Much of what we predicted about Home Server is true. It's all about centralization and ease of use, and it's targeted at users who want an easy way to back up all of the important data in their house. It's built using a mix of new and not-new sever technology, but whereas we previously believed it was based on a client OS, Windows Home Server is in fact based off of Windows Server 2003.

Windows Home Server will be entering beta sometime in the next 60 days, with general availability following 120+ days after that. As such, we won't see Windows Home Server in action until the second half of the year. Minimum system requirements are quite low: 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 80GB of free space on the primary drive, and an Ethernet connection.

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News source: ARS Technicia

Oooo this is very interesting. Gonna have a play with it when I can get my hands on it.

I was debating on putting Server 2k3 on my soon to be unused computer...but this may be a better idea.

This is actually pretty cool. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

More detailed info:

http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/archi...-the-day-after/

And at Paul's site:

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/whs_preview.asp

This product is actually one of the more exiting things coming to home computing in the next year or so; features like dynamic storage, automated backups, remote access - these are the necessary "next steps" to keeping the data infrastructures many people have in their homes safe and useable. Sure, it'll be a small crowd for the first generation, but as disk space continues to drop in price (less than $400 for a 1TB drive!) it will make more and more sense to people to use a centralized storage system for their data. It makes a lot more sense to spend $500 on a basic PC with a large drive in it that you stick in a closet and forget about than it does to buy storage upgrades for each PC in the house. Throw in the now-available PowerLine AV 100Mbit over AC power networking and wireless networks, and all the pieces are there.

I want in on the beta!
I just wonder if you'll be able to create a domain and manage users like win2k3

It will have user accounts (up to 10), but it's not going to be domains because of the client OSes (XP and Vista home can't join domains, of course). Not a lot of detail on that aspect as of yet, but there a lot of mention of tie-ins with Windows Live ID, so maybe it will be using that to identifiy users.

But long as it has user management on some level, I'll be happy.

sound like it is windows starter edition meets windows 2003 sever and windows home sever is their bastard love child. And if your counrty gets it you live in a "emerging nation".

sounds nice indeed , perhaps it could run on a old 800mhz thingy i got stashed away here ^^

They're recommending more, but there's no reason it couldn't if it's based of 2k3 server provided it has enough RAM and disk space (minimum is 1GB/80 GB).

hmm, why do they say 1gig now?? if i remember correctly win2k3 runs fine on a 133mhz...


http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003...qs/default.mspx

Looks like the perfect solution for my house. I'll be curious to see what other features WHS will have. IIS anyone?

Is this to be built around/for the Castle Network configuration mentioned (cryptically) in the Vista beta days?

For the base OS, yes, but this will be a web server, file server, limited DC, backup host, dynamic file system, and who knows what else on the same box. Services need RAM, you know.

rams Sure, i know, its more the speed,

Sounds like it'll be a really cut down version of 2k3 sbs, sbs is more less wizard based instead of role based like the other versions of 2k3...but as long as it's based on 2k3's server core it should be reliable i believe

Not really. SBS is Server 2k3 + Exchange + SQL + STS + WSUS + ISA for a maximum of 50 users.

This product seems to be 2k3 + limited ISA + some functions of Windows Storage Server + System Center Data Protection Manager + STS for up to 10 users.

There's a little commonality there, but they're not really comparable.

any ideas when this may be released for beta testing? I'd love to apply and test that. I have a machine ready and waiting

yeah i got 1 too..., though i still have 2 VLK key for 2003 server, if i could run this on a pc i got... it would be waaay nicer

Heads up, fill in the survey:

http://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer

I prefer to build my own server using Windows 2003 Standard edition, and i can use something like DPM or Acronis to backup my data.

any pre's before you can sign-up? cuz i get i'm not allowed to....

Dumb question..how'd you spot that? I was searching the connections page, and see no sign of the sign up for it

Monkey be surveyed

Thanks Man

http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/archiv...ta-2-is-go.aspx

7 PCs in my home and a spare AthlonXP 2100+, system hopefully that makes me a good candidate

Yea, I got 5 with an Athlon XP 2000+. 1.5GB RAM...Gimme a chance

3000+ amd64, only need to get some ram ^^, i'll be set2go , lol

Quick heads up, if your a part of the Windows Longhorn Server Beta Program check the .announcements group on the newsgroups. Different survey for the same beta.

someone pm me the link because im too lazy to set up my newsgroup account

Wahheey!! I'm in!!

Greetings from the Windows Home Server Team

You have been approved to be in the Windows Home Server Beta program.


To accept this invitation and apply to become a member of this program, please follow these steps:

1) Use your Internet connection to visit the Microsoft Connect Web site (http://connect.microsoft.com).

2) Click Invitations on the Connect menu.

3) You will need to sign in using a valid Windows Live ID before you can continue to the Invitations page.

4) Enter your Invitation ID in the box.

Your invitation ID is: xxx-xxx-xxxx

5) Click Go.

