Your home network contains vital files for your life in today's digital world — photos, records, personal correspondence, music. This guide shows you how to back up those files and access them from anywhere using Windows Home Server. It helps you define your needs and choose the right product, install and set up Windows Home Server, create and use accounts and permissions, manage automatic backups, set up a system to facilitate data storage, recover lost data, and keep your network healthy.
Windows ® Home Server Protect and Simplify Your Digital Life Rick Hallihan 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page i 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page iii Windows ® Home Server Protect and Simplify Your Digital Life Rick Hallihan 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page i Windows ® Home Server: Protect and Simplify Your Digital Life Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-18625-1 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hallihan, Rick, 1977– Windows home server : protect and simplify your digital life / Rick Hallihan. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-470-18625-1 (pbk.) 1. Microsoft Windows server. 2. Operating systems (Computers) 3. Home computer networks — Computer programs. I. 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All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page ii For Tammy whose loving support made this book possible 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page iii Credits EXECUTIVE EDITOR Chris Webb DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Kelly Talbot TECHNICAL EDITOR Mark Justice Hinton PRODUCTION EDITOR Kathryn Duggan COPY EDITOR Mildred Sanchez EDITORIAL MANAGER Mary Beth Wakefield PRODUCTION MANAGER Tim Tate VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE GROUP PUBLISHER Richard Swadley VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Joseph B. Wikert PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER Lynsey Osborn COMPOSITOR Craig Woods, Happenstance Type-O-Rama PROOFREADER C.M. Jones, Jones Editorial Services INDEXER Melanie Belkin ANNIVERSARY LOGO DESIGN Richard Pacifico 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page iv About the Author Rick Hallihan is an industry expert with a wide range of experience in technology, networking, and software development. Over the years he has developed software using Java, C, C++, and C#. Rick also has experience managing servers running Linux, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows Server 2003, including Active Directory and Group Policy management, and building networks with Cisco routing and networking hardware. In addition, Rick has been an active technology enthusiast for many years. He has been blogging about Microsoft technologies and the Internet since March 2004. His blog can be found at http://onemanshouting.com . In January 2006, Rick was selected by Microsoft to participate in “Search Champs,” a collection of industry participants that meet in Redmond, WA, to learn about, discuss, and provide feedback on Microsoft’s Internet-oriented products and services. Rick began his involvement with Microsoft’s Windows Home Server unknowingly with a blog post in January 2005, where he outlined a vision for a “Windows Server, Home Edition” that would leverage Microsoft’s Small Business Server platform. Little did Rick know that Microsoft was already hard at work building something similar. Soon after Windows Home Server was announced to the public, Rick was afforded the opportunity to discuss the product in-depth with Charlie Kindel, Microsoft’s general manager for Windows Home Server, mostly because of that predictive posting that he had made two years before. Because of his involvement with the community, Rick was granted Microsoft’s MVP Award for Windows Home Server. Rick looks forward to being part of the emerging community that is devel- oping around Windows Home Server. About the Technical Editor Mark Justice Hinton has worked as a computer professional for more than 25 years, including 20 years of teaching computer classes for the University of New Mexico. Mark has helped thousands of students and clients get more out of their computers in areas from DOS to Windows Vista, as well as (X)HTML and Web development. Working for clients and students — and just out of curiosity — Mark digs deeply into under- standing and explaining how things work and why they don't always. Mark has been the technical editor for six books for Wiley. He is the author of PC Magazine Windows Vista Solutions (Wiley, 2007). His blog is www.mjhinton.com/help/ . 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page v Contents at a Glance Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Chapter 1 Introducing Windows Home Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 2 Your Digital Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Chapter 3 Selecting Your Home Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Chapter 4 Setting Up Your Home Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Chapter 5 Getting Started with Windows Home Server . . . . . . . 57 Chapter 6 Creating and Using Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Chapter 7 Creating and Managing Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Chapter 8 Digital Spring-Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Chapter 9 The Center of Your Digital Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Chapter 10 Recovering Lost Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Chapter 11 Remotely Accessing Files and Computers . . . . . . . . 187 Chapter 12 Taking Care of Your Home Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Chapter 13 Security and Your Home Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Chapter 14 Expanding Your Windows Home Server . . . . . . . . . 249 Appendix A Finding More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page vi Contents Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Chapter 1 Introducing Windows Home Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Simple Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Your Files, Anywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Seamless Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Network Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Who Needs a Home Server? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Understanding What WHS Isn’t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Chapter 2 Your Digital Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Developing a Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Key Ideas for Organizing Your Digital Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Committing to Using Centralized Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Understanding Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Creating Your Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 A Warning about Unsorted Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Organizing Your Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 How Can Windows Home Server Help? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Centralized and Easily Accessible Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Predefined Shared Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 User-Defined Shared Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Personal Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Search Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 A Living Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Chapter 3 Selecting Your Home Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Buying or Building Your Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Choosing a Prebuilt Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 OEM/Retail Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 System Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Other Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Building Your Own Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Satisfaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 86251ftoc.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page vii . Windows ® Home Server Protect and Simplify Your Digital Life Rick Hallihan 86251ffirs.qxd:ModifiedPCMagazine 11/27/07 9:28 AM Page i Windows ® Home Server: . instructions and recommenda- tions that will allow you to bring a Windows Home Server into your home, connect it to your home network, and make the most of your digital