Guide to Windows Home Server

With many homes having more than one PC, lots of us share folders on a home network or use network-attached storage (Nas) drives to consolidate our storage.

Microsoft’s new Windows Home Server (WHS) operating system is designed to fill the gap between Nas boxes and industrial-strength servers.

It enables manufacturers to offer devices that are almost as small and simple to use as a Nas drive but also have a large selection of extra features, designed to integrate effortlessly with Windows PCs and tailored specifically to home use.

These days people want to do much more with their PCs – access photos, music and video while away from home and share their stuff with others.

Windows Home Server gives you remote access to all the PCs on your home network via a simple web-based interface.

Backing up data is also a time-consuming task that none of us enjoy and many of us don’t even consider until it’s too late. WHS includes an automated backup system that makes the whole process almost entirely painless and highly efficient.

Ready-made WHS systems are now available, or you can buy an OEM version of the OS for around £90 and build your own. A free 120-day evaluation version of WHS is also available from Microsoft.

Choosing or building your server
The Tranquil T7-HSA and HP’s Mediasmart Server are the first purpose-built models to appear, but there will be many more in the coming months. They’re compact, quiet and can be tucked out of sight.

For example, the T7-HSA can be fitted with a wall bracket. It also has a very low power consumption of less than 24W.

However, if you prefer the DIY approach then you can have a go at building your own server. But it’s worth first spending time to ensure your hardware is fully compatible.

The hardware requirements for WHS are modest: at a minimum you’ll need a 1GHz Pentium III (or equivalent), 512MB of Ram, 70GB of hard disk space and a 100Mbits/sec wired network adapter. Your motherboard must also be ACPI compliant.

For the best experience, Microsoft recommends at least a Pentium 4 or AMD x64 processor and a pair of internal hard drives with at least 300GB on the system drive. Microsoft also hints that future versions might require 64-bit CPUs to run, so buying a 64-bit processor will ensure your hardware is ready.

You’ll also need a bootable DVD drive, a monitor, a keyboard and mouse during the installation process, although these can be removed later as WHS is designed to be managed remotely.

While you can build a WHS system out of just about any PC, if it’s going to be located in a living area you won’t want it taking up a lot of space or making a lot of noise.

Power consumption can also be an issue. Your server will ideally be left switched on all the time and will therefore add to your electricity bill. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is also a good idea to reduce the impact of power brownouts or surges.

A typical desktop PC can consume 10 times as much power as a dedicated home server system so, while performance is important, over-specifying your home server PC may be counter-productive.

Motherboard components such as integrated 3D graphics and multi-channel audio can all add to your overall power consumption and are totally unnecessary for a good WHS experience.

Look for quiet power supplies with high efficiencies – preferably over 80 per cent – and if possible buy a pair of large hard drives rather than a large number of smaller ones, as each drive will add significantly to the total power draw.

Sites dedicated to quiet computing, such as www.q u ietpc.com, are a good place to start when looking for quiet and efficient components suitable for your server.

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