Home Server Show » Windows Home Server

BYOB Episode 76

pcdoc — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:28:32 +0000

AMD Hondo, iHomeserver, D-Link DAP-1522, Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240GB, and Raspberry Pie?

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AMD readies Hondo

AMD Readies Hondo, a 4.5W APU slated for Windows 8 Tablet later this year.

iTunes for WHS with i Homeserver

Manage iTunes from your central library using iHomeserver for iTunes add-in

Extend your WiFi coverage

The D-Link DAP-1522 is a great little access point to help extend your coverage or just to bridge the connection to remote wired connections. The GigE switch is a nice touch as well.

Same speed, but bigger

Mike adds in another Vertex 3 Max IOPS SSD to increase his speedy storage space, but this time springs for the 240GB model.

Mmmmm….Pie whaaa?

Check out the cool little Raspberry PI computer. Starting at $25 and boasting HD playback capabilities. Any technology n00b can afford to tinker with. With a recent port of XBMC for it….Velcro HTPC anyone?

Remember to post your comments on: www.homeservershow.com/forums or send us an email at byob@homeservershow.com. You can also follow us at twitter at www.twitter.com/byobpodcast

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The Home Server Show 171

Homeserver — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:08:59 +0000

Awesome show for you this week. Patrick Kennedy from servethehome.com joins us to talk about networking gear, hard drives, motherboards, his site, and his gear. It’s a hardware show for sure. Patrick has a lot of knowledge in the area and we hit him with a ton of questions. There is also a ton of news for Windows Home Server this week. Enjoy and see you in the forums.

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Advanced Admin Console 2011
Awieco Wake on Lan
iHomeServer
Snoop De Dupe
Two wishes have come true. A US WHS 2011 builder and deals on the HP Microserver.
Lacie announces WHS
HP Microserver Deal
Grid Junction no longer

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BYOB Podcast 75

pcdoc — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:22:52 +0000

Corsair Accelerator Series, Jawbone JamBox, How to be security conscious and why all on this weeks BYOB podcast.

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Corsair SSD Caching drives

Accelerator Series

Big Sound, Tiny Box

Jawbone Jambox

Minimize your security surface area

Sam Bowne – DoS IPv6 by RA Packets

Remember to post your comments on: www.homeservershow.com/forums or send us an email at byob@homeservershow.com. You can also follow us at twitter at www.twitter.com/byobpodcast

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The Home Server Show 170

Homeserver — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:55:39 +0000

Slow news week for Windows Home Server enthusiasts but there is plenty of talk about Synology and Windows 8 Storage Spaces. Greg Welch, aka @WelchWerks, joins us to talk about his atypical “Home” server and it’s role in his household. @Dieharder takes a week off and @jcollison needs a tissue. All this pfSense, Untangle, a little extra at the end, and more! Enjoy.

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Links and News Items mentioned on the show

StableBit Drive Pool update
gData Antivirus for server and home
Home Server Smart 2012 Beta 1
@Welchwerks Super Micro Motherboard discussed on show
Xeon processor
Jumbo Frame discussion in forums – I mistakenly thought Greg started this post and hit him with tons of questions on jumbo frames when it wasn’t his thread at all. My apologies.

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WD Livewire Powerline Adapters

pcdoc — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:47:10 +0000

When I was at CES 2012 I got an opportunity to attend the WD event at Caesars Palace. During the event they had a drawing and as luck would have it, I won these WD powerline adapters. Powerline adapters have never been my favorite and not long ago I went around the block with several brands such as the Linksys, Netgear, and TrendNet with almost no success. They suffered from various issues from not connecting, to very poor performance, and many with very convoluted setups. When I got these I was very curious as to whether or not these would work any better than what I had tried in the past.

The Package

Software installation and Setup

The first issue I ran into was the software that came up after putting the disk in the drive. It had some sort of an issues with display drivers and would not display the text in the buttons. As you can see the writing on the button was blank forcing me to guess as to which button I was supposed to press and what it said. Once I got past this ridiculous screen, things got much better as it went into more of a standard install.

After the utility came up, it immediately found the second device. It allowed me to rename it as well as enter in the password which by default is on the device itself.

Performance Testing

Same Room

I used a very crude but realistic method of testing to replicate what I could expect in terms of performance. I did three things, viewed the utility for the connected bandwidth, file copy performance, and various videos for playback performance.

The first test was in the same room. As you can see it hooked up at 190 Mbps. Large file copy was about 5.85 MB/sec. 1080P video stuttered badly however a 4.4 Gig 720P MP4 played perfectly.

Same floor and opposite side of the house

Second test was on the same floor put at two furthest points in the house. Utility stated a much lower connection speed and large file copy dropped to 4.19 MB/sec. Video playback was about the same same and the 720P MP4 played just fine.

Furthest point in the house and the lower floor

The final check was to go at the extreme sides of the house from one end of the top floor to the opposite side of the lower floor. The utility did not show much of a change however the file copy dropped again this time to 3.33 MB/sec. Video playback of the MP4 was still smooth and seam to play without any stutter.

Conclusion

I am not sure whether or not to consider these a success. I guess that depends on what you want to do with them. They are the easiest and most robust units I have tested and worked where no others would. Other than the silly initial screen where you can not read the text, their software worked extremely well and was very easy to use. When connected, the connection was very consistent. Since you can hook 4 devices to one adapter, they are well suited for an AV rack where you can stream your VOD, update your guide data, or update firmware on your AV devices.

