Comments on: Windows Home Server Arrives

By: John

John — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:33:53 +0000

I know that there are a few third-party online backup options that work with WHS (I forget their names at the moment). I would think that it wouldn’t be terribly difficult since what you describe sounds similar to how the Photosync add-on works with flickr. Remember too, it’s built on Server 2k3 which makes it remarkably flexible.

As far as non-MS OSs, it depends on the features you want to use. WHS won’t backup and restore non-Windows or non supported OSs but it should be possible to connect to the shares. One thread on the forum did say that you can configure a Mac to backup to a folder pretty easily. http://forums.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver/default.aspx?siteid=50

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:53:28 +0000

Actually, it looks like the TTG problem has already been solved. Its called Tivo Publisher for WHS and you can find it here:

http://durfee.net/software/2007/07/tivo-publisher-for-whs.html

Seems like its still under development. The comments are encouraging, but whether it works with only MPEG files or all of the formats TTG supports (in particular Xvid and DivX) I can’t tell yet.

There’s also a uTorrent client, see:

http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1717779&SiteID=50

You can find out about the “plugins” available at:
http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/windows-home-server-add-ins/

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:51:16 +0000

John, have you installed or are you aware of any software to allow automated/scheduled network backup to the cloud? I’m interested, if I can relatively simply have WHS dump certain directories off (ssh, ftp, whatever) to my web hosting server on a regular basis. I also wonder if the file system plays nice in a multi-OS household since most of my digital photos live on the Mac these days. I used a Buffalo NAS (Linux) for awhile, and being cross platform meant separate storage areas – was sort of a kludge. It also had a noisy whining fan, which is why I actually dumped it.

By: John

John — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:46:44 +0000

I’ve been running WHS for the past couple months as part of the RC testing. It keeps all my media in check and served up to Tivo and my xbox 360, runs TivoToGo, utorrent, and works with iTunes. The connector program on the client computers gives you complete control over everything. Glenn, you and everyone else have absolutely no reason not to get it. It’s fantastic.

And, if you don’t like HP’s box or any of the other retail boxes you can get the OEM copy and build a custom machine for it.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:22:10 +0000

I kinda want one, but seems likely it wouldn’t quite meet my needs. I’d like to have a media PC with all my media on it, and also to run various taxing programs I’d like to get off my main PC. Problem is those taxing things include stuff like TivoToGo, which I’m guessing won’t run on WHS. Or a torrent client. Or iTunes to download the latest podcasts, or …

Problem is I don’t think WHS really has a user interface, you just access it via a web page. But I’m not sure. Obviously need to find out more about it. In many ways its very appealing.

By: jon

jon — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:59:05 +0000

don’t count on ZFS quite yet… its having its own problems…
http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/2007/09/netapp-sues-sun.html