Continue reading »]]> Here in the UK we had a bank holiday yesterday which of course meant we had 3 days off.  So I spent some time with the wife over the last few days and decided that I would embark on new project.

Last week I was looking at the plug-ins for Windows Home Server.  I came across one which sync your pictures to flickr.  Unfortunately it didn’t work that well, it only uploaded the images within the root of the folder you gave to it.

I looked the forums and there seem to be a lot of people requiring this plug in, but the one available was buggy and the developer hadn’t blogged since last year.

So I decided that I would throw something to gather.  After around 8 hours approx.  I have my application talking to flickr, uploading.

The next big milestone will figuring out how to write an Windows Home Server Addin.  So while 60-70% of the application is pretty much done and working, it won’t work with WHS as intended, so time permitting I’m hoping to a full BETA version ready to go in about two weeks.

Continue reading »]]> A month or so ago I started to copy a 40mb file to my WHS (HP MediaSmart).  The resulting copy dialog reported that it was going to take 30+ mins to copy. 

At first I thought it was a Windows Vista Issue.  So boot up my XP laptop and copied a file still slow. 

From the PC to Laptop fast. From Laptop to PC fast no more than 30 secs.

Took it all into the office and it all worked, very confused.  Any how I actual changed the case and motherboard because the old case was just too big.

This weekend I’ve run into the same issue.  I noticed on the Windows Home Server that Network Load Balancing was not checked on the network adapter.  Which I checked and fast copying started working again.

Was this wasn’t checked is a bit of a mystery (at some point I’ll checked the default setting of this on a fresh install of WHS).

Since then it happened again, although this time Network Load Balancing stayed checked.

I disabled and enabled and I had fast copying back!

I think the cause of this is my router!  D-Link DSL 2740B.   Every since I’ve had it every now again (before I purchased my home server) Vista (on my desktop) would drop the globe over the network icon (in the tray) and fall to Local Access only.

The only resolution to this was to reset the router which fix the internet issue.  However the down side to this it seems to be causing the slow copying issue with WHS.

I’m going to try an new router and see how things go for a month.   I’ll post my findings.

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I’ve spent the last couple of evenings playing around with my latest purchase, HP MediaSmart Server.

I’m pretty happy with it, I bought the 1TB version.

I’ve had a few issues with the setup.  The first being that I’m running Vista 64bit and the software (HP and Microsoft) out the box isn’t doesn’t work with 64bit.  There is an update out now…..

So I had to install the HP software on my Laptop which was running Windows Vista 32Bit….  That installed no problem and allowed the configuration of the server and to down the latest updates from HP.

I had to log into the home server via RDP and download the Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, which had the 64 bit connector software.

Once that was installed, I then had to connect to \\servername\software and run the HP software from there and all was OK.

I had to setup remote access on my router as WHS couldn’t configure using uPNP, I’ve never seen uPNP work on any router yet, getting the felling it’s me.

The router I’m using is a D-Link DSL-2740B uPnP still wouldn’t work even with the latest firmware.

So I put the port forwards in and the wizard still would accept that the router was configured correctly and kind of just loops around, would be nice to have a checkbox to for manually configuration and for it to accept it, it just feels a little untidy.

There is a option in the same dialog, Domain, which allows you to have get your own domain or use domainname.homeserver.com, once I did this it all started working OK.

Still says router isn’t configured when it is!

Allworking thou and pretty happy with it thus far.

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I purchase a WD MyBook USB drive…. which I have to say I’m liking so far…. Cheapist £50 for 300GB…

Any how I ran Vista Complete PC Backup, Last night, which creates a VHD image of you PC’s HDD.

It doesn’t boot, but you can add it to existing Virtual PC as a second drive and you can access it!

Good stuff to know for any further format and reinstall’s…. although I shouldn’t have to worry about it much longer as I ordered a HP EX470!  500GB and I can add two more drives internally and external USB drives…

I wipe my PC on a fairly regular basis, just installed Vista 64 bit, with 8GB Ram and virtual machines flying with the VHD’s on the WD MyBook……

So I think I’ll have plenty of storage expansion for the future.