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January 8, 2007

Windows Home Server

Michael Arrington

40 comments »

The CrunchGear guys got a picture of the Windows Home Server, which may be the most exciting thing announced at CES this year. Buy one of these and add additional storage over time, centralize all of your files and access them in the home network or over the web. I’d get one of these, except I’m a Mac user and it isn’t enough to make me switch. It sure would solve a lot of problems though. And the green glow is a killer feature. More discussion on TechMeme.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Bryan

    January 8th, 2007 at 5:05 pm

    Mike: Your TechMeme link is a link to a png file.

    Very cool stuff though. Im surprised it came from Microsoft.

  2. matthew

    January 8th, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    very sweet, except i’m guessing you would need a static ip address to access it over the web, which is a feature not included in 99% of home broadband connection packages. i’ll stick with box.net for now.

  3. Michael Arrington

    January 8th, 2007 at 5:24 pm

    Bryan, thanks very much, fixed it.

  4. Bryan

    January 8th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

    @matthew

    Maybe MS could provide a Dynamic DNS service? For example, many new routers (and old ones with upgraded firmware) allow you to set up a Dynamic DNS service that automatically updates if your IP changes … then you can access it via hostname rather than IP address.

  5. past_a

    January 8th, 2007 at 5:44 pm

    This is the logical extension of the already existing Media Center Extender stuff that actually works pretty well. I know MS is really uncool and as much as (tomorrow) we are going to hear how iTV has reinvented everything MS has had some pretty good home media stuff going for a while now. At least my dad freaking loves it. No doubt that there are issues and it hasn’t taken off like crazy but this could fit very nicely into their already existing home media lineup.

    On another note, it is also good see Vongo being added to both the Xbox and Vista as an integrated option. The current desktop app is horrible but for me the subscription service has been such a revelation that, as often as not, I end up taking my pc lappie over the MacBook on the road. I think it could work great as part of a larger framework.

    >except i’m guessing you would need a static ip address to access it over

    That’s true. This thing seems geared more to people like my dad who could use it as his media center storage and is comfortable going through a “wizard” set up. However, right now, even without a static IP, you can connect to an MCE box and schedule shows through the web. That’s obviously a much lower end function but since this thing is supposed to be headless I wonder if they will add administrating it to that service.

  6. ginchy

    January 8th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

    This product to be followed soon by Windows Home Botnet™.

  7. past_a

    January 8th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

    Sorry to post on this again but I just ran into this review which chats up the fact that “[WHS] offers these [sharing] facilities remotely, via the Internet. To make this work, Microsoft is providing WHS users with a free Internet address via Windows Live.” Also a guy pitching it mentions that it would be, “a great back-end store for Time Machine.”

    http://www.winsupersite.com/re.....review.asp

    Hmm maybe it would work for more than just my dad…

  8. Bill

    January 8th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

    I don’t mind putting my data in Amazon’s S3 setup, because I can control whether or not it’s encrypted, and how/what gets there easily enough. But there’s no way I’d store my media there. Regardless of what you legally “own” the RIAA & MPAA would be knocking on your door as soon as they found out you were using it.

    I use no-ip.com for dynamic dns stuff, and haven’t had a problem during years of use. If you want to view your media from anywhere, get http://www.orb.com. If you need more storage, buy it. 500G drives are ~$130 now, that’s cheap enough for most people.

  9. Anita

    January 8th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    Are you kidding me? That thing looks great … I’d love to have one in my home office. Great find!

  10. atomic1fire

    January 8th, 2007 at 6:35 pm

    what about isp policys

  11. Noel McKinney

    January 8th, 2007 at 6:36 pm

    Does the green glow change to blue when it crashes?

  12. Bob

    January 8th, 2007 at 7:16 pm

    Grab a micro form PC ($300), install Ubuntu server (FREE), add as much NAS storage as you can afford ($1500/Tb), register w/ a dynamic dsn service ($20/yr) and add some green (or blue) leds ($5). You will have a secure server that can be accessed from anywhere. Password protect server access, use SSH for access and encrypt the disk contents. Problem solved with no windoze involved.

  13. Tim Marman

    January 8th, 2007 at 7:29 pm

    The NAS stuff is nice, but the decision not to include a local Exchange-lite mail server has me scratching my head.

    This is the reason most of us who are running SBS are running it :) The fact is, with Foldershare I already have my stuff distributed across machines for both performance and redundancy, and I can access through from the web through the FolderShare site.

    A friend and I were brainstorming on a similar idea, but the physical logistics made us reconsider. But I can tell you that SharePoint and Exchange (or the OSS equivalents) were the heart of that…

  14. Alex Becker

    January 8th, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    No way stick with the Mac. I just got one and the difference between PC and mac is amazing. I sometimes wonder if PC stands for piece of crap.

  15. JM

    January 8th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

    Not enough to make you give up your Mac? How about getting a Mini and using external storage if you run out of space. All the server software is available on OS X (Apache, ssh, and a variety of file sharing methods) and it’s easy enough to setup.

    I’m not familiar with the Windows stuff, but it can’t be that great. Does it offer more?

