What better way to prepare for Valentine’s Day with our extended Windows Home Server community than to help us help you show the love for WHS! We’ve got a fun Valentine’s Day promo to announce to kick off the celebrating – thru everyone’s favorite…some Windows Home Server Stickers!

2009 has been a great year and we’re sure 2010 will be even better with the incredible combination of Windows Home Server and Windows 7 protecting, connecting and organizing everything in your digital life. Show off your love for Windows Home Server by letting us send you some of our favorite Home Server stickers including the tattoo, “Mommy book” cover, the blue house and the status houses.

So how do you get your stickers? Usually were all about technology and  e-mail, but this time we're going OLD SCHOOL with snail mail to avoid keeping any information about you. Just send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to the address below. We’ll send you all four stickers pictured above and shred your original envelope.

Send me the WHS stickers!

15580 NE 31st St

Redmond, WA 98052

Make sure to include enough postage to return a sticker pack via U.S. mail. It's less than one ounce, so a standard First Class stamp will do if you're in the United States; enclose an envelope with International Reply Coupons (IRC) if you're outside of the U.S. And be sure to send your envelope in soon -- one per person please.
Microsoft will use your self-addressed stamped envelope to send you the offer materials.  We will not keep or maintain your contact information.

* We sadly don’t have an unlimited supply of these, so this offer is good only for the first 2,500 to respond. Limit one set of stickers per person. This offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with any other offer.  This offer ends on Feb 28^th or while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash.  Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient.  Any gift returned as non-deliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow 6 - 8 weeks for shipment of your stickers. Due to government gift and ethics laws, government employees (including military and employees of public education institutions) are not eligible to participate.

A review of the HP MediaSmart EX495 was posted yesterday on Maximum PC’s web site. Author Norman Chan reviews the new MediaSmart and compares it to last year’s EX487 model. Chan states that “The improvements HP made to its flagship Windows Home Server are a direct response to feature requests made by consumers – including us”.

One noted feature of the EX495 is the speed of the machine, which is now powered by a Pentium Dual Core CPU which runs at 2.5GHz. This clearly amplifies performance by increasing file transfer speed, and the ability to transcode and stream video in real time. To store all of this digital entertainment, the MediaSmart EX495 also comes with 1.5TB of storage and leaves 3 additional bays empty for further internal expansion.

Chan then goes on to tell us about the MediaSmart 3.0 software which is “equally impressive” as the device itself. The new key features mainly revolve around converting your video files to be used on multiple devices. Feature highlights include:

• A local webpage where you can perform manual backups.
• Advanced options in the console for Media Collect and Video Conversions.
• Custom video settings.

To top it off, all of these great new features come at a price that is $100 less expensive than the earlier version (EX487). Interested in buying one for yourself? Chan ends the article with some fairly good incentive: “No other solution on the market comes close to matching the EX495’s performance, feature set, and ease of use.”

-Nicole

Windows Home Server was a large part of CES this year. I was pleasantly embraced by all you fellow Windows Home Server users and I joyfully shared the new features sets that Power Pack 3 empowered your home server with. The beautiful thing about our booth is the ability to walk everyone step by step, on how to take advantage of these new features. For those of you who were not at CES, I’d like to take the time to share with you those steps that I shared with CES attendees. One of the key scenarios that got a lot of interest at the show was how a Zune music player can benefit from having a Windows Home Server around as well. This post goes into more detail about why and how it all works together.

As most of you probably know, Power Pack 3 is a free update for Windows Home Server that comes down from Windows Update. You can find install procedures within our blog, so please, if you have not updated your Windows Home Server yet, do so! For the rest of this post, I will assume you already have your Windows Media Center, Windows Home Server + Power Pack 3 and your Zune setup.

Before we get going in the details, let’s start by talking about why I’m so jazzed about our Zune + Home Server scenario. The key benefit in my mind is in how the Zune player can be a great way of transporting all of your recorded TV from a Media Center PC on the go. But I’m getting ahead of myself…Let’s paint a picture for you:

Before I left for CES earlier this month, I set several recordings of my favorite TV show to be recorded and then compressed to Zune format. I am not sure if you have ever used a Zune HD but I was extremely surprised with how long the battery lasts playing video. WOW! I consistently played 6 hours of content on the trip -no charging. My laptop wouldn’t have made it through my first connection flight let alone the whole trip. Yes, I had a connection because I bought my plane ticket a little late and had to arrive very early in the morning for setup. At least I was well prepared with my media!

