A Fresh Start

Last week I described some of the initial steps I took in rebooting my home network.  This was not a project lightly undertaken, but there were several specific factors that made me decide the time was right.  My router was failing and I had been itching for a reason to upgrade my router and switches with gigabit equipment.  I had also decided it was time to engage in some major expansions.  At the start of this project, there were four computers on my network.  I had given each of my little boys their own computers for their birthdays last year, my wife and I shared a laptop, and I had a laptop from work where I did most of my computing.  My oldest son had inherited my old desktop and household media center for his birthday.  The plan had been to build a new desktop and household media center for myself.  A year later, I still had not followed through on this plan because I can be a bit of a cheapskate, but my son was starting to talk about upgrading to play some of the new games coming out.  Pleased that my geek-in-training was also following in my PC gaming footsteps, I was obliged to comply. 

Or so I told him.  A dad can never pass up an opportunity to score some brownie points.  The reality was that I had decided that it was finally time to add a WHS machine to the network and bring a full fledged WMC machine back into the living room for reasons that I will expand upon in a future article.  I built a new machine for my older son, passed his machine onto his less demanding little brother, and took little brother’s relatively old Athlon 64 3000+ desktop to turn into a WHS.  I know that in time I will want replace this machine with something quieter and more power-efficient, but this system has been a work horse for years, has plenty of SATA and IDE connections, and I see little reason to let it go just yet.  Besides, I wanted to save the budget to build the WMC which, taking up station in the living room, I wanted to make as cool and quiet as possible.

This was to be my first WHS installation, but I had been living the WHS lifestyle vicariously through WGS, so I already knew there were two things I wanted to do to the computers on my network before adding the new server.  First, as I reset every computer’s OS, I prepared the system user accounts.  I described the value of a well planned network naming scheme last week, and the same principle applies to user accounts.  I wanted every member of my family to be able to personalize their computing experience and, particularly for my kids’ computers, ensure that I have complete access and control over the systems as the network administrator.  I set up every system with a single administrator account with the same name.  It is possible to simply rely on the “Administrator” account built into Windows, but I like to reserve it for last resort troubleshooting access.  After every system had an administrator account, I added limited user accounts for every person that required access to each computer.  Of course, the key to all of these user accounts was making sure that each had a password that would meet the Windows requirements for a strong password.  Once I installed WHS and started adding users, I could coordinate the passwords on the client user accounts and on the server user accounts.  By using the same password on both sides, your family members will immediately gain access to the shared folders on the server without having to go through a logon prompt.  This configuration requires at least medium level passwords by default, but enabling remote access will require strong passwords.  The second thing I did was install SyncToy.

Finally, Windows Home Server

Basic System Specs:

Ati Radeon xPress 200 motherboard

Athlon 64 3000+

1gb DDR memory

2 x 500gb 7200.10 hard drives

Lite-on DVD/RW optical drive

I had anticipated this moment for many months.  I have dragged you, the reader, through 2 1/2 long-winded articles to reach this point.  Now, prepare yourself, for the anti-climax.  Installing Windows Home Server was the most uninteresting and least challenging OS install I have performed in years.

It had been a while since I installed Windows XP, but the WHS installation GUI brought immediate flashbacks.  I followed the prompts and cruised the Internet on my laptop while I waited.  The two hard drives in the system were the same size, so it did not matter which one I installed on.  Had they been different sizes, I would have installed the OS on the larger drive.  One thing to keep in mind about WHS is that any data you send to the server lands on the primary hard drive first.  Only after it is cached to the primary drive does it then get distributed out across the disks by the Drive Extender technology that WHS uses in lieu of traditional RAID systems, so you should always install WHS on the largest drive in your system.  I had to change the name of the workgroup and the server to match my network naming scheme, set the time and date, and set the administrator password.  I was left looking at the WHS console.

I fiddled around with the console for a while, checking out the settings that I had only read about and just generally getting a feel for where everything lay.  I set up the user accounts and permissions for remote access and share access.  Setting share access is probably the trickiest part when preparing WHS for a family.  It can be difficult to try to explain the concept of permissions to an experienced user, so I wanted to try to avoid this discussion with my family.  On the other hand, it only takes one unexpected failed access attempt for some people to assume that the whole system is too complicated and that it might be better just to ignore it in the future.  My wife often takes the ugly middle path.  If something computer-related fails to work the first time, she will personally ask me to help her with it every time thereafter, no matter how many years it might have been since I resolved the issue, all on the grounds that it did not always work for her.  Consider carefully what kind of access each user will need for any given folder.

