The Windows Home Server team, in conjunction with all of our partners, MVPs, and "Dogfooders" is extremely happy to announce that a Release Candidate of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 (Build 1771) is now available for public download and testing through Microsoft Connect!
There has been a huge amount of testing applied to Power Pack 1 already and we have high confidence that Power Pack 1 solves the data corruption bug that was first identified late last year (Knowledge Base article #946676). We are running this public beta with the aspiration that we will get thousands of beta testers to help us prove that we not only have fixed "the bug", but have significantly improved all parts of Windows Home Server with new features such as:
We will not ship the final release of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 until the community has validated our work. In the Release Documentation for Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 we outline a number of specific test scenarios. For us to feel our testing has been validated we need a large number of beta testers to work through these scenarios and regular home server operation for a period of time. Given the fantastic number of people who have signed up already (well ahead of the numbers we were hoping for), and how great the community has been in the past in helping us, I am confident we'll get enough testers. The only remaining question is how quickly those testers download the bits and start testing them.
The Windows Home Server Customer Improvement Program allows us to track metrics on product usage and we are anxiously watching how the product is used to gauge when we've hit our target...so we can begin the final release process.
So don't delay. Head on over to Microsoft Connect and sign-up (if you haven't already) and download and start testing Windows Home Server Power Pack 1. We've posted both an update package that can be applied to existing Windows Home Servers as well as updated DVD and CD ISO images of an evaluation version of Windows Home Server with Power Pack 1. If you choose to run the Release Candidate on a "production" home server you should make a backup of everything prior to getting started. Make sure you read the Release Documentation to see what's new and updated!
The Windows Home Server team has added a Power Pack 1 forum to the Windows Home Server Community forums. If you have questions about Power Pack 1, please go there to ask them. Cheers!
Charlie Kindel
Just noticed this announcement from HAI: http://www.homeauto.com/newsandevents/pressreleases/content/20080610WL3.asp
"WL3 for Windows Home Server...allows you to change your home’s temperatures, adjust the lights or security settings, or view any supported camera securely and easily. WL3 automatically configures supported UPnP IP cameras on your home network and allows you to manually configure other IP cameras on your network or cameras that reside anywhere on the Internet. It also allows you to view and record video from cameras in your home or from public IP cameras around town, such as traffic and weather cameras. Regardless of the brand of camera, the video is displayed in the WL3 format so that all camera feeds have a consistent look and feel. Easily select any camera, choose the frame rate and screen size, manually start and stop video recording, take a snapshot of the video image, and play, pause, or stop the video stream."
I've been a hard core home automation freak for a loooong time. My previous house boasted a mish-mash of stuff mostly based around X10, but my current house has a bunch of high-end systems (Lutron for lighting, Crestron for AV, Caddx for Security, Enerzone for HVAC, Panasonic for phone, and something I built myself for Irrigation and security cameras) all integrated together with a now-defunct, but amazingly well done, piece of software called Premise. By the way Premise works great on Windows Home Server but www.premisesystems.com appears to be offline for good :-(. With all this talk about "Smart Homes" I do need to disclose fully that my wife calls our house the "Stupid House". But I'll get it all working reliably any day now :-).
Windows Home Server provides a phenomenal platform for home control and it is great to see multiple vendors embracing it and providing consumers with solutions:
This category is just one of the dozens where people are targeting Windows Home Server as a platform. You can find lists of 3rd party products that work on and with Windows Home Server at several enthusiast sites, including www.wegotserved.co.uk.
Cheers!
-cek
The Belinea o.center Home Server from MaxData is now available for sale in Europe. You can find out more information at http://www.amazon.de/belinea or by visiting the MaxData web site – http://www.maxdata.com. And, they even created a translated version of the soon to be infamous children’s book complete with a o.center home server gracing the pages …