So here’s the details of how I managed to stay completely entertained during my flight(s):

1. Open Windows Media Center and verify that you have your TV shows set to be recorded. Next, , go back to the main Windows Media Center menu and scroll up to your Home Server tiles. Select TV Archiving to begin.

2. TV Archiving will display <Series>, <Programs> and <Settings>. “Series” will display the series you have selected to be recorded. Series are multiple shows or multiple episodes. Programs display individual recordings and will only apply to that one episode/recording. It is up to you to decide which one you would like to use or use both. I’ll be selecting Series recordings because I’m excited to watch a few seasons of my shows on my next trip. In order to continue, you will need to select at least program or series.

3. Now that I have one selected, I can scroll over to settings to decide what I would like to do with these recordings. I personally like to Archive all recordings automatically, but this is another optional feature for you. I also have 6TBs of space on my home server… not that I’m bragging. :) *cough*

4. “Create a compressed copy” is the feature we’re going to enable here. In order to take advantage of this feature, you have to move or archive your content to your Windows Home Server or you cannot select this. Since we’re working with a sweet Zune HD, set the format to Zune. Finally, scroll down a little further and set the saved folder to “Home Server Videos folder” (or one of your choice). To make things easier for this step by step, please select “Home Server Video folder” and click Save.

Now what we’ve done here is set Windows Media Center to record our shows and then make two copies of the show on our Windows Home Server; one in its original full quality format and the other in a smaller Zune format to preserve our space on our Zune. After all, we have lots of play time to take advantage of, let’s make the most of it.

I do want to call out a little secret that you can take advantage of. Some TV shows – especially those that are transmitted in HD - use AC3 audio and because of that, your shows might not compress. In order to fix that, you’ll need to download and install an AC3 codec. I know it sounds complicated, but it’s not and most importantly - it’s free. I personally downloaded mine from http://download.cnet.com/AC3Filter/3000-2170_4-190264.html?tag=mncol#userreview but you can get yours from wherever you like. [Note that the below process is not supported by Microsoft, and users should proceed with caution. This is presented merely as an option for users.]

Let’s take a quick sidebar to walk you through a quick step-by-step for installing the one codec that I’ve used on my own, AC3Filter:

1. After running the file you just downloaded click Next

2. Leave all options default and click Next

3. Then click Install

4. With the codec installed, now we can move on to setting up the Zune! Your Windows Media Center is well on its way to creating your giant TV show collection in Zune compatible form. Let’s tell the Zune to look at that folder and to sync with it.

Since you’ve already installed Power Pack 3, your Windows Home Server’s Video shared folder has already been added to your libraries. Zune software is setup! That was easy. You didn’t have to do anything!

Here I have “X-Men” ready and converted. It does take a while (maybe overnight) to convert. I already had this one completed, so you might want to be a little patient.

5. Finally, I can sync this video to my Zune by right clicking and selecting, “Sync with Zune HD”. Repeat this for all of the videos you would like to have on your Zune HD and enjoy your next flight to where ever you go!

As an added bonus, you can even watch this newly created WMV file through your Zune software. How cool is that?!

JB

It’s the first day of February, and that means we’re entering the long awaited ‘Award Season’ in earnest. Grammy’s, Oscars, Golden Globes, etc. are taking up all the headlines. And it’s no different in the technology world either, with last Friday’s kick off of the 2009 Engadget Award contest.

So why should you care? Well, this year we’ve got a good reason! We’re thrilled to have one of very own Windows Home Server devices – an HP MediaSmart Server - nominated for ‘Home Entertainment Device of the Year’! So come show your support for Home Server by heading straight to the Engadget polls, which will be taking your votes through February 20^th. To paraphrase an old political adage, 'Vote Early and Vote Often' (OK, maybe the latter would be stretching ethics a bit…But you get the point. ;-)

And while we have you, be sure to check out the nice plug for the HP Storage Works DataVault product (the SMB focused HP SKU) in Eric Rux’s most recent Home Server column up on Sound and Video Contractor magazine – it was their 25^th edition of the column, so kudos to Eric!