On the negative side, the performance was not very good for HD video streaming. If all you want is to connect to the internet or stream lower resolution content, these will work out very well since the signal is more consistent than wireless. However if you are looking to stream Blu-Ray content, crawl in the attic and start running Cat 6 as these are not going to work for you. They market these for streaming HD and I would say that is a bit of stretch. If you consider HD to be 720P with low to mid bit rates than yes, but if your version of HD (as mine is) is 1080P with a 20+ Mbs bit rate than no, these will not stream HD. Don’t get me wrong, these are best powerline adapter I have tested but you should know in advance what you are going to use them for. To me the powerline adapter technology is still inconsistent and is very dependent on your house wiring. There are newer more powerful units that may be worth trying but as far as these go, be clear on what your needs are before you shop. If you need multiple devices on one adapter then there is value to these, but if you want blazing speed, look elsewhere.

BYOB Podcast 74

pcdoc — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:31:41 +0000

This week we comment on what CES 2012 had to offer. Thunderbolt, Highpoint hybrid RAID, Fractal & LianLi, Passive 3D, Smart TVs and Ceton Q and Echo. What’s up with Netflix? On this weeks BYOB Podcast

CES 2012

Western Digital My Book Thunder bolt

Synology NAS or is it a SAN?

Highpoint RocketHybrid RAID controller

Bolt on GPU coolers

The ultimate Gaming/podcasting chair

Fractal and some new Lian-Li cases

Ceton Q – The next gen set top box?

We don’t want to rehash everything that every other tech site has covered, so we tried to keep it brief, but this unit from Ceton was definitely up for discussion.

Michael’s prediction = A chip similar/based on this one from Intel will be in the next gen XBOX

APPWRAP – Media Streaming

Buzz Player

For Windows Phone 7 the My Home Server App will achieve similar results from WHS2011

Netflix – not exactly HD

Remember to post your comments on: www.homeservershow.com/forums or send us an email at byob@homeservershow.com. You can also follow us at twitter at www.twitter.com/byobpodcast

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The Home Server Show 169

Homeserver — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:49:26 +0000

It’s the first podcast after returning from CES 2012 and we have a wrap for you. Don’t worry though, we keep the CES talk short because there are other matters to attend to. Windows 8 and Storage Spaces. We dive deep into a blog post about Windows 8 and how the new Storage Spaces works. There are some telling points to discuss about the future of Windows Home Server and how storage management is changing for Windows. Plenty to discuss so give it a listen and meet us in the forums.

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The Storage Spaces article discussed on the show.

CES 2012 Coverage and at Livestream.com

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Synology DSM 4 Beta Walkthrough

Homeserver — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:19:17 +0000

There was plenty to see and do at CES 2012 but one of the booth tours that I really enjoyed was the Synology booth. Here is a quick video of the DSM 4 Beta walkthrough.

If you own a Synology box you too can try out the new beta. Check here for more information. Remember that once you go 4.0 you can’t downgrade to previous firmware. Hit the link for additional information.

Synology DiskStation Manager 4.0 beta Live

Homeserver — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:30:31 +0000

The Synology DSM 4.0 beta. You saw the Home Server Show crew bring it to you first. You have read the blogs, seen the dead links, seen the “coming soon” links and now the 4.0 beta is ready to download!

Jump to this page to get started. We have also added a dedicated section to the forums for all Synology users. This is a great time to discuss the 4.0 beta in the forums.

If you haven’t already seen the live video we did from the CES 2012 booth you might want to check it out. We go over the beta and some new hardware that the guys from Synology were showing. It’s a good video.

Watch live streaming video from homeservershow at livestream.com

CES 2012: ioSafe shocks the Rugged Portable Thunderbolt

Homeserver — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:34:39 +0000

ioSafe has never been shy when it comes to testing their own gear to the extreme. Neither has Home Server Show for that matter! I hope you remember my ‘unauthorized’ backyard burn of the ioSafe Solo. If not maybe you need to catch up. Here it is on YouTube. At CES 2010 ioSafe destroyed the Solo with fire, water, and running over it with a huge construction loader. Again, at CES 2011, I got to shoot the ioSafe Rugged Portable with a M-16!

Now that we are all caught up on the destruction what possibly could ioSafe do next? The next Rugged Portable from Robb Moore and company will be outfitted with a Thunderbolt port so fittingly they are zapping it with 1 Million volts of electricity!

If you need a refresher on the Rugged Portable it comes in Aluminum or Titanium, survives a drop of up to 20 feet, and can sustain crushing up to 5,000 pounds. It also won the CNET Best of CES 2011 award.

The video was shot live during the demo for Home Server Show and The Average Guy listeners. A group of us were huddled into a faraday cage in order to protect us and our recording gear while we witnessed the demo. ioSafe then employed Dr. MegaVolt and his massive tesla coil to zap the portable drive with 1 million volts after an impressive demonstration of the coil setting wood on fire and sending it’s electrical power all over the room and to Dr. MegaVolt himself.

The best part of the demonstration comes after the electricity is shut off however. See if you can catch what I’m talking about in the video below. I realize it’s a long video but it’s the entire demonstration as we saw it.

homeservershow on livestream.com.

The demonstration was impressive and a bit harrowing I must admit. I could see the burning metal on Dr. MegaVolt after the the electricity was turned off and we were only two feet from him at times. Although, protected by the faraday cage we were in, it was still a little unnerving that close.

The best part? Robb Moore, the CEO of ioSafe, brought the portable back to the computer desk to check to see if the files were still intact but with a slick move of acting, accidentally bumped OUR gear into a huge tub of water. Before the demo we were told to leave all laptops and sensitive gear in a separate faraday cage. While witnessing the demo the ioSafe crew took that small cage and swapped it with a dummy one that could be safely dumped into the water. The point that Robb was trying to make is that most cases of data loss are due to human error and silly accidents. He tripped on a grounding cable attached to the gear and in the water it went! At that point in time I recalled that my laptop bag was the last to go in the box and the first to go in the water! Point well made ioSafe.

What in the world will they do next year?