I then set about installing the WHS connector software on my laptop.  Unaware that I could access the connector software as a download from the server, I installed the connector software from the CD that came in the package.  A reboot later I was taken to the intranet page the server provides and was tipped off on how to install the most recent connector software remotely for the rest of the PCs.  As long as you set up WHS to automatically download and install updates, one thing it will always keep up to date in its shared software folder is the most recent copy of the connector software.  You can access this directly by opening your server through the network workgroup and exploring the software folder.  Alternatively, if your router is set up to utilize UPnP, WHS will show up in your network neighborhood as a UPnP device.  Opening WHS this way will bring you to the WHS intranet homepage where you can download the connector software from the server.  And so I did, making the rounds through the house, installing the connector software on each PC and setting up the backups for each computer as part of the connector software installation.  I knew I could simply run a manual backup, but it was late, so I left every system on that first night to complete their first backups automatically.

The next morning, I again made the rounds.  It was almost time to introduce my wife to the new server, but there were a few last preparations to make.  First, I made certain to save that first backup permanently.  WHS will try to back up your systems every night, keeping one every week for a set number of weeks and one every month for a set number of months.  You can control the schedule in the settings tab of the WHS console, but WHS backups will slowly replace one another over time.  This means you can only restore your system to the same condition as your oldest backup.  I wanted one backup to preserve the original, fairly pristine conditions of the freshly installed OS, just in case.  Under normal conditions I would have made a backup image of each system, but I wanted to try my hand at relying exclusively on WHS.  In this matter, the most I had to lose was an initial system configuration.  You should be guided by your own experiences, but either way, having a clean restore on hand is always nice.  To permanently save a WHS backup, you need only open the Computers & Backup tab on the WHS console, select the computer you want to work with, and select View Backups.  You will be presented with a list of all of the saved backups for that computer.  In my case, I only had the one.  I clicked the Keep this backup radio button, clicked OK to close the dialog and repeated for each computer.

I also set up SyncToy on every system.  WHS backups do offer the option of restoring individual files, but it is a painfully slow and tedious process that can really only be undertaken by you, the network administrator.  Every user has their own space on WHS to save files, but WHS does not offer any built-in folder synch process.  If your family members do not diligently save all of their documents to the server, or work on a document while away from the network and cannot access the server, someone has to manually synch the document to the server.  This is where SyncToy comes in.  SyncToy is a free PowerToy from Microsoft that works on Windows XP and Vista and is designed specifically to automate the synching of two folders, wherever those two folders exist.  The best part, besides being free, is that SyncToy can be set up as a scheduled task to run automatically at any time one wants.

I mapped a network drive for every user, connected to their share on the server, but I knew that realistically most documents would be saved to the local drive in the default documents folder.  For each user account on each computer, I set up SyncToy to synch the entire documents folder with the user share on the server.  The desktops were set to go to sleep rather than shut down.  I already have the family trained to turn off their monitors, speakers, and whatever other accessories at the end of their session.  Shutting the computers down completely would save a few watts, but as long as the computer goes into a full S3 standby mode, the difference should only be several watts an hour.  I then set up SyncToy as a scheduled task to run every night before the system’s backup time with the server.  Laptops are a bit trickier and it will probably fall to you, again as network administrator, to play an active role in managing their power state at night to ensure that backups and file synchs occur on a regular basis.  Personally, I leave our two laptops on together on Saturday night, connected to power and a hardwired network connection to avoid any network dropouts and speed up the backup process.  It is, of course, possible to leave these concerns to the laptop owner, but it would still be advisable to monitor the back up status of any family laptops through WHS and step in as necessary.

I was now ready to introduce the server to my wife.  I cornered my wife with my laptop in hand, proudly demonstrating to her how I could connect to the server through the WHS console, could access all of the shared content through the shared folders shortcut on the desktop, store backups for every computer in the house, and save documents directly to the server or use SyncToy to synch the two folders.  I explained that SynchToy would also complete the synchronization automatically as long as documents were saved in the documents folder.  I also pointed out how Media Center would be available on every computer and would access everything from the server.  I explained that the best part was that she would never have to do anything to make all of this work properly.  She then asked me how this was better than what we had before.

Next week I will delve into the topic of building the new WMC machine for the living room and how I went about tying WHS and WMC together throughout the house.