Happy Monday everyone!

- Mark

Are you interested in improving your home set-up but need some new ideas? If so, take a look Juan Goni’s master set-up in this edition of Show us Your Tech.

As a reminder, the Windows Home Server team has partnered with Microsoft’s Channel 9 , a video blog site that reaches of 5 million technology enthusiasts to revive a series called “Show Us Your Tech”. Similar to MTV Cribs, Show us Your Tech takes a look inside people’s homes. However, instead of looking in their fridge, it showcases some pretty elaborate technology set-ups that feature Windows Home Server.

In this edition, you will see Juan Goni’s set-up. Juan is a senior Program Manager at Microsoft in the Exchange Online Deployment group who has used Windows Home Server to connect his digital life and use it throughout his house. Juan has some pretty cool features in his set-up including the ability to control his home’s lighting with his PC, and also uses Media Center and extenders throughout his house to distribute video and music.

Check it out and get some new ideas for your own home!

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LarryLarsen/Show-Us-Your-Tech-Juan-Goni-Edition/

Enjoy!

-Nicole

This blog post was written by MVP, Alexander Kent.  Alexander is the founder and principal of Kentdome LLC, a Los Angeles, California based company specializing in enterprise security, custom software engineering, network infrastructure and co-location services. In recent years Alexander has taken a particular interest in the Windows Home Server platform. As a result, Kentdome LLC has produced a number of WHS solutions under his architectural guidance. In addition Alexander has been a very active technology evangelist, sharing his excitement for the WHS platform. Today he will share some information about Remote Access challenges.  Enjoy!

Windows Home Server is generally considered a great file server and backup solution for home users. A lesser known fact is that it also provides superb Remote Access capabilities. The “Remote Access” feature allows you to control your computers and access files on your Windows Home Server over any internet connection, from anywhere in the world.

Have you ever traveled somewhere and realized that important files were left at home? Now, with the help of the Windows Home Server Remote Access technology, you can securely reach your home network and interact with it from any machine on the Internet.

Enabling the Remote Access feature prompts the Windows Home Server to try and automatically configure the network to allow inbound connections. Seven times out of ten times this works perfectly, but given the sheer number of different devices, and the ever increasing complexity of home networks, the process of configuring your network for Remote Access may have to be more hands on.

This article explains the most frequent Remote Access challenges and then walks you through the steps of making your Windows Home Server accessible across the Internet.

#1) UPnP is not enabled or supported by your router
The Windows Home Server Remote Access Configuration Wizard attempts to auto configure your router over universal plug and play (UPnP) standards. UPnP represents a set of networking protocols that allow devices to connect, interoperate, and be configured. In order for this to work, your router must have the UPnP feature enabled, and must support the correct UPnP version.

If your router does not support the UPnP protocol, or if your router has UPnP disabled, then the Windows Home Server Remote Access Wizard will report a failure when attempting to configure the router through the Remote Access settings interface.

Figure 1.0: Router configuration failed

In many cases, downloading and installing a firmware update on the router adds UPnP support or fixes UPnP issues. If you have not done any firmware updates, visit your router manufacturer's website to see if any updates are available. We recommend installing the firmware update, enabling UPnP on your router (if applicable), and try running the Windows Home Server Remote Access Configuration Wizard again.

In some cases, Windows Home Server will report an error with the automatic router configuration, but the Remote Access functionality proceeds to work without a problem. This occurs in cases where the UPnP protocol may not be implemented properly on the router and Windows Home Server cannot confirm whether or not configuration was successful.

Figure 2.0: Router configuration failed but remote Web site is available from the Internet. (Okay to proceed!)

If the above information does not solve your problem or UPnP is not available on your router, then you must manually configure port forwarding from your router to your Windows Home Server. To learn more, please visit the Broadband Router Configuration wiki produced by the Home Server Land team in conjunction with the Windows Home Server Remote Access feature team at Microsoft.

WHS Remote Access UPnP Problems from HomeServerLand on Vimeo.

