Windows Home Server review

[shmokes]

Stop everything you are doing right now and get a Windows Home Server.

[shmokes]

But if you need more . . .    


I have recently installed a WHS into my life and I am really really impressed with this product.  The out-of-box experience is phenomenal, and Microsoft has done an amazing job of making it usable by people with no special networking skills.  WHS is a stripped down version of Windows Server 2003.  An advanced user can, in fact, remote-desktop into the device and you will be looking at a typical Windows Server 2003 desktop, and you'll have access to the usual administrative tools, etc.  But this is completely unnecessary (though the type of person who comes to BYOAC will more likely than not make extensive use of this).  All the basic features of the device are controlled from your PC using a little app called Windows Home Server Console, which allows you to manage users, connected devices, shared folders, backups and more.

Here are some things that I can do with this thing, right out of the box with extremely little effort or configuration on my part:

• Have it pull backups silently over the network from every connected computer and store those backups intelligently (keeping the last three daily backups, weekly backups and monthly backups, without duplicating files
• Have it stream media to any connected device, using practically any protocol known to man, from Twonky to Samba to DLNA
• Give me the ability to remote desktop into any PC on my network from anywhere in the world (DynDNS to the WHS, WHS to any computer on my network)
• Access any of the files on my server from anywhere in the world from a web interface
• Run a uTorrent client on a box that sips power, rather than leaving my desktop running all the time (this one actually required that I Remote Desktop into the server to install the app)
• Speaking of accessing the box remotely over the web, the user interface is excellent, allowing me to drag and drop multiple files at a time directly from Windows Explorer in order to upload to the box (up to 2 GB at a time)
• Very easily publish photos stored on the device to any of the big photo sites (Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, etc.)
• Stream any of the music or photos in my library through a very nice web interface
• Run automated off-site backups to Amazon's S3 Cloud service (I can't comment more on this . . . it's a subscription service and I haven't used it)
• Run an iTunes server so my music is easily shared by anyone on the network
• Emulate an Apple Time Machine for backing up any Macs on the network (I haven't yet used this feature)
• Share printers across the network
• More things that don't immediately spring to mind

I have just been astounded at how easy it has all been to set up and use.  It is a product that, for the most part, just works.  And considering how feature rich and complex a device it is, that is an amazing feat.  But even better, these things are not expensive.  The most entry-level device is probably the HP LX195.  $250 and includes an internal 640 GB hard drive.  The storage can only be expanded via USB ports, but WHS can pool internal and external drives into a single logical drive that can be extended at any time by adding another drive.  This is the model that I have.  If you'd prefer better storage options there are plenty of devices with multiple internal hard drive bays and external eSATA ports.  But they all cost a bit more money.

At any rate, I am in love with this little device and can't recommend it highly enough.  Oh yeah!  I almost forgot to mention, the throughput on this thing is crazy good.  It transfers files much faster than my Terastation NAS and, amazingly, faster even than any of my external USB hard drives.  

BTW, in case you consider getting one of these based on this review, keep in mind that a few of these features are exclusive to HP media servers, such as the Apple Time Machine emulation and the photo publisher for easily sending photos to your favorite online repository.  But for the most of the features any Windows Home Server will do.  Also, Microsoft now allows purchasing the software alone so you can build your own.  Very cool!

[HaRuMaN]

Bill, is that you? 

[ChadTower]

Heh, and last week I'm pricing 2 port used home NAS devices on ebay to finally make that move.

[shmokes]

Bill, is that you? 

I know you're not serious, but doesn't a good review of absolutely any product or movie or book or videogame or tv show equally imply that it was written by the creator of the thing being reviewed?

[HaRuMaN]

Bill, is that you? 

I know you're not serious, but doesn't a good review of absolutely any product or movie or book or videogame or tv show equally imply that it was written by the creator of the thing being reviewed?

It was just a particularly glowing review...  like you were channeling Bill himself...     But yes, you're correct, I'm not being serious.

[Cakemeister]

I had already made the decision to either get one premade or make one myself. IMO this is a better solution than a NAS. It's just a matter now of saving the money. I would want one with four drive bays for expansion. Right now I back up my documents to my wife's computer, and hers to mine. Not an ideal solution.

