Via (And Microsoft): Six Days, Still Alive

Last Thursday, I told you that after disconnecting the system fan from my mini-ITX-based Windows Home Server, I was going to leave the system running while I was at NAB to see if it survived without forced-air cooling assistance. Six days later, as you can see below, it still seems to be happily humming away:

No, I have no idea who those people are That’s the default home screen image, and after I get back home tomorrow night I’ll install an add-in that lets me change it to something more appropriate, such as:

or:

Speaking of add-ins, companies and individuals alike have assembled an impressive array of Windows Home Server O/S extensions. The We Got Served site has a comprehensive collection, as does this enthusiast site. Hit Google for more options.

And speaking of ‘after I get home’, I also plan to run some file transfer benchmark tests both on this system and on the Linksys NAS200; keep an eye out here at Brian’s Brain for the results, both absolutely and in comparison with past Buffalo and Infrant/NETGEAR numbers. I’ll, of course, have to re-run the WHS tests after the file corruption bug gets fixed (any day now, Redmond…).

To date, I’ve discovered several notable advantages of a Windows-based NAS:

1. Its UPnP capabilities are inherently compatible with Windows Media Connect-cognizant LAN clients such as my Roku Labs SoundBridge streaming audio player and Xbox 360 game console, although after the Sony PlayStation 3’s latest few firmware updates, it complains that the Windows Home Server (along with the UPnP servers built into my laptops’ Windows Media Player 11 installations) aren’t DLNA-compliant.
2. Windows Home Server includes a Microsoft service-supplied Dynamic DNS client (you can, for example, see my free URL in the above screenshot). Additionally, I installed the DynDNS client on the Windows Home Server (which was easy since the O/S is based on a Windows Server 2003 foundation), thereby precluding my need to keep a laptop running just to handle DynDNS account updates.
3. How did I download and install the DynDNS program, given that the Windows Home Server Connector software installed on my laptop doesn’t give me direct access to the server’s O/S? Easy. Windows Home Server includes Remote Desktop Connection capability, enabling me to tap into the server from Windows and OS X systems alike.

And to date, I’ve found one notable Windows Home Server glitch. The corresponding Windows Home Server Connector software ‘wakes up’ each authorized system once a day to do an incremental backup…which is good, given the inherent impermanence of hard drives. The backups (both incremental and full) are surprisingly swift:

and they consume a fairly small percentage of the total available CPU resources on my dual-core MacBook, especially after the initial kickoff cycle concludes:

Windows Home Server Connector even adeptly handles backups of files that are open at the time, such as my Outlook PST database file. But it doesn’t automatically put my Dell Inspiron 700m back in standby after it’s done doing its job.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that my MacBook doesn’t exhibit this glitch, but a perusal of the Windows Home Server support forum will confirm that my Dell system isn’t unique in having the problem. Microsoft’s aware of the issue and has scheduled a fix in the upcoming Power Pack 1 patch; the company’s plans for that upgrade also include allowing users to disable auto-backup if they wish (as with today’s Windows Home Server Connector build, you’ll be able to kick off manual backup sessions whenever it’s convenient).