#2) Double NAT

Network Address Translation (NAT) refers to the translation of an Internet Protocol address (IP address) used within one network to a different IP address known within another network. For example, a translation from the Local Area Network (LAN: the private home network) to the Wide Area Network (WAN: the public Internet).

A good example of a NAT device is the network router which can be thought of as the agent between the public Internet and the private home network.

A typical home network is made up of a single network router (NAT), usually with a built-in 4-port switch, and a basic DSL or Cable modem that connects to the Internet.

Figure 3.0: Typical Home Network Diagram

For the Windows Home Server Remote Access website to be available from the Internet, the router needs to be configured to forward inbound web traffic from the Internet to the Windows Home Server on the local network. Therefore, if another NAT device is introduced into the network, it too must be configured accordingly!

A home network containing two devices routing traffic and performing Network Address Translation is known as a Double NAT. Such devices can include a combination of routers, modems, firewalls, wireless access points, and other network devices.

What people often fail to realize is that DSL Modems that employ Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) are frequently performing NAT and other roles such as Internet authentication and DHCP functions.

Figure 4.0: Double NAT network diagram

In a Double NAT environment, the UPnP protocol can only be used to automatically configure the nearest NAT device. Under these conditions, the Remote Access functionality will not work properly, and the Windows Home Server will report a failure when attempting to configure the router through the Remote Access Settings interface.

How do I know if I am behind a double NAT?
To determine whether or not a Double NAT exists, check the WAN (outside) IP address on the router nearest to the Windows Home Server. It should match the public IP address assigned by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). One way to check your public IP address is by visiting a site like http://whatismyipaddress.com/ from your home network.

If the WAN IP address on the router nearest to the Windows Home Server is a private IP address, meaning a non-routable IP address reserved for private use, you are dealing with a Double NAT scenario.

Figure 5.0: IP Address ranges reserved for private use

The solution would be to reconfigure your home network so that only one device is routing data in a NAT configuration. Many network devices, including Cable and DSL modems, support a “bridged” or "transparent" mode of operation, which disables all of the routing and NAT in the device. This effectively puts your other router into the position of managing the Internet authentication and network address translation. Consult your modem manufacturer documentation or contact your ISP for support.

Another common network setup mistake is made by people who wish to add wireless functionality without replacing their existing modem or router. As a result, if you attach another router behind or in-front of your existing router, you are effectively creating a Double NAT.

Figure 6.0: Double NAT by means of two routers

In this case, the solution would be to consolidate both devices into a single unit that can route traffic to the wired and wireless networks, or to configure port forwarding from the first NAT device to the second NAT device. Alternatively, circumvent the double NAT by attaching the Windows Home Server directly to the first NAT device on the network.

WHS Remote Access: Double NAT from HomeServerLand on Vimeo.

#3) Internet Service Provider is blocking Remote Access Ports

The Remote Access website requires inbound port 80 (HTTP), port 443 (HTTPS) and port 4125 (Remote Web Workplace or RWW for short) to be available from the Internet. However, many internet service providers block email related internet ports to curb spam or unsolicited commercial usage. In some cases ISPs block additional ports such as the ones required by Windows Home Server Remote Access: inbound port 80 and port 443.
If you have configured your network for Remote Access but the remote access website is still not available over the Internet, then contact your ISP to confirm whether or not inbound connectivity on TCP ports 80, 443 or 4125 are being blocked.

Alternatively you can determine whether or not ports are blocked with the Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool.

WHS Remote Access: ISP Blocking Ports from HomeServerLand on Vimeo.

The Windows Home Server Remote Access functionality is a powerful and convenient feature that is well worth the effort to set up correctly and securely.

Hopefully the above breakdown of some of the most common Windows Home Server Remote Access challenges has been helpful. The Windows Home Server Remote Access feature team at Microsoft and the WHS communities are continuously engaged in improving and compiling data around compatibility and other home network issues. Feedback is always welcome and should you need additional help, please give us a shout in the forums where we can help you further.

-Alexander Kent

In previous video posts, I have introduced you to various members of the Windows Home Server team including Mark Pendergrast, and Jonas Svensson. Hopefully those interviews have helped put a face behind Windows Home Server and shown you how much our team loves this product that they work on day in and out. Today you can learn a little more about our lead program manager, Mark Vayman.

