Wiley Teach Yourself VISUALLY Windows Home Server
Contents
1. Server Providing Services Windows Home Server is not meant to be used for day to day tasks Instead it is a server operating system which means that it provides services storage security and network management features for the other computers on the network which are often called clients No Special Hardware Although Windows Home Server offers powerful features you do not need a powerful computer to run them Almost any new or recent PC can run Windows Home Server The minimum requirements are a 1 GHz Pentium III processor 512MB of memory an 80GB hard drive a network card for a wired connection to the network and a DVD drive Powerful Features Windows Home Server comes with many powerful features including scheduled backups of client computers centralized storage media streaming simplified network management and remote access to all of the network computers You can find more detailed descriptions of these features in the next section Headless Operation Windows Home Server is not meant for everyday use in fact most computers that come with Windows Home Server installed do not even include a keyboard mouse or monitor You turn on Windows Home Server and then access everything you need through the Console program A computer without a keyboard mouse or monitor is said to be headless Kra KAJ L L a Windows Home Server comes with several key features that are designed t2. Windows Hom Server Basics Are you ready to start learning about Windows _ Home Server This chapter helps you get started by giving you an overview of Windows Home Server including its features and benefits You will also learn about what you can do with Windows Home Server Understanding Windows Home Server Basis nn ee 4 Learn About Windows Home Server s Features sscsccssesscccssesscccnnssseceeeessees 6 Discover What You Can Do with Windows Home SeCIrvel uscccccccccccccccccccsscesseesssss 8 Learn About Windows Home Server s Benefits 10 Learn About Advanced Uses for Windows Home Server 2 2 222 2 12 Windows Home Server is a computer operating system that is made for home networks It is designed to make it easier to set up and manage a network Windows The Operating System Home Where Your Network Resides Windows Home Server is a member of the Windows Windows Home Server is designed for use with home family of operating systems from Microsoft An networks that have up to ten computers attached to operating system is a software program that the network using either wired or wireless controls everything on a computer including the connections If you do not yet have your network set installed devices what you see on the display and up see Chapter 2 how your keystrokes and mouse clicks work Windows Home Server Basics chapter
3. Music or Videos shared folder to stream you can then play those streams on a computer or device that is connected to the network For a computer you can display or play a stream by using Windows programs such as Media Player and Media Center You can also access a stream using devices such as the Microsoft Xbox 360 a digital media player or a digital picture frame chapter Windows Home Server offers you a number of benefits These include the capability to restore both individual files and entire PCs easy file sharing over the network monitoring the health of home computers and the capability to work with your own computer from remote locations You can learn more about each of these benefits in this section and elsewhere in this book Restore Lost Data Windows Home Server s nightly backups ensure that if you lose or damage an important file you can open the backup and restore the file Windows Home Server maintains several backups for each PC so you can also restore a previous version of a file nal Recover a PC Windows Home Server backs up all of a computer s data including the important system files that Windows uses to operate and the files that run your programs If a home computer crashes and cannot be started you can use the Home Computer Restore CD to restore the entire computer from one of its backups on Windows Home Server HI kI II Share Files You can use the Wind
4. as several useful user accounts have access to which shared folders features Microsoft has also made it easy for In each case you can specify whether the account programmers to add new features to Windows Home can make changes in the folder or only view the Server These features are called add ins and they can contents of the folder You can even prevent a user add new tabs to the Windows Home Server Console from accessing a folder altogether new Windows Home Server settings and new Windows Home Server programs Windows Home Server Basics Connect to Windows Home Server Most of your interaction with the server occurs through the Windows Home Server Console program particularly if you run the server as a headless device However you may sometimes need to use Windows Home Server and not just the Console In such cases you can use a home computer to connect to Windows Home Server and operate it remotely WINDOWS HONE SERVER Welcome to k indows Home Server HE Work Anywhere in Your Home With Windows Home Server s Remote Access feature you can connect to your own computer from anywhere else in your home For example if you have a computer in the den you can use it to access the computer in your home office Similarly you could take a notebook computer outside and access your main computer using a wireless network connection Connect through the Internet With Windows Home Server s Rem