[ChadTower]

I guess I need to know the hardware this runs on.  One of my main motivators, aside from cost, in looking at the home NAS units is power.  I'm tired of running the main server 24/7 just to keep content available.  If I can move that to a much lower power unit, and still make the content highly available, the rest is gravy.

[Cakemeister]

Some of these run on Atom processors (The HP uses a Celeron) and either no video or built-in video. They are designed to use a lot less power than a normal box would, and are most likely quieter.

[ChadTower]

Some of these run on Atom processors (The HP uses a Celeron) and either no video or built-in video. They are designed to use a lot less power than a normal box would, and are most likely quieter.

I don't really care about sound as it would run in my basement - it'd have to be a real clanker to be heard.  Might be nice if I could get this going on a machine with a wake-on lan.  No need to run it when nobody is around but I'd hate to have to do that manually.

[shmokes]

It was just a particularly glowing review...

Here are some minor disappointments in my device:

• The built-in app that streams music and photos over the web does not stream videos, which would have been awesome
• No internal expansion and no eSATA ports creates a pretty terrible bottleneck when it comes to accessing data over the network that is stored on an external drive.  This complaint is exclusive to my particular device and not to WHS in general
• It FORCES me to use a strong password for any user that will have remote access (any kind of remote access, even just to a shared folder).  The password must be at least 8 characters and have 3 of the 4 following characteristics: 1) lower-case letters, 2) upper-case letters, 3) numbers, 4) symbols.  I don't mind the suggestion, but god dammit Microsoft it is MY server and it is MY data.  You have no business forcing me to be responsible with it.  The whole industry has been going nuts in a ---smurfing--- password arms race and it is in many ways counterproductive.  But whether it's effective or not isn't the point.  I own both the box and the data.  MS has no right to act as though it has an ownership interest in my data.
• No option for local data redundancy out of the box.  This is also exclusive to my device, since many have eSATA ports, multiple hard drive bays and presumably built-in RAID options.  However, external hard drives can be attached so you can back up the drives or turn on a cool folder duplication feature that will just keep specified folders synced between hard drives.  And, as I mentioned, it can back itself up to an Amazon Cloud account.

Like i say, though, these are minor annoyances.  Overall I am extremely pleased with the product.

[shmokes]

Some of these run on Atom processors (The HP uses a Celeron) and either no video or built-in video. They are designed to use a lot less power than a normal box would, and are most likely quieter.

I don't really care about sound as it would run in my basement - it'd have to be a real clanker to be heard.  Might be nice if I could get this going on a machine with a wake-on lan.  No need to run it when nobody is around but I'd hate to have to do that manually.

Mine runs on an Atom processor and has no hardware for video or sound output.  And it's VERY quiet . . . I have it sitting in my media center alongside my game consoles and A/V equipment and I don't notice it running at all.  It can also be set to go to sleep during certain hours.  It can also wake up the computers on your network even out of hibernation to pull a backup off them and then it will put them back to sleep when it's finished.

[ChadTower]

Cool.  Doesn't directly address power but it's in that direction.  Of course, your device was stated as $250, which is well out of the range I'm playing in for network storage.  There is a feature price to be paid for being at the back end of the cost curve.

[shmokes]

FWIW my device was stated as $250 cos that's what it costs now.  During the week leading up to Black Friday Newegg was selling it for $200.  So if you keep your eyes peeled you may be able to find it at this price again in the near future.

Cakemeister: You should check out this Acer box:  http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B001WGX15W?tag=betteraddons-20

It sounds like it is what you are looking for, and it's really inexpensive compared to similarly spec'ed devices from its competitors.  It won't have a couple of the software features I've described here since it's not coming from HP.  It's too bad you didn't bite in the week before Black Friday, as it was being sold for $299 versus its current $399.

[ChadTower]

FWIW my device was stated as $250 cos that's what it costs now.  During the week leading up to Black Friday Newegg was selling it for $200.  So if you keep your eyes peeled you may be able to find it at this price again in the near future.

