Windows Home Server

As a family of fairly heavy users of computers at home (2 desktops, 3 laptops), I was always very aware of the risk present with lots of data on all of the machines.

So, when WHS was announced I started to keep a closer eye on the technology and how it was developing.

As a promise to myself this year, I assured 'me', I'd sort out the backup strategy and media streaming capabilities of the house (to both the 360 in the 2nd living room and the main TV/Stereo in the main one).

So in January I jumped onboard and installed WHS onto a Xeon based Dell PowerEdge server I had 'lying' around doing nothing.

Have been using WHS for about a month now so thought I'd share my views on it.

Well, it just 'works'. There's nothing more to say. The integration onto the desktop is excellent, the backup engine again is just so well put together there's never an issue. I've created a backup window every evening and the systems just backup one at a time during this time with no issues. WHS will even push a Wake Up over LAN message to them if they're hibernated or asleep.

Overall, the product has changed my setup here for the better (and yes, granted I could have performed most of the functionality by simply reusing the current version of Win2K3 that was on the server and tweaking my own processes). But items that need to be called out as serious enhancements are: -

• The Drive Extender technology (never worry about a drive running out of space again)
• Backup Engine is flawless and quick (which is a marked difference to the Vista backup engine!)
• The Remote Connection capabilities via xxxx.homeserver.com)
• The Console (even though based on a Remote Desktop Connection) is a great tool centralising all aspects of the WHS and the add-in functionality is great.

But there's a but. There's currently a known issue with the Drive Extender technology that means any 'write' to a WHS share from specific applications from any computer that's not the Server may result in data corruption.

This is being worked on as a top priority by MS and a fix is slated for release in June(!). So until then WHS does lose a little of its flair but, enough for me to remove WHS (like lot of people are saying they will) and revert back to my old ways??

No way.