• Configuring Windows Home Server: User Accounts
• Windows Home Server Video Training from Scott Lowe and Train Signal
• Configuring Windows Home Server: Adding a Shared Folder
• WHS: Beta 2 - What’s in the Package?
• Windows Home Server: Protect and Simplify Your Digital Life Now Available

The Ad-hoc Network Restored to Glory

Last week, I described my network as a disorganized mess of a network with inconsistent network setups, out of synch OS installations, and no coherent backup and monitoring strategy.  I had finally decided to add a Windows Home Server and had come to the uncomfortable conclusion that I was beyond the point of rehabilitating my network.  My first task was to reboot this network and prep the network for the introduction of Windows Home Server.  It began with the router.

I put together my first home network in 1997 so that I could practice for the MSCE exams.  My house has not been without one since.  In 2001, I hired electricians to brave the desert summer heat and my tiny crawlspace of an attic to install a wired network.  In those days, hiring electricians to run several hundred feet of Cat 5 cable resulted in a network that was 10X faster than a wireless network, available in every room of the house without dropping a connection, and only about 3/4 the price.  A couple of years ago my friend, Jose, helped me replace that cabling with Cat 6 in exchange for assisting him wire his house.  A wired network might still be capable of operating 10X faster than a wireless network, but you won’t necessarily see a difference in connectivity or bandwidth and, even doing all the wiring yourself, you probably won’t save any money.  In fact, you will probably have a hard time finding a decent router that does not come with all the wireless capability that most people need.

This is a testament to how rapidly wireless networking has developed and matured.  If you have already wired your domicile, then I would encourage you to make use of it.  Streaming media to multiple rooms can task any network and can be doubly tasking when you start throwing HD into the mix, but it probably is not worthwhile to wire the average house anymore.  In my case, I already had the wiring and needed to replace an ailing router, so I chose my new router accordingly.  If you are looking for a new router, or running an 802.11b-only wireless network, in which case you should be looking for a new router, then it is time to go for 802.11n.  802.11n allows for the range, the bandwidth, and the backward compatibility that every good home network will need for several years.  I know, the box says it is still a draft specification.  At this point, Draft N has become so commonplace and so closely aligned with what we will probably see when the 802.11n spec does get finalized, that it is meaningless to worry about it. 

If you are running on 802.11g, it might be better to hold off on a hardware upgrade until you have reached the point where you are regularly saturating your bandwidth, but I do have some advice for anyone contemplating following my lead with a network reboot: reset your router to factory spec and check with your manufacturer for firmware upgrades.  If you are rebooting your network, you are going to end up resetting the networking info on all of your computers anyway and you might be surprised by the features and security settings that your router provides that you did not notice or know how to use the first time around.  Like anything else related to computers, the more you play with networked devices, the better you will become at planning, deploying, and securing your network.

I selected the D-Link DIR 655 for my new router.  It received a thumbs-up in the WGS forums for auto-configuring with WHS, offered 802.11n and gigabit switching, and recently received a firmware upgrade from D-Link that allows the user to set the wireless radio to shut down during unattended periods to help conserve electricity.  It won’t save the world, but I am sucker for “green” computing.  I wanted to spring for one of the newer dual-band routers that operate at both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz because I have so many wireless networks in my area and it would have been nice to avoid the spectrum congestion.  Consider carefully before going with a dual band router that has to be switched between frequencies manually.  You can spend a pretty penny outfitting your entire network with 5 GHz adapters and you will be giving up one of the big advantages of 802.11n: automatic backward compatibility with 802.11b/g devices.  There are a few new routers that can broadcast in both bands simultaneously, but I ultimately could not justify the exorbitant price tag of these dual band routers and the adapters to take advantage of the 5GHz spectrum. 

Whether starting with a new router or resetting an existing router, there are several suggestions I would make in setting up your router for an effective and easy to troubleshoot home network.   First, change the default password on the administration interface so that no one can access your router’s configuration.  Leaving your wi-fi connection as an open access point is a purely personal choice, but there is no reason for anyone to muck around with your router settings.  What’s more, you can lock down your signal any way you want, if someone can dial in the default IP address of your router and walk right into the configuration, there is no security on your network. 

Next, learn how to establish or reserve a static IP address.  Every modern router will use DHCP to assign IP addresses automatically to your network devices, but sometimes it is important to bypass DHCP and make sure that your device’s IP never changes.  WHS is an example of one such device.  Some firewall software can also get cranky when networked computers change IP addresses, though this is not as much of an issue as it once was.  I personally like to assign static IP addresses to all of my desktops and networked devices.  It is rather old school and largely unnecessary with a modern OS and router, but is a choice that can make monitoring your network easier.  Many routers only record the IP and MAC address of connected computers and some devices do not provide a name for routers, so knowing exactly what device was at which IP address at a given time can make troubleshooting easier.

