Add-In: StableBit DrivePool v1.0.2.6257 BETA

StableBit DrivePool has been updated to version 1.0.2.6257 BETA.

Stablebit_drivepool_M4_logo

This latest version of the Drive Extender type add-in for WHS 2011 users has the following changes:

  • Added some extra safeguards against pool parts being listed twice in the Pool tab.
  • Offline volumes are now enumerated properly.
    They will not be listed in the Pool tab.
  • Pool tab was sometimes refreshing too often. Changed the timings on the pool tab refresh.

More details on this beta release are available from the DrivePool Development Wiki.

Remote Access to WHS via SkyDrive

If you use the SkyDrive web app at https://skydrive.live.com/ then you can also access every folder on your Windows Home Server 2011 box too.

You can accomplish this by installing SkyDrive directly onto WHS 2011 and ticking the Fetch Files option in Settings, which will then enable remote devices to view the files on Windows Home Server.

SkyDrive Fetch Files Setting

More details can be found here.

Increase Remote User Timeout in WHS 2011

If you down/up load large files with your WHS 2011 box then you will find that the remote access interface will time out after 30 minutes. You can correct this by increasing the time-out parameter in the Windows Home Server web.config file.

To increase the Remote Access time:
 
1. Use mstsc.exe to start a Remote Desktop Connection session to your WHS 2011 server.
 
Caution: Be careful when using a Remote Desktop Connection to your home server. You can damage Windows Home Server functionality if you use Remote Desktop incorrectly.
 
2. Use a text editor, such as notepad.exe, to open C:\Program Files\Windows Server\Bin\WebApps\RemoteAccess\web.config

3. Locate the following line: <sessionState mode="InProc" cookieless="false" timeout="30"/>
 
4. Replace "30" (which represents 30 minutes) with a larger number, to allow your uploads to finish.

     Increase Remote User Timeout in WHS 2011
 
5. Save your change, close the file, and then log off from your Remote Desktop Connection session.
 
6. Use Remote Access to upload your file or files, to ensure that the new time-out parameter is sufficient to finish the upload.
 
Important: If you increase the time-out parameter, you increase your security risk. Do not leave a computer that has an active session unattended in a public place.

Video: Linus Tech Tips WHS Setup

Linus Tech Tips have a 10 minute video where they show us their Windows Home Server v1 setup with 17 hard drives installed:

“It’s no secret that I’m a HUGE fanboi of Windows Home Server, so I’m taking a few minutes to show off my storage server and to talk about some of the upgrade plans I have for it over the next little while here.”

Add-In: StableBit Scanner v2.0.0.2245 BETA

StableBit Scanner has been updated to version 2.0.0.2245 BETA with SMART improvements and other fixes.

StableBit Scanner Icon

Here’s the change log:

  • Rewrote raising / hiding WSS notifications.
  • Fixed columns not being saved.
  • Added new ‘Age’ column to main screen.
  • Fixed UI issues, including removed disks lingering after they were removed.
  • Enabled SMART health links on main summary panel.
  • BitFlock <-> Scanner integration is now via. Azure.
  • A new type of SMART warning based on advisory attributes. This includes a new type of ignore rule for such warnings.
    The ignore rule will be generated automatically when you choose to ignore this new type of warnings.
  • Revamped the SMART window to show all the new BitFlock detail.
    * Each attribute is now monitored in more than one way, and you can visually inspect how by clicking on it.
    * BitFlock attribute descriptions are now shown.
  • Added new BitFlock group identifier.
  • Added new BitFlock attribute types.
  • Added new BitFlock interpretation formats.
  • BitFlock has been massively updated with new data and new health rules.

More information on StableBit Scanner can be found here.

The BYOB Podcast Episode 88

BYOB Logo

Episode 88 of the BYOB podcast is up:

“XBOX E3 hardware/compatibility updates, more server Issues, Windows on a laptop Mike gives us his experience. Thunderbolt comes to PC hardware, Cheap butt kicking HTPC, Server 12 first impressions. Another info packed show on this weeks BYOB Podcast.”

You can find more details on episode 88 here.

