Where’s your Windows Home Server?
January 25, 2008 – 9:49 pmWhere do you keep your WHS?
In the office servers are kept in the “server” room, with the noticeable exception of probably only a handful of people (Mr Gates?) most people don’t have a server room at home (we can only dream). Given that the home server is meant to be used but not really seen it makes sense to hide it away somewhere, as I use a Shuttle for my WHS there is some fan noise so I don’t like to have it in my study where I keep my desktop PC. There is one snag with hiding it away in a far away room, and that’s that WHS has to be connected to the router via a cable, wireless is not an option. I could of course also hide my router away with the WHS, but I’m an old fashioned guy and I like my desktop PC to be connected via cable to the router. So, I like my PC to be connected via a cable, and WHS has to be connected via a cable, so that kinda limits where it can go, the wife would not be pleased with network cable trailing up the stairs to the server room….sorry, the spare bedroom.
There is another option, and this involves using HomePlugs. HomePlugs allow network devices to communicate using the existing power lines within your home. You’ll need a pair, and they’ll set you back about £45 ($90). Before I splashed out the cash I borrowed a pair of HomePlugs (eConnect Turbo) from my mate Tony, if you don’t know a Tony, then try other friends, the geekier the better (try an Andy, or a Dave), don’t bother asking any girls, at best you’ll be wasting your time, at worst you’ll spend 1/2 a day trying to explain the technology behind network transmissions over power lines, and how cool you think it is (by the way, this will not help you pull).
Anyway, I managed to get my hands on a pair of HomePlugs, spec’d to work at 85Mbit/s. I knew they were never going to reach this transfer rate, but I was still interested in seeing if it worked at all. My main concern was the fact that I wanted to put my WHS in my annexe, which had a separate consumer unit to the main house, so not exactly on the same ring main. To my surprise it worked, it was truly plug and play.
As for the transfer rate, it was not great, typically around 1.2MB/s (about 10Mbit/s, so quite a bit below the maximum of 85Mbit/s), but more than enough for streaming a Divx Movie (typically less than 0.3MB/s). Not really a perfect solution for moving around large files though. I’m using WHS as part of the 120-day trial, if I finally decide to take the plunge and buy WHS then I think it will be time to get out the drill and buy some cable (assuming Tony doesn’t have any spare of course)
As for the answer to my own question, “where do you keep your WHS?”, I keep mine on the kitchen floor in my annexe.
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2 Responses to “Where’s your Windows Home Server?”
Well you want to see were mine is. Only had it for 2 days set up and put a 80 and 160 GB drives on it. Looks like it’s working very good. Backed up my computer in the night a 320 GB one. I did not think it would have room. But it has about 30 GB left. I hope the next backup it just makes a small file with only the changes in it. That would be neat to restore from a lot of other day backups.
Here my pic.
[IMG]http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l41/RaymondDay/WindowsHomeServer/Temp-WHS.jpg[/IMG]
-Raymond Day
By Raymond Day on Feb 8, 2008