Mark is an engineer that has worked on our Dev. team for close to 4 years now. As an individual contributor, Mark works with Windows Home Server’s drive extender which is the base of the storage feature of Windows Home Server. Mark himself is a big user of the drive extender and has 8TBs running on his home server. You can watch the interview and find out more about how Mark uses Windows Home Server every day. Enjoy!

-Nicole

Here on the Home Server team, we’re grateful for all the great support, insight, and momentum that you have shown for Windows Home Server. The feedback we hear from you, our very active community of enthusiasts and customers is what keeps us motivated to continue to improve the product.

Speaking of all this great feedback, we thought it helpful to do a quick blog post to clarify how and where the Home Server community can direct communication to the right channels. This way, we can ensure your feedback, technical questions, and feature requests get to the right folks in the product team. Specifically, here are some guidelines:

• For Product Feedback, Success stories and Feature Requests – send email to us at whsinfo@microsoft.com. Please note that this email alias is for marketing and future requests only – and not for technical support.
• For technical support questions about the Windows Home Server operating system – please post your questions to our active Windows Home Server community forums. The forums are actively monitored by the Home Server Product Team, MVPs and enthusiasts and you are very likely to get fast responses from this avenue

Many thanks again for all your help with Windows Home Server, and we look forward to hearing from you – no matter what the question or topic!

- Mark

As CES winds down, interest in Windows Home Server remains strong. Despite this being one of the last days of the show, it was still extremely busy and tons of people were on the search for the Windows Home Server booth. Windows Home Server Marketing Manager Nicole Berett shared with us some of the great stories the team heard at the booth today. Nicole said they had many customers talk about how they were using Windows Home Server in their small office/home office (SOHO).  One story that stood out in particular was a couple who owned a small IT consulting business in Wenatchee, Wash. and used Windows Home Server to connect to all of their customers and data. They recommend to all of their customers that they should use Windows Home Server in their homes as their “safe” for their digital content. Nicole said: “One thing that I thought was impressive was that this business also used Windows Home Server to back up their Microsoft Windows Small Business Server, which they use to run their company.”

These kind of SOHO stories also reinforce what we heard in our 2009 user survey; we saw the number of home-based businesses using Windows Home Server nearly triple in the last year. This week’s announcement from LaCie with its network storage server for small business based on the Windows Home Server platform, as well as HP’s new StorageWorks X500 Data Vault, are the first specific Windows Home Server based offerings targeting SOHO. It’s exciting to see the home server category and Windows Home Server quickly propelling into the SOHO market. 

Windows Home Server is showing off its momentum at CES this year.

Windows Home Server Program Manager Jonas Svensson is just one of many of our team members down at the show. He reports back that the first thing he saw when pulling up to the convention center this morning was our Windows Home Server posters!

Jonas sent us pictures of all the CES activity, including the bustle of people lined up to enter the showroom floor, and how Windows Home Server looks in the Microsoft booth. Check out the cool new LaCie box there too. In case you missed it, LaCie just announced a new network storage server based on the Windows Home Server platform. We are showing the product for the first time at CES. LaCie brings an exciting new design to the Windows Home Server family and provides plenty of storage options with terabytes of capacity and the ability to back up data from local computers and to cloud-based services with the cool Wuala technology.

It’s hard to believe that Microsoft Windows Home Server solutions have been in the marketplace for more than two years now. The product has experienced such great momentum during this time, with distribution into 50 countries, penetration into new channels including home-based/small businesses and telecommunications, as well as commitment from the top five hardware partners: Acer, ASUS, HP, LaCie and Lenovo. We also enjoyed reading this piece in Redmond Developer News that lists Windows Home Server as a continued success story in their predictions for 2010. Andrew Brust tells us “I think it's the best home network backup product out there, and that's really just the beginning.”

Customers and partners are realizing the true value of a device that allows consumers to protect, connect and share their most important files. We think that Windows Home Server offers a great platform for new ideas to be nurtured. It’s not just Microsoft growing this market – it is also all the great enthusiasts who are developing for it and the passionate users who love the product – so thank you to all of our supporters!