6) If you have not previously registered with Microsoft Connect, you might be required to register before you continue with the invitation process.

Follow the steps shown to you by that program to apply to become an active participant. (You may be asked to take a survey, or complete other activities.)

On the Windows Home Server Connect site you will find:


Product Documentation

Windows Home Server Software

Product Keys

Links for submitting bugs & suggestions
If you have any issues submitting bugs, product suggestions, or using the Windows Home Server Connect site, please contact the Windows Home Server Beta team at

I'm in too

Greetings from the Windows Home Server Team
You have been approved to be in the Windows Home Server Beta program.

To accept this invitation and apply to become a member of this program, please follow these steps:

1) Use your Internet connection to visit the Microsoft Connect Web site (http://connect.microsoft.com).

2) Click Invitations on the Connect menu.

3) You will need to sign in using a valid Windows Live ID before you can continue to the Invitations page.

4) Enter your Invitation ID in the box.

Your invitation ID is: XXX-XXXX-XXXX

5) Click Go.

6) If you have not previously registered with Microsoft Connect, you might be required to register before you continue with the invitation process.

Follow the steps shown to you by that program to apply to become an active participant. (You may be asked to take a survey, or complete other activities.)

On the Windows Home Server Connect site you will find:
• Product Documentation
• Windows Home Server Software
• Product Keys
• Links for submitting bugs & suggestions
If you have any issues submitting bugs, product suggestions, or using the Windows Home Server Connect site, please contact the Windows Home Server Beta team at mailto:WHSBeta@microsoft.com

Thanks a lot,

Kevin Beares
Community Lead

I'm in too!

I'm in!

well made soem screenies... nothing really spectacular i guess..

http://xtremeweb-hosting.net/WHSB2/

njoy!

Sucks... they didn't contact me.

So...Is there a short & simple answer as to what to what can be "legally" posted here regarding WHS beta 2?

aka its allowed

Cool Thanks.

Interesting bit of Trivia;

Can you join WHS to a Domain?

Yes!

Should you join WHS to a Domain?

No!

It breaks IIS's ability to authenticate users and renders the web administrative interface useless...Which is rather bad for a headless device (TS/RDCc did still work however).

I also noticed that IIS installs with the SMTP service No default SMTP server configured, but there is a very stripped down interface for creating one...and No POP3, are there plans for "Home" Email hosting?

so what ya think of it? found some thing, lill anoying, if you think ok now i'm done, remove the DVD, it'll just restart a few times... then if it tries to acces the DVDm it just says cant file xxxx and setup stops (if you insert DVD then restart the server) installation continue's just fine..

has anyone had a chance to really play with this? I'm waiting on a new drive I ordered this last week to install it.
is it pretty cool? is it beta quality, or better? Just curious, I'm looking forward to messing with it

well its build on top of NT5.2, so its kinda just a upgrade, like a beta service pack, it has some glitches, yet its just cuz the new features aren't fully tested (we do that )

If you have a domain running at home, odds are you won't need WHS.

I never said it was a good idea ... I'm just sharing that I tried it ... and it went badly.

It installed for me in 1hr, 10minutes without any problems.

Be for-warned tho... It Will Format All Your (2) HDDS if you have 2 installed. There is No Getting Around It.

The Client software installed very easily & the backups ran fine.

I installed it on this old clunker P3 i was using for testing Vista Starter Edition on.

P3 Test Rig specs:
Dell 4100 Series, P3 CPU @ 1 GHz.
512 MB SDRAM

That's good to know that it formats all drives in the system, I would have destroyed my Vista install. Right now I'm torn because I want to use my spare machine as a media center, but the benefits of WHS would be really nice as well. I've got the Media Center right now, and we'll have to see how well WHS works and which configuration I like best.

Okay...Here's the rig it's running on:
Dell Dimension 4600
CPU: P4 2.4Ghz
RAM: 1GB PC3200
HDD: 80Gig IDE

Now, install took about an hour, rebooted about 20 times, insisted on wiping the drive, and was otherwise rather painless. I setup 3 WinXP Pro VPCs on my Dual Xeon Vista box (all in a workgroup) browsed to the software share on the WHS installed the connector software, and ran an initial backup of all 3 machines.

While the backups insisted on running one at a time (I set all three off at once to see what would happen) it only took about 30min to backup all 3 machines. Used space on each machine was 2.51GB (They're clones...) however the total space used on the server for the 3 backups was only 1.56GB ... Which mean MS is doing a hell of a good job of compressing the backups I'd say.

Once backups have been run, they're browsable (for restore purposes) via the WHS admin console. ...This is a bit flakey however as the client machine crashed once while trying to open the backup file.

By default only one person can connect to the WHS admin console at a time.

I'm currently also using it for as a print server for the 3 clients, and setup, share, and connection all went flawlessly. It's as close to idiot proof as anything I've ever seen...and when this thing hits the market as a headless appliance, it's gona seriously kick ass!