Finally, create a naming and description plan before you start deploying computers on the network.  Again, this is a personal management issue, but a consistent naming scheme will help you monitor the health of your network and troubleshoot the devices on your network.  It will also help make your network less threatening to your family and help them understand and appreciate the network in a profound way.  For instance, I once set up a home network using Harry Potter references.  The network was named Hogwarts; the parents’ computer was Dumbledore; the eldest boy’s computer was Potter; the eldest daughter’s computer was Hermione; the ratty old laptop that kept crashing was Snape.  It is cheesy, but there was never any question for that family about which computer was doing what or where to find a shared folder and I know from follow-up conversations that family, which was not at all computer literate, had a personal understanding of how their network was set up and could talk about their network in a comfortable manner.

Because I wanted to reboot my network in as pristine a state as possible, I did several things before rolling it out.  I mapped out where I would need switches and upgraded to gigabit switches where necessary.  I again chose D-Link for the switches, blindly following their “green” marketing pitch.  I then backed up all of the data on the network.  I happened to have a 1Tb Western Digital World Book drive to use as a data dump, but in times past I have simply designated a particular system.  I then picked the desktop that I was going to configure the router with and would be assigning the first static IP to.  I chose to completely wipe the system and reinstall Vista.  Indeed, I would eventually wipe and reinstall every system in the house before attaching it to the network.  This is an extreme measure and I imagine most people will not follow in my path.  I chose this path because I was determined to start my life with WHS with as well-organized a network and data set as possible, right down to the backup images of the individual systems.  If you do not want to go this path, I would still suggest starting with only one system connected to the router.  Before you add each system to the network, completely erase all of your old network settings.  There is nothing worse than rolling out a network and meticulously crafting a naming scheme and setting permissions, only find some of your systems connecting with old network settings that have default priority.

With my first desktop restored to pristine condition and the router set up to my personal satisfaction, I started adding computers one at a time.  Because I wanted to assign static IPs to my desktops, I added those first.  Most routers will assign IP addresses sequentially and for management purposes I wanted my static IPs blocked together.  Though you can usually assign any IP address you want, I did not want any randomly assigned IP addresses to get in the way of establishing my block.  With the desktops out of the way, it was time to start adding the devices that I wanted to give static IPs to.  In my case, this was only my Xbox 360 and Zunes, but your mileage may vary.  With the static IPs assigned, I added the laptops to the network.

I had reconstituted my network.  I had made it faster, more reliable, more secure, and more consistent.  Choosing to reset the OS on every system meant that I knew every system was set up just right for a stable starting configuration and was ripe for an image backup.  My network had a consistent naming and addressing scheme and was thoroughly secured to my satisfaction.  The last device I had to add was my new Windows Home Server.  This was to be my first personal experience installing and setting up WHS, and I will detail my experiences next time.

• Linksys WRT610N Dual Band Router Coming to Europe
• FAQ: Windows Home Server and Port Forwarding
• Add-in: DHCP for Windows Home Server
• How To: Improve Wireless Security With Windows Home Server
• New Linksys Powerline Network Adaptors Announced

We are holding a FREE All Day training event at the Microsoft office in Waltham, Ma in partnership with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.

The event is called “The Connected Home Day”. It’s a full day training for novice computer users who want to learn how to build and secure a home network, use Microsoft Media Center to it’s full potential and use Windows Home Server to store and backup their important documents and precious Digital Photos and Videos. We will also be covering the Analog to Digital conversion in Feb 2009 and what it means to the average person.

It sounds like it would be a nice event to go to and learn a thing or 2.  Being that it is sponsored in part by Microsoft, I would not be surprised if they had free copy of something for the attendees.  I wonder if my company needs anyone in that area in mid-September…

• Join Microsoft and HP Online to Hear About the HP MediaSmart Server
• Join Me on June 25th For An Add-Ins Webinar With HP and Microsoft
• Windows Home Server Session at TechEd 2007
• Budding Photographers - Learn How to Integrate Windows Home Server Into Your Workflow
• Add-in: Digital ArchHound for Windows Home Server

Coming Soon to a shop near you!

Yes it’s true. We’re finally getting a fully fledged dual-band router in Europe that’s affordable. Since Linksys still hasn’t released the WRT600N router in these parts I’m pretty damn anxious to get my hands on this baby. You’re probably wondering why I’m so excited about this. Well I’ll first explain what so special about this router.

It’s dual band, so that means it can simultaneously transmit in the 5 GHz band and the standard 2,4 GHz band. This is especially useful for High Definition Media Playback over a wireless connection (think: Media Center extender in the bedroom, Wireless Media Center PC in the living room and a WHS in the closet serving the content.)