Stay tuned for more news and updates from the team down at CES.

In a follow up to last weeks blog on Understanding and set up of Remote Access to Windows Home Server, Sean Daniel, Program Manager for Windows Home Server, has provided further information on potential issues that you may experience when setting up your Remote Access, and how to solve the problem.

Once you finish setting up your remote access through Windows Home Server’s Wizard, a final screen will be shown.  In a perfect world, when you click on Details you’ll see all green checks once you have finished this wizard.  However, because there are three components (the home server, the ISP and the router), sometimes there is a snag in the setup. Here is an example of a working domain name with sample data:

The first check-box will actually check to make sure you have an outbound connection. This will ensure it can connect to the specific service at live.com. The second one ensures that Windows Live has your most recent IP address. The 3^rd item makes a call to the router via UPnP to ensure the ports are open, and finally, the 4^th item, was the specific check added in Power Pack 2. This sends your IP address to a Microsoft server in the cloud which attempts to load your public webpage on port 80 (it does not attempt to log in or anything). You will get an “X” here if the service on the internet cannot get to the website.

If all the pieces are working, you’re remote access website should be live on the Internet, if all the pieces aren’t working you’ll probably get a red “X” on this page, let’s talk about where to start looking.

Troubleshooting Remote Access

There are a number of things you can do to validate and pin-point why your remote access isn’t working. Let’s talk about a few of the more common ones:

(1) Your ISP does not give you a public IP address to your home

In order for Home Server to be on the Internet, it needs a publicly routable IP address from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). You can tell this by logging into your router and going to the STATUS page. The WAN (or Wide Area Network) IP address should not start with 192.x.x.x, or 10.x.x.x. If it does, then the home server will not be accessible from the Internet, and you should call your ISP to obtain a publicly routable IP address

(2) You have multiple routers in your home

Sometimes with the low cost of routers verses access points, it’s possible that you have two routers in your home. A router is designed to protect the external network from the internal network. If there are two of these in the home, the home network is broken into two different subnets, and if the home server is on the internal network, its calls to UPnP will only take effect on the router closest to it, while the change would need to be made on both routers, or optimally, there should only be one router on the network, and the additional pieces of hardware added to the network would be wireless access points, or network switches.

(3) UPnP is disabled, or does not conform to UPnP standards

UPnP behaves slightly differently between different router models, and in some cases, might be disabled all together. If this is the case, the Home Server will be unable to make the appropriate changes on the router and you will need to manually make these changes. To do this, you will need to give your server a DHCP reservation in the router (such that it always gets the same IP address), and then manually setting up the port mappings for 80, 443, and 4125. Do not put the home server in the DMZ, as only these 3 ports are needed. If the Home Server is in the DMZ for the router, it can cause connectivity issues inside the network. The Microsoft MVP community has put together a webpage on how to manually configure may of the most common routers.

(4) Your Domain Name is not setup

In rare cases, your domain name may fail to be set up, you can confirm this by going to a command prompt and typing in nslookup. Once inside nslookup, type in your domain name (e.g. hostname.homeserver.com), it should return with an IP address (e.g. 200.200.200.200). Compare this IP address to that of your router’s status page for WAN IP, they should be the same. If the nslookup doesn’t return an IP address and instead returns “non-existent domain”, then you should run the repair on the home server console and try again.

That’s the basics, there is definitely more to learn about networking in general and we can go deeper under the covers. You can always get help on the Windows Home Server Forums. Additionally, I run my own blog that touches on home and small business related technologies at http://whs.seandaniel.com.

The 2 videos below were recently created to showcase all of the features found in Windows Home Server in 1 minute.

The first video gives an overview of how a family uses Windows Home Server in their everyday lives. It shows how Windows Home Server will keep all family memories safely backed up and stored in a vault-like box, and how it can also stream large collections of media throughout the house.

In this second video, you will see the benefits of using Windows Home Server in your Small Office/Home Office (SOHO). Windows Home Server provides an IT team for your office to help protect, organize, and connect to all of your data without the expensive price tag.

You can find more demos and videos about Windows Home Server on our demo page.