Add-In: The Office Mavern WHS 2011 Updates v1.1.65.65

The Office Mavern has released updates for his following products:

  • WHS Office 2011
  • WHS Outlook 2011
  • WHS QuickBooks 2011
  • WHS Quicken 2011

All four add-ins are now at version 1.1.65.65. Here’s all the details:

To start off with, a new ”Plus” edition of WHS Office 2011 has been created to encapsulate the business-centric Microsoft Office applications into WHS Office 2011. The “Standard” edition of WHS Office 2011 includes support for Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word, while the ”Plus” edition takes things a step further and adds support for Access, InfoPath (Designer and Filler), Lync, Project, Publisher, SharePoint Workspace/Groove, and Visio. WHS Office 2011 Plus can be purchased separately, or you can upgrade the Standard edition of WHS Office 2011 to the Plus edition at any time. The 21-day evaluation mode of WHS Office 2011 will function as the ”Plus” edition, and you can opt to purchase either the “Standard” edition or the “Plus” edition once you have completed your evaluation (without the need to uninstall and reinstall the add-in). Here’s a photo gallery showing what the new stuff in WHS Office 2011 Plus looks like:

You will notice a couple things from the photos in that gallery… First, WHS Office 2011 (both the “Standard” and the “Plus” editions) now includes a new notification icon that appears down in the notification area of the client computer whenever you launch one of the host Office applications. If you right-click on the notification icon, it will display a popup menu listing all of the available Office applications. This is great for gaining quick access to the other Office applications without having to go back to either the server’s Launchpad application or Remote Web Access website (and contend with another sign-in). Note that a similar notification icon is included with each of my other add-ins as well (WHS Outlook 2011, WHS QuickBooks 2011, and WHS Quicken 2011), and I’ll explain more about it in just a moment.

Second (in both the “Standard” and “Plus” editions of WHS Office 2011), you’ll notice a new “Office Tools category on the Launchpad, as well a new set of “Tool” items listed on the WHS Office homepage of the server’s built-in Remote Web Access website. The new feature gives you access to the tools provided with Microsoft Office such as Clip Organizer, Office Language Preferences/Settings, Outlook Mail Setup, Office Picture Manager, and the Office Upload Center. The availability of the tools depends upon the version, edition, and particular features of Microsoft Office that you happen to have installed on your server.

Just as in WHS Office 2011, each of my other WSS 2011 add-ins (WHS Outlook 2011, WHS QuickBooks 2011, and WHS Quicken 2011) have their very own notification icon that appears down in the client computer’s notification area whenever you launch the add-in. Right-clicking on the notification icon displays a popup menu that allows the user to either activate the add-in’s host application (e.g. Outlook, QuickBooks, or Quicken), or they can choose to log off or disconnect their current remote session.

Here’s what the popup menu looks like for WHS Outlook 2011:

Log off prompts the user to end their current remote session that is running on the server. Any applications running within the session are closed, and the user is prompted to save any unsaved work. The next time the add-in is launched, a new remote session will be created from scratch on the server (which can be slow).

Disconnect leaves the user’s current remote session running on the server. The user can quickly reconnect to the server and resume their session at any time (from the same client computer, or from a completely different one). Any applications running on the server will resume right from where they were left off at.

NOTE: When all remote applications running in the user’s remote session (i.e. all of the host Office applications, Outlook, QuickBooks, or Quicken) are exited by the user, the add-in’s notification icon will be removed from the client computer’s notification area, and the remote session will automatically disconnect after about 20 seconds. This is the best way for users to disconnect their remote session (i.e. simply closing all running remote apps will automatically disconnect the remote session without any further action required from the user).

For WHS Outlook 2011 (only), there is a new feature that will notify you whenever new items arrive in Outlook. A notification message displays from a flashing “envelope” notification icon down in the notification area alerting you to the number and types of new items that have arrived (mail messages, report items, meeting requests, task requests, and RSS feeds):

Right-clicking on the flashing “envelope” notification icon displays a popup menu where you can disable the feature by selecting “Hide Envelope“:

You can resume using the feature at any time by right-clicking on WHS Outlook 2011′s notification icon and selecting “Show new item notifications“.

In addition, WHS Outlook 2011 can now notify you whenever a reminder has executed in Outlook. A notification message displays from a flashing “bell” notification icon down in the notification area alerting you to the number of reminders that have executed:

Right-clicking on the flashing “bell” notification icon displays a popup menu where you can disable the feature by selecting “Hide Bell“:

You can resume using the feature at any time by right-clicking on WHS Outlook 2011′s notification icon and selecting “Show reminder executed notifications“.

In all of my WSS 2011 add-ins, a couple of new task items have been added to their Dashboard tab’s Tasks pane:

Remote Desktop Services Manager displays the server’s built-in Remote Desktop Services Manager application, which allows the server administrator to view information about and monitor the users, sessions, and processes of any remote session that is currently running on the server:

Remote Desktop Session Settings displays the following dialog box:

Log off disconnected sessions after X allows the server administrator to enforce a time limit that disconnected remote sessions persist on the server. The setting is disabled by default, and you should be careful when enabling it as forcibly logging off a user’s disconnected remote session could potentially cause the loss of user data. However, it can be useful to release resources from disconnected remote sessions that are used infrequently by your users.