  16. dazza

    January 8th, 2007 at 8:23 pm

    engadget.com said “it does not use RAID, but instead uses a RAID-like drive pooling system with built-in redundancy”, this stuff drives me nuts, what does MS have against standards, anyway sounds like a killer machine, kind of like the microwave but for data instead of food

  17. David Mackey

    January 8th, 2007 at 8:24 pm

    Definetly looks like a hot item. Though I currently like Mozy and MediaMax pretty well for backups and off-site file storage.

  18. CrunchBack

    January 8th, 2007 at 8:46 pm

    Very cool. Thanks for posting this. I’m actually looking forward to a product from Microsoft - who’d have thunk it?

    http://www.techcrunch.com

  19. King James

    January 8th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

    For plug and play setup and ***syncing*** between PC and Macs use the Mirra server. Share with others over password or public folders like the MS server does.

    This is 500GB and all data is backup up and can be accessed from anywhere. We have the media server backup to this but this has a bunch of ports and could probably be used for much more.

    The OS X server is setup for our office but this Mirra could work for small businesses also.

    http://www.mirra.com

  20. Debbie Davies

    January 8th, 2007 at 11:53 pm

    Michael, In its post, Techmeme refers to a bloggers’ lounge at CES. Do you think bloggers covering the show should be including discloure as you did for your visit to Microsoft last year to report on Bill Gates? Here in the UK several bloggers are attending CES but fewer are making it to Apple’s MacWorld. Organisations like the BBC are reporting form both. Do you think more bloggers are at CES because it has been more generous in paying for bloggers to attend than Apple?

  21. Fashion Industry Ceo

    January 9th, 2007 at 1:10 am

    this seems like something to just confuse the hell out of me with an extra piece of computer equipment…but im nothing but a fashion designer anyway!

  22. al

    January 9th, 2007 at 1:32 am

    I would just use a Mac Mini with sharing turned on mike. you can a stack extra storage from a number of sources via FireWire/USB if you need more than the shipping drives. Cheap to and you don’t have to wait till the end of the year to buy one!

  23. Matthew Ogston

    January 9th, 2007 at 4:16 am

    Looks like a next gen version of the Cobalt Qube, which is a great thing IMO (this also had a knight rider style green lighty thing).

  24. AXELL

    January 9th, 2007 at 5:12 am

    Nice… but it’s useful? How many “native” bugs we could find using it? :-)

  25. Frank Cefalu

    January 9th, 2007 at 6:22 am

    @12 Lol.

    Sorry windows. Redeem yourself and I come back to you.

    I just switched to Xubuntu Edgy, and its fantastic. Not one crash to this day.

  26. Xenia

    January 9th, 2007 at 7:38 am

    That’s why I bought homeserver.de some weeks ago. I heard a rumor that MS will bring this thing. I might be interested in getting one but it also depends on pricing.

  27. Jay Adair

    January 9th, 2007 at 7:44 am

    Nice toy, I need a simple backup and media sharing solution. I just need the software though, not the hardware. I have enough computers laying around! There seems to be some confusion as to whether or not this is OEM only?

  28. OffBeatMammal

    January 9th, 2007 at 10:35 am

    Apparently as it’s SMB it’ll play nice with Macs: http://www.on10.net/Blogs/jess.....-your-life
    ALso as the protocols are fairly open the guy in the interview saw no reason that someone couldn’t/wouldn’t write a Mac client.

    As to dynamic IP problems… my LinkSys router includes built-in dynamic DNS services so I don’t have to worry.

    The darn thing is too cute to stick in a closet!

  29. Tom

    January 10th, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    A green light makes you want one of these? Seriously? Oh boy. I hate to think of the Vista bloat this thing has to carry to make itself useful. The potential of a home server like this would be much greater if it ran Linux.

  30. Cameron

    January 11th, 2007 at 4:57 am

    Oh my… First Vista copies an older version of mac os X, and now they copy the old Apple Airport base station.
    Well, I wouldn’t be surprised to see M$ making their own hardware soon

  31. James

    January 11th, 2007 at 2:34 pm

    Why would you buy one when theres FreeNAS for free

    http://www.freenas.org

  32. Magnus

    January 19th, 2007 at 7:28 am

    Does anyone know how the remote access part works? Is it an external server solution a la Orb (www.orb.com) or do you have to let some traffic through your firewall?

    -Magnus

  33. Benji

    January 20th, 2007 at 1:22 pm

    I think this will be a great product for people with households with many computers. As for the static IP issue, don’t be surprised if Windows Live will offer something for you to login in with and the home server updates the IP as it changes. I know my ISP, Knology doesn’t change their IP often and my router has the option to update the DNS. Microsoft wants to cater the high end client and they really should provide different levels of customer service based on what particular version of Windows you use.

  34. shane

    January 30th, 2007 at 11:17 am

    I think the time has come for the home server market to bloom. It seems to me that as we all collect more digital content, we’ll need a central place to store it. Some type of home server would be great for backups, file sharing, and for ensuring our PC’s are working properly.
    I can’t wait!
    http://www.home-media-server.net

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