-Nicole

Timothy Daleo, author on the site http://usingwindowshomeserver.com, penned a very clever rendition of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” written by Clement Clarke Moore.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring, not even a Microsoft Wireless 6000 Mouse;

The computers were sleeping on the network with care,

In hopes that Windows Home Server Backup soon would be there…

Read the full version at http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2009/12/24/twhsas-the-friday-night-before-christmas/.

Hi, I’m Sean Daniel, and I’m a Program Manager who works on Windows Home Server and Windows Small Business Server. I am one of the team members that works on Remote Access, and I wanted to blog today about setting up and understanding remote access in Windows Home Server, as well as call out a few “gotchas” to be careful of.

Let’s start with the basics.

Windows Home Server provides so many functions for the local network, it’s easy to overlook that it also provides an extended set of features for when you’re not at home. While Windows Home Server attempts to make this set up process as easy as possible, but some users still hit issues that the Home Server can’t predict.  I’ll address those issues at the end of this post.

Understanding Remote Access

Before we set up remote access, let’s take a second to understand what’s going on. Think, for a second, as the Internet as similar to the “snail-mail” postal service. When you’re sending a letter, you need an address to send it to. That address has a street address, a city, a zip-code and a country. This is much like an Internet Address, it has a host name (similar to street address) a city/zip (similar to a domain name), and a country (similar to the .com or .co.uk) which all complete the domain name. Think of a postal look-up book, DNS (Domain Name Services) will tell you where on the Internet to find the exact location of your server.

Furthermore, like your house having doors and windows, computers have “ports” that indicate if you’re going to go in the side door, a window, or the front door, etc. When you browse on the internet, if you have HTTP:// before your address, you are using the public/front door of your house (on the server, this is referred to as port 80). If you have HTTPS:// before your domain address, you’re using the secure side door of your house (on the server, this is referred to port 443). In order for your external person to find and get into your house, you have to make sure they have your address (a domain name), and know which door to go in (the port). Then you also have to make sure there are no fences or walls in the way of that door (or inside the network, we call these firewalls). If the address is correct, and the firewalls are open, you need only come up to the house and ask to come in. Think of Home Server as your automated butler, which answers the door each time someone comes in and asks “who are you?” If the person provides sufficient evidence that you trust them (a username and password), the Butler automatically lets them into your home. Make sense so far? Good.

Setting up Remote Access on the Home Server

Let’s get down to business and set up Remote Access on the Home Server. As hinted above, this will make a number of changes to your home server and your network:

(1) It will register your server in the global DNS services using Windows Live, thus giving your computer a friendly address such as hostname.homeserver.com. This is like you saving your aunts address into your GPS and just clicking Aunt May to get to her house. There is no need for you to actually remember the full address, just “Aunt May’s House”. This is what you are doing when you register your server with the DNS services.

(2) Home Server will attempt to remove any walls to the specific ports the home server provides remote access to. It does this by making a UPnP call to your router and attempts to open the ports on the firewall and point them to your home server

(3) Home Server, for local network protection, also has a local Windows Firewall; this firewall is configured to allow those same ports through to your home server. As a note here, the Windows Firewall also allows a lot more “stuff” through to the server on the local network for media streaming, and client/server communication. Think of these as the doors to the dining room, living room, etc. They shouldn’t be changed without consulting someone who knows the structure of your home server!

With these three steps, the intention is to allow requests from anywhere on the Internet to find your home server, and pass through the layers of security (your router firewall, and your Windows Firewall) to the secure remote access solution provided by home server. Once there, the Home Server will serve up files, and remote access to PCs that are turned on, and any potential OEM value or add-ins you installed on your server that are remotely available, such as media streaming applications.

To set up remote access, simply open the Windows Home Server Dashboard, and select Settings, in the top right hand corner. In the list that opens, select the Remote Access settings:

Select the Turn On button. When you do this, the Home Server will attempt to configure your router via UPnP as we mentioned above. It will attempt to forward ports 80 (for http access), 443 (for https access) and 4125 (for access to your PCs through the home server). Port 4125 is specifically used for remote PC access. If you’re a networking guru, you’ll notice that nothing is actually listening on port 4125, until you tell the server to connect to a specific computer in your home, thus ensuring a secure computing environment for your home.