Disconnect idle sessions after X allows the server administrator to enforce a time limit that active but idle remote sessions persist in an active state on the server. Any active remote sessions that remain in an idle state past the specified time limit will be automatically disconnected (freeing resources). The setting is disabled by default.

Allow audio and video playback redirection allows the server administrator to choose if the add-in should be allowed to redirect sound produced on the server to the client computer. Note that, when enabled, the user still has granular control over audio redirection within their own remote sessions via the “Play sounds from X” setting included in ”Remote Desktop Options” (from the Launchpad client application, or from the add-in’s home page on the server’s built-in Remote Web Access website).

Lastly (but certainly not least as there were a HUGE number of other fixes, improvements, and enhancements made), all of my WSS 2011 add-ins have been setup so that they can handle client file associations. Users can now double-click on a file type that is associated with the add-in’s host application (e.g. any of the Office applications, Outlook, QuickBooks, or Quicken), and the client-side file will be opened on the server-side in its associated host application. For example, if a user double clicks on a Word document, Excel worksheet, PowerPoint presentation, etc. on their client computer, they will be prompted to sign-in, and the document will be opened in the host application that is installed on the server:

Here’s a photo gallery showing all of the file types (and protocols) that are currently associated with WHS Office 2011, WHS Outlook 2011, WHS QuickBooks 2011, and WHS Quicken 2011:

WHS Office File Associations #1WHS Office File Associations #2WHS Office File Associations #3WHS Office File Associations #4

WHS Office File Associations #5WHS Office File Associations #6WHS Outlook File AssociationsWHS Outlook Protocol Associations

WHS QuickBooks File AssociationsWHS Quicken File Associations

Links: WHS Office 2011, WHS Outlook 2011, WHS QuickBooks 2011 and WHS Quicken 2011.

DVBLink v4.5 Beta Trial Reset Instructions

With the release of the RC1 build of DVBLink, DVBLogic have reset the trial period for all v4.5 installations on our licensing server.

So if you are using a version 4.5 installation then here are the instructions on how to reset the trial period for your installed products:

  • Stop DVBLink windows service
  • Delete all *.lic files from <dvblink installation folder>\licenses
  • Start DVBLink windows server
  • Open browser, navigate to http://localhost:39876 and activate trial again

DVBLink v4.5 Release Candidate 1

DVBLink products have gone to version 4.5 Release Candidate 1 status.

dvblink Mobile Logo

What is new/fixed from beta2:

General

  • Fixed: parental lock feature did not work in beta1/2
  • Added: selection of categories on the channel selection tab
  • Added: new layout for DVBLink media library items

DVBLink TVSource

  • Added: Unicable support (only for tuners, which support raw diseqc commands. Most of them do, but for example for DigitalDevices tuners users need to use their own Unicable configuration management)
  • Fixed: EIT scanner consumes a lot of memory to keep collected EPG data
  • Added: raw diseqc command support for Twinhan clones (Terratec S7, SkyStar HD2 etc.)
  • Fixed: "PAT scanning times out message" when scanned transponder id does not match the actual
  • Fixed: no signal on TBS5980 when going from qpsk to 8psk transponder
  • Fixed: no signal on DVB-S2/QPSK transponders for Twinhan clones

DVBLink Connect! Server

  • Added: display total/available disk space in recorder web interface
  • Fixed: system does not wake up for recording on WinXP machines
  • Fixed: when several changes are done to the recording schedule options only the last one is saved
  • Fixed: built-in recorder slow epg update process

Additional notes, installation instructions and the download files can be found here.

Viridian PC Homeserv Range with WHS 2011

Viridian PC have re-branded their Homeserv range of Home Servers pre-installed with WHS 2011.

ViridianPC Homeserv Range

The 7 models in the range start from £458 with 2GB of memory, a 160GB system drive and a Intel Atom D525 dual core CPU up to £666 which comes with 4GB of memory the same 160GB system drive but this time powered by the Intel Pentium G620T dual-core CPU. Off course all systems have free SATA hot-swop drive bays available and USB connections for expansion

All models come with a 2 years return-to-base warranty and FREE shipping worldwide for all orders over £400.

More details on the HOMESERV range is available from here.