5. n this section and elsewhere in this book Set Up Family Accounts Create Shared Folders The Windows Home Server Console has a User Windows Home Server comes with several predefined Accounts tab that allows you to create user shared folders However you do not have to use just accounts This enables you to create a separate those folders If you want you can create your own account for each family member that you want to shared folders on the server This enables you to give access to the server s shared files You can create different folders for different types of files such create up to ten accounts in Windows Home Server as letters and recorded TV shows Store Files You can copy or move files from your computer to one of the Windows Home Server shared folders This procedure is similar to copying or moving files from one part of your system to another Copying a file to the server creates a second copy in case you need it while moving a file to the server is useful for freeing up disk space on your computer Increase Storage Windows Home Server s storage consists of all of the hard drives attached to your system minus a 20GB area for the Windows Home Server system files If you attach another hard drive to the Windows Home Server computer for example an external hard drive plugged into a USB port you can add that drive s capacity to the storage pool Play Media Once you configure the Photos
6. o keep your data safe give you easy access to digital media and data make networking tasks easy to manage and give you remote access to your computer You can learn more about each of the following features elsewhere in this book Nightly Backups When you connect a Windows Vista or Windows XP computer to the Windows Home Server network the server automatically configures that computer for regular backups This means that Windows Home Server backs up all of the computers data its documents files programs and settings every night Keguar Packup s 79 Centralized Storage Streaming Media nehork Management Remote Access Data Kedundancy r l Centralized Storage Adding multiple hard drives to Windows Home Server combines those drives into a single storage pool that you can use to store data from all of the network computers Windows Home Server makes this easier by offering several built in shared folders including Photos Music Videos Software and Public as well as a shared folder for each user account on the system Windows Home Server Basics chapter woo oO Y Streaming Media Streaming media involves broadcasting a digital image audio file or video file so that other computers and devices on the network can pick up the broadcast and play it You can configure Windows Home Server to stream the contents of its Photos Music and Videos folders lt a lt a MMMM
7. ote Access feature you can connect to your network through the Internet For example you could use your workplace Internet connection to run the Windows Home Server Console Similarly you could access a wireless hotspot in a coffee shop and use the Internet to log on to your network and then connect to your computer Get a Custom Subdomain Name A domain name is an Internet address such as microsoft com or google com A subdomain is a more specific address such as support microsoft com Windows Home Server enables you to create your own subdomain using the homeserver com domain name for example smithfamily homeserver com You can then use this address to connect to the Windows Home Server Remote Access pages
8. ows Home Server shared folders to collaborate with other people You can store a file in a shared folder and then give other users permission to view and make changes to that folder Those users can then access the folder and view or edit the file ON KATY S S COMPUTER s TURNED OF Simple to Use Networking can be very complex but Windows Home TAE FIREWALL Fl Monitor Network Health Windows Home Server uses an icon in the taskbar s notification area to let you know if a problem exists with the network with the server or with one of the computers For example if a Windows Vista user has their security settings lowered the icon displays a message to let you know Server avoids this complexity by requiring very little initial configuration and by hiding the difficult parts of networking tasks so that you do not have to deal with them Instead you can accomplish most things by using the Windows Home Server Console The Windows Home Server Console makes it easy to perform a large number of basic tasks However Windows Home Server is also a powerful system that enables you to perform more advanced tasks such as setting up folder security installing add ins and making remote connections You can learn more about each of the following tasks elsewhere in this book Set Up Security Extend Windows Home Server Windows Home Server enables you to specify which Although Windows Home Server h
9. p CaM ELL Windows Home Server Console You can use the Windows Home Server Console program to easily manage the most important aspects of your network The Console enables you to configure and work with computer backups manage user accounts configure the Windows Home Server shared folders add and remove hard drives and configure many other Windows Home Server settings Data Redundancy To help keep your data safe you can configure the Windows Home Server shared folders with a feature called folder duplication This means that if you have multiple hard drives on the server Windows maintains a duplicate copy of each file If a server hard drive should fail you do not lose any data because copies exist on another hard drive Folder Duplicates Ji y a a 7 Bi _ Remote Access Windows Home Server comes with a Remote Access feature that enables you to log on to another network computer and operate that computer as though you were sitting in front of it You can use the Remote Access feature either while you are logged on to your network or from outside your home through an Internet connection With Windows Home Server added to your network you can perform a number of tasks The most common tasks are setting up user accounts creating shared folders storing data on the server playing media and adding more storage You can learn more about each of these tasks i
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