Windows Home Sever

[nawbus]

Has anyone got / played with Windows Home Server? Is it worth buying? Is there any alternatives?

Ta

[webman]

Yeah I had a look at a beta a while ago, didn't like it much. You can see some screenshots here.

Depending on how much you want to do with a server, FreeNAS for plain storage or Ubuntu Server + other apps for anything else will do the job (probably) better and at zero cost.

[Domino]

Its not really aimed at us though is it?

Its more Joe Homesmith who wants all his documents in one place

[aliv25]

Do you think this would be good to store information and data to produce a website for a final year project or would it be too extreme?

[webman]

Too extreme I think (and could you justify the cost?). For publishing and storing data for a website, try SME Server or ClarkConnect. Both linux with a nice web frontend.

[nawbus]

Depending on how much you want to do with a server, FreeNAS for plain storage or Ubuntu Server + other apps for anything else will do the job (probably) better and at zero cost.

Hmm thought that might be the case. Probably give Ubuntu server a go.

[aliv25]

Well im only on my placement so still got a long way to go to decide how im going to go about my final year project. So your saying Ubuntu server would be better / cheaper?

[aliv25]

Well im only on my placement so still got a long way to go to decide how im going to go about my final year project. So your saying Ubuntu server would be better / cheaper?

[nawbus]

Windows Home Server £88 (ish) from Novatech - Ubuntu server free!

[dancingdruid]

Windows Home Server £88 (ish) from Novatech - Ubuntu server free!

I considered WHS but decided on ubuntu server instead - the price was only one factor, but the main factor for me was the transparency of Ubuntu and also the control you have.

My ubuntu server at home is running:

LAMP server
SAMBA
Torrentflux
Dyndns updating client
ssh server exposed to Internet

In its favour WHS does pool disk space well, but I didn't like just having a web front end after being used to having full control over ssh.

Is there anyone from a technical background that would pick WHS over a linux box?

[FN-GM]

I had a go on home server and to be honest you can do most of the stuff on that with a Windows XP/200 or Vista install. The only main thing you can't do on them is a remote backup.

Z

[john]

http://www.cclonline.com/product-cat...ategory_id=639 - there ya go, 2 ready made pre-done WHS boxes from HP

[sidewinder]

Tried it for a while, it was OK, I did like the way it merged all storage together, but it was frustrating how little control there was over some things
I think it would be ok for the average user though

Main thing that stopped me using it was it hanging quite often when I was copying data to it. Now back to Server 2003 and its rock solid again

[dhicks]

Has anyone got / played with Windows Home Server? Is it worth buying?

Just dredging up this old thread - same question, 3 months on. Some background: I've had a couple of people ask me about their home computer systems. One's a self-employed electrician who's recently suffered a disk crash on his main PC and wants to move to a reliable system that requires no messing around - he just wants it to work and not break. The other is a parent with two daughters with their own laptops and wants them to have decent Internet access control in place, file backup and sharing, etc.

So has anyone got any experience of anything similar? We're a private school, we have a fair bit of latitude in what we do, it might be that we start offering to sell managed server systems to parents. Is Windows Server worth the cost, does it offer any advantages over something like Ubuntu? Bear in mind the end-user isn't actually going to have to do anything much with the server itself, I just need to know what features Windows Home Server has that Ubuntu doesn't. I know the HP Home Server devices are marketed as being compatible with iTunes (so users can share their iTunes library across a network), but can't you just do that with a Samba share anyway? Does Home Server support all Windows XP printer drivers?

Hardware wise, I'm thinking of a fanless Jetway J7F2 1.2Ghz motherboard with a gigabyte of RAM and a 3-port gigabit LAN daughterboard (so it can basically act as a network switch), a silent case of some kind, and a Stardom SR2600 internal hardware RAID bay - takes two SATA drives, hot-swap capable, automatic RAID array rebuild. Does anyone know of a case and power supply that is actually silent - to the extent that you could park it in someone's front room and they wouldn't notice it?

--
David Hicks

[CyberNerd]

Is Windows Server worth the cost, does it offer any advantages over something like Ubuntu?

It's going to come down to wizards. As with full blown windows servers they just offer a gui/wizard. In most cases (especially file/print serving and proxies) you can do a lot more with ubuntu than you can with windows 2003 server, let alone the home edition. Setting it up for home users is a different matter if they are going to have any control of it.

Does anyone know of a case and power supply that is actually silent - to the extent that you could park it in someone's front room and they wouldn't notice it?

via epia (small form factor) boards can use external laptop PSU's. 17w idle IIRC
http://www.icp-epia.co.uk/