JC - Technology and Stuff

I’m done with it. I have to say I was hoping to use it for a little longer than 3 days, but there you have it. I can’t even log into it remotely this morning and I know it’s all up and running. Furthermore, backups are eating up Hard Disk space like a virus on steroids. Cap that with the incessant upgrade instructions, router woes and totally uninspiring functionality and it seems to me that it and I are just not made for each other. Maybe if I had had to buy a brand new server and it came installed with Windows Home Server then it might have been a better experience but right now I can’t wait ’til I have some time at the weekend and I can go back to Windows 2003 Server. Actually I’ll probably install some kind of Linux and turn it into an Apache server. Now that sounds like a worthwhile project

John pulls what's left of his hair out...

I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom so I guess I should be fair and say that Windows Home Server does what it says it will do. Just not in a manner that is acceptable to me. I just don’t think it’s meant to be installed on existing server boxes that are a few years old, in semi-complex home environments that have a variety of PCs and other equipment around. I think it’s best suited to a fairly modern household that has a couple of desktop PCs, an XBox, a media streaming device, perhaps a connected TV and no peculiar requirements. The sort of setup that someone from Circuit City or Best Buy will install for you in an hour. Me, I’m not that kind of family. I’m an old time hacker user that grew up using what I could, and trying to keep my PC budget spend under some kind of control. I can’t justify spending tons of money every time I want to upgrade a small component part of my setup. Some of the equipment I have still functions very well (in fact the PC hardware that Windows Home Server resides on is a perfect example of that) and I don’t think I should have to replace it ‘just because’. There’s no doubt that Windows Home Server will suit some families. It’s supposed to just be there and take away all the thinking of running a home setup. But I still think Microsoft has missed the mark (Not that they will particularly care about my opinion. After all I am nothing to them), in trying to dumb it all down so much.

So tonight I’m going in secure down my routers again, turn off the port forwarding, turn off backups and run the little beastie in kindergarten mode. Heck, I may even just turn it off!

I already have sufficient storage space on my complete network for backups. I already have Microsoft Mesh that I use for remore file access (and it can even serve as a backup for important files). I already have Zoho for online storage. I even have Microsoft Live Workspace if I need it (although I find that it’s not as flexible as Mesh, nor as convenient as Zoho). The only thing I don’t have is a ‘real’ backup progam (which I have just delayed in installing - I’ll post on that later) and a central media streamer (but that’s where I think I can just convert my server to a linux box that will do the job). I so wanted Windows Home Server to just work. But it didn’t.

Previous Posts: Install Part One & Install Part Two

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Home, PC Tool, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.