All this High Definition playback takes place on the 5 GHz band so it won’t interfere with the normal webbrowsing, e-mailing and chatting going on in your household.

It’s certified for B/G/N (draft 2.0) standards so it’s compatible with all your current wireless devices. Best part? The older devices won’t interfere with the newer N devices because the router will switch all N devices to the 5 GHz band so that they can maintain their high transfer speeds.

Me personally? I would buy this router in an instant if it was fully compatible with the DD-WRT opensource firmware. The good people at DD-WRT are working on it but it might take some time. I especially like the idea of serving HD content all over the house wireless and considering you get a Gigabit switch and a Storage Link (so you can hook up an harddisk to the router and access the files from any pc in the network) I wouldn’t call $200 a bad price.

But my main reason for buying would be Wireless Backups to my WHS box since it’s difficult to wire my house and I’m sure there are other out there with the same problem. I wouldn’t be enjoying the full speeds of a wired gigabit network but it beats the hell out of my standard 54g network and I’m sure that everyone who’s ever attempted a full backup over wireless will agree with me.

• Hands-On Review: Linksys DMA-2200 Extender for Windows Media Center
• Using a Digital Media Receiver With Windows Home Server
• CES 2008: HP to Announce HP MediaSmart Receiver with Extender for Windows Media Center Support
• HP MediaSmart Connect X280N Now Available to Pre-Order at $349.99
• New Linksys Powerline Network Adaptors Announced

You’ll probably know that Windows Home Server is meant to be able to configure remote access for your router if it supports uPnP, but in fact, this only seems to work with some routers. If you’re having problems with your existing router, make sure you’re running the latest firmware for the router, as this can work miracles.

So, if Windows Home Server auto-configured your router, then please visit the forums and let us know your router’s name and model number. If you have a firmware/hardware revision to hand, then that’s useful too. If you see a router listed that you do not believe auto-configures, it may be that you’re runner a different version of the router’s firmware. Please check the forum to see who submitted the router and contact them via the Personal Messaging system to check which firmware they’re using. Then let me know so I can update the list.

Update: List Updated 25th April 2008

So far we have:

• 3 Com 3CRWDR100A-72 (UK) (Firmware 2.06)
• 3Com 3CRWE554G72T (UK)
• Actiontec MI424-WR
• Asus WL-700gE (UK)
• Belkin N1 (UK)
• Belkin F5D7230-4 (UK)
• D-Link DGL-4100 (UK)
• D-Link DGL-4300 (UK)
• D-Link DGL-4500
• D-Link DI-524 (UK)
• D-Link DI-634M (UK)
• D-Link DIR-625 (Firmware 1.09)
  
• D-Link DIR-635 (UK)
• D-Link DIR-655 (UK)
• Dynalink RTA1025W
• Linksys BEFSR41 (UK)
• Linksys BEFSR81 (UK)
• Linksys BEFSX41 v.2 (UK)
• Linksys BEFW11S4 (UK)
• Linksys RT31P2
• Linksys WRT54G (UK)
• Linksys WRT54GL (UK) (v1.1)
• Linksys WRT150N (UK)
• Linksys WRT300N (UK)
• Linksys WRT350N (UK)
• Linksys WRT600N
• Linksys WRVS4400N (UK)
• Microsoft MN-500
• Microsoft MN-700
• Netcomm NB6PLUS4W
• Netgear DG834 (UK)
• Netgear FVS318 (UK)
• Netgear GT834GT
• Netgear WGR614 (HW v.6,7) (UK)
• Netgear WGT624 (UK) (V3, Firmware V4.2.10_1.0.1)
• Netgear WPN824 (UK)
• Sitecom WL-153
• SMC SMCWGBR14-N (Firmware 1.0.0.13) (UK)
• Thomson SpeedTouch 585i (UK)
• TRENDnet TEW-633GR
• TP Link TP-WR541G (UK)
• US Robotics USR8200
• Xincom XC-DPG502 (FW 2.1)
• Zyxel P-334WT
• Zyxel P-2602R-D1A
• Zyxel P-2602HW-D1A
• Zyxel X-550

Keep sending in your router models via the link below.

More Info: Routers That Successfully Auto-Configure with Windows Home Server (WGS Forums)

• HP’s Top 10 Recommended Routers for Windows Home Server
• FAQ: Windows Home Server and Port Forwarding
• Microsoft Windows Home Server Website Updated - Buy!
• D-Link DSM-750 Extender for Media Center Firmware Upgrade Now Available
• Back and Moving!