Hey PCA,

If you recall, you ran a massive feature on Windows Home Server back in... I think May (I don't have the mag on me) 2008. At the time I was pretty damn excited about WHS but never got around to building one.

I've only just now purchased the parts necessary to build one and am waiting their delivery. My purchases were based on your article - so thanks for the handy tips in selecting the hardware.
Obviously the hardware from May 08 is a bit out of date/not available anymore but your tips on what WHS requires to run and such, was absolutely brilliant.

As an aside though. You mention at the end that you'll keep an eye on WHS and any new developments in it such as updates (power packs) and possibly some nifty Add Ons.
Have you actually done that either in the mag or in a web article? Just wondering if you had and if I'd missed it.

On the WHS MS website they've got details on Power Pack 2 and it's addition of Media Streaming to Windows Media Extenders. Have you guys tried this out or do you have any further info on how well this "new" feature works?
I was thinking that even a small article on the latest with WHS would be a great read for those of us who are just getting into it.

I've read articles on the net that say it's bombed out? Would anyone know how true this actually is? It still seems pretty good to me, thus I'll hopefully have one built soon.

And for those of you who reckon I should just use the new MS Server 2008, leave me alone, I deal with it enough at work, I don't want that level of complexity at home!!

Cheers
Julian

heh that's another thing I keep copping from people at work.

Just install Solaris 10 and run a Samba server! Bah to all that.

I'm keeping things mainstream at home baby

Pre built home servers (OEM) are selling like hotcakes. Especially the HP and shuttle small units. Power Pack 2 (PP2) introduced some cool enhancements and even businesses are now buying them, to do daily backups of 10 workstations (Seperate to the network server backups).

They are still arround and are going to be for quite a while.
(I just checked with a distie in Australia and they have 100's of OEM copies in stock)

Home servers are one of my favorite "play things".

I had to do a presentation for Home servers in Adelaide, in front of 220 people. I was as nervious as hell but the crowd were so possitive about it and were hungry for more. This sort of got me started into a whole home server kick.

Plan on seeing them well into the future and many other vendors will likely (and have) release new and cool addons for it.

.. BTW, for others reading this, don't confuse the latest Microsoft Foundation server with home server. I have had lots of people compare them. They are not the same

It is also not the same as Windows Server 2008.

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Michael Jenkin (Mickyj)
www.mickyj.com (Community website)

*5 times Microsoft MVP award winner
*MacWorld Australia contributer
*APAC Vice Chairman Culminis (Pro IT User group support system)
*Director Business Technology Partners

Microsoft Small Business Specialist