Now you’ll want to register your server and obtain a domain name. By default, Windows Home Server comes with a single domain provider called “Windows Live Custom Domains”, but your OEM may have provided additional options, you can try either to see which works best for you. I’m going to talk about the Windows Live one as this is a generic solution on all home servers. Once you sign up, you are provided with a HostName on the .homeserver.com domain name, such as HostName.homeserver.com, this will be the Internet address of your Home Server. You will require a LiveID to complete this step. The reason LiveID is used is we secure the updates to your home server using a LiveID and password. You wouldn’t want a random person changing this, so we make sure it’s securely updated! Next you have to choose a HostName. This is unique in the whole world, of all the people who own home servers. So don’t be surprised if your first name or last name isn’t available! You may have to get creative.

Specifically with the Windows Live domain service, you also obtain a certificate for securing the information across the Internet. The certificate is like a key to your home. It works slightly differently, but essentially it ensures that your information is secured with 1024-bit security. This is a similar level of security that many big businesses use for securing their data! Additionally, home server forces you to send all data over this connection, so you can’t mistakenly send it un-encrypted over the Internet.

When you finish this wizard, the HostName of your choice is pointed at your routers Internet facing IP address, the specific ports are open in your router, and you should be able to access your home server using the secure certificate encrypting all of your data.

That’s the basics, there is definitely more to learn about networking in general and we can go deeper under the covers. You can always get more help on the Windows Home Server Forums. Additionally, I run my own blog that touches on home and small business related technologies at http://whs.seandaniel.com.

This post was written by Lingkai Kong, a Software Development Engineer on the Windows Home Server team in Shanghai, China.  Lingkai has been with the team for over 3 years, and has contributed to every major Windows Home Server release.  In this post, he describes an issue some customers have faced when their ISPs have adopted OpenDNS and similar services, and how we’ve worked to resolve those issues in Windows Home Server Power Pack 3.

Some users have reported that after their ISPs adopted OpenDNS for their home network they started having issues connecting to their Windows Home Server: the connector software cannot locate the server and it is impossible to join a new home computer to the home server!

The root cause behind this is the name resolution solution mechanism of OpenDNS does not work well with windows home server. When a home computer looks for resolving the IP address for a computer name (for example, your home server), it follows the steps below:

1. It looks up the HOSTS file in the system. If not found, going to step 2.

2. It consults the DNS server for the name. If not found, going to step 3.

3. It asks NETBIOS if there is a name exists in local network.

The home server connector software depends on step 3, because the Windows Home Server is located in the local network and shouldn’t be resolved by any DNS server. However it never has a chance to go to step 3 because OpenDNS will always respond ”yes” and point to an external IP in step 2. As a result, your connector software would try to connect to an external IP, which always results in failure.

In Windows Home Server Power Pack 3, the problem is addressed and resolved. The solution is simple: the connector service running on the home computer updates its HOSTS file, adding an entry for the Windows Home Server in the network. The IP address in the entry is what windows home server announces via UPnP broadcast. The workflow is as follows:

1. Connector software gets the home server IP from UPnP.

2. Connector software tries to resolve the home server’s name via DNS name resolution.

3. If the IP from UPnP matches the IP from DNS name resolution, it’s taken as the real IP address of the home server.

4. If they don’t match, connector software knows there is potentially an OpenDNS problem in the network. It will update the HOSTS file on the home computer by adding the home server entry (with the IP from UPnP) in this case.

Looking at the steps above, there is a question though: why doesn’t the client just connect to the server by the IP it gets from UPnP? In most cases this will work, but unfortunately in scenarios related with Windows Home Server’s certificate, it will not work because certificates are bound with computer names instead of IP addresses.

Power Pack 3 does take security consideration into the solution. You don’t need to worry about messing the HOSTS file being edited. Unless there is a problem, Windows Home Server will not touch HOSTS file. The origin HOSTS file is kept as backup. If you uninstall the connector software all the windows home server entries in the HOSTS file will be removed.

Now with Power Pack 3, everyone will have no problem using OpenDNS with their home server.

For further support and questions, you can visit the Windows Home Server forum: www.serverplayground.com