Better but I'm swimming in the $100 waters.     I'm keeping my eyes peeled on ebay for used 2 drive Buffalo NAS units.  They are floating in the $100 shipped range without drives and in the $150 range before shipping with drives.

[shmokes]

Consider something on which you can install an operating system.  FreeNAS is an open source OS that will give you most of the features I've described here, I think.  I don't know much about it other than that people unanimously sing its praises.  It would probably be much more powerful than what you're looking at, and potentially cheaper.  But this likely would be more difficult to use while meeting your power-consumption goals, I suppose.

[ChadTower]

But this likely would be more difficult to use while meeting your power-consumption goals, I suppose.

That's the catch.  I did look at that last week, actually.  If I had a machine on hand that I thought a good candidate I'd probably go with FreeNAS.  All of my spare hardware is IDE and it doesn't make a ton of sense these days to set up a NAS on IDE.

[shmokes]

Here's a cool DIY NAS guide.  This one would probably meet all your needs except price.  It's closer to $200 before adding hard drives.  But it might be useful for some, and it looks like it would be a really fun project.

[Cakemeister]

Cakemeister: You should check out this Acer box:  http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B001WGX15W?tag=betteraddons-20

This is the one I have been looking at. It uses an Atom processor.

If you buy a case, power supply, a 1TB drive, motherboard, CPU, 2 gig of memory, and a license for Windows Home Server, I don't see how you can do better building your own than getting one of these.

[IceCold]

As far as FreeNAS goes, it's wonderful.  Decent transfer speed, low resource usage / requirements, and very feature rich.  I'm running mine on an Asus Terminator C3 which is a very small box that doesn't use that much power and FreeNAS runs great on it(I got the Asus terminator a couple years back for like $70 as open box on Newegg).  It's running an 800mhz Via processor and has 1GB DDR in it.  Only 2 SATA ports, though, and only one PCI slot(so you have to compromise and either add a SATA card or add a Gigabit LAN card.  I'm running it with a Gigabit LAN card and 2 750GB SATA drives in Raid 1)

Even running SSH on it, FTP server, DYNDNS, etc. etc. it still doesn't come close to peaking out the lowly 800mhz Via processor.  All configuration can be done through your web browser too which is nice.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

I considered using FreeNAS but in the end I decided to combine my arcade and media server in one box.

I have a Asrock mobo in my arcade machine with 6 SATA ports. Currently I have a 2tb, a 1tb and a 750gb using LVM configured as a single logical volume. When space gets tight I just hang another disk off the mobo and add it to the volume to expand it. I run 64bit Ubuntu set to go into S3 sleep mode if its idle for 15 minutes. All my TVs have XBMCs hanging off them, each with a Wake-On-Lan script that runs when they are turned on that wakes up the arcade machine PC if its sleeping and then I can access my movies and music.

I have 140mm cpu, PSU and case fans so its virtually silent. I can rip full size uncompressed ISO images of DVDs onto the LV 10 at a time, then queue them up in AcidRip to turn them into AVIs, all at the same time as playing Mortal Kombat or whatever.

[Santoro]

I have been running WHS for over a year now and agree it's an amazing product.  I run it in a homebrew PC with leftover parts in a rack-mount case.  The backups have saved my grapes at least 2-3 times. 

If you have more than a few PCs you will be upgrading to Windows 7 and or Office 2007, you will get a lot of value from a Technet Plus subscription.  If you can find a coupon online it will run you $250-300 and you get like ten license keys for Windows 7 (ten for each flavor!) Office, etc.  They also give you one WHS key.  There are tons of other products available for that flat fee including Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange, etc. 

It is intended for Lab geeks to evaluate MS products so the caveat is that you must agree not to run the software in a production environment.  My home is not 'production,' is yours? 

[Edgedamage]

Take a look at unraid http://www.lime-technology.com/joomla/

guys have build multi-terabyte systems for cheap.

[Aceldamor]

Does WHS contain the ability to create an intranet page...kinda like a lite version of Sharepoint?

[Santoro]

Not really, at least not well.  There may be some add-ins, but you'd probably be better installing something more full-featured like Xampp or something like it.  I did this once and installed Wordpress on it.. Worked well.