39 +0000

It’s a NAS! Who cares what it looks like! Who cares what OS it runs! Maybe I’m missing the point here, but If I were to already have a TB in my home PC, Why would I need this just to store and share my stuff.

And if it’s wireless and directly connected to my broadband, that’s one more thing that I have to worry about keeping bug (and virus) free. Or are there people out there that don’t have a computer and just want to store their MP3’s?

Just my 2 cents. I like to see total solutions…..not gizmo’s

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:51:29 +0000

I think it has potential, although I don’t really see much of an advantage over simply building your own box for this. If you’re going to go with a windows based solution, you probably would be better off with buying Win2k3 SBS… A small vista PC should be able to handle most of what this “server” provides — file sharing, a backup utility and shadow copies. Unless the server ships with active directory it’s hard to stay interested.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 12:38:41 +0000

Being somewhat of a Tech, I am in school to become an MCSE, and let me tell you that although Microsuck’s plug n play server is looking fairly shiny and glows of great colors, I find it useless. First there has to be user interaction, there is no way you can plug a server in and there it goes, It is doing its job lol, wtf. For the ease of use, and Im guessing its for people who have no idea what a server is, I can almost guarantee it will flop. Last but surely not least, what does it do, it allows you to share your videos, files, pictures and pron. Wait If I do recall doesn’t Windows XP do that by default. Wow it allows 10 people to access this server. Wait the limit in XP by default to access a server is ohhhh 10 lol. This is yet another attempt at Microsuck, to suck some extra money from selling the same product just more pretty. I do not advise anybody with some cerebral matter to buy this, Stick some LED’s on a your PC and read a bit about what Microsoft has actually added to its new OS’s and products, or which added features have been added which Microsoft has bought from smaller, better companies. Thats all.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 03:42:48 +0000

I found a good review on this. Go here.

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/whs_preview.asp

You can access it on OS X through smb shares and it works as a backup location for time machine.

Depending on the hardware vendor the device will take different shapes, or you can build your own if you buy the software. Hard drives can be added on the fly to expand storage space.

By: Brent

Brent — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:17:03 +0000

Wow. It’s a hard drive with a basic OS and SMB. For $200, you can build the same thing using any Linux distro in less than an hour. Of course, it won’t be shaped like a cake and have a glowing green light.

By: effedup

effedup — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:00:06 +0000

Someone commented that without the ipod there’d be no zune, guaranteed..

i’d like to point out that without the walkman, there’d be no ipod.

fanboys, i love ‘em.

By: Motorcycle Guy

Motorcycle Guy — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 23:37:42 +0000

I agree with Bas, I’m not sure I’m a fan of the round one, but it looks smaller than other pics of the HP one I had seen which is good.

By: Bas Hekking

Bas Hekking — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 23:18:09 +0000

To be honest, I think it’s rather ugly. It looks like a cookie jar, and is apparently made out of cheap plastic. I suppose you can swith of the leds.
I love however that finally some competition is going on.

By: mjr Paranoid

mjr Paranoid — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:21:56 +0000

I love seeing everyone who has an opinion based on simple picture. Aint the Internet grand! Thanks AL!!!

But seriously, A little research yielded this:

1. Yes its a NAS. And its totally wireless(other than a power cord).
2. Its also a centralized place to seemlessly store all your media ALA media player 11 and Vista. Xbox intergration is also there. SO expect windows media support. DON’t expect Dixv or any other kind of codec support.
3. It serves as a centralized , automatic backup system that can (and this seems cool) restore a crashed system with a simple boot disk. The articles I read were not clear if was a boot cd or a boot floppy. I am going to assume cd.
4. Based on 2003. Cut down for performance. Has several features from 2003 like shadow copy. Don’t know what shadow copy is? Then you are missing out.
5. USer account sync. Ok its not a real directory serivice. But it is. Wait , ok I admit it I am confused. I understand the udea of syncing the user accounts and passwords across all trhe PCs in the house. But what about user profiles? I will guess they will adapt the idea of folder redirection for the users personal folders. The idea of roaming profiles would just not work in a home user world were some user will have gigs of things and stuff.
6. Headless. Web browser based management. nuff said.
7. External VPN access to your stuff via a free domain name. Or just go via IP.With a host of robust filtering and access rules.
8. Seemless storage expansion. No seperate volumes to manage, no c: drive, just one big volume extension.

Thats enough for me to be interested I can assume that there will be even more features added in like QOS and content ratings (aimed at the family usage don’t ya know)and a whole host of Vista type enhancements/tie ins.

By: turnsout

turnsout — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:11:35 +0000

I’d still rather buy $100 xbox, modify it (with a software based mod-chip), and then just stream everything over my network to my home theater. I don’t care if it doesn’t look pretty, but it works great and can play any codec I throw at it. I won’t buy something similar unless it’s about 100 bucks and make less noise than my xbox. =)

the lights sure would get annoying pretty quick in my opinion as well. my stereo lights up my room enough as it is; one DIM green LED indicating it’s powered on would suffice. sheesh.

I wonder how big of a beer mug I could fit on this for double use as a coaster *thinks*

By: Dankoozy

Dankoozy — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 21:59:13 +0000

The all important question: does it run Linux?

if it runs something based on server 2003 it should.

Imagine a beowulf cluster of these.. it would be a big round tower!

By: pizzaman

pizzaman — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 21:43:05 +0000

Wonder if you could connect a USB printer to it.

By: MactechBri

MactechBri — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:55:54 +0000

Im a mac guy. Thats pretty nice for Microsoft stuff. I am sure that it is more than just a hard drive with WIFI and a few usb ports. There has to be more to it if they expect average pc users to fork out their hard earned money for something that just sits on a desk and looks purty.

MTB