Windows Home Server: the inbuilt web server

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David Flynn28 April 2007, 11:29 AM

Part 8 of GALLERY: Windows Home Server beta 2

But without any doubt, the CTP's coolest new trick is the activation of remote access for Windows Home Server. Each Windows Home Server install includes gets a free personalised subdomain hosted at Microsoft's homeserver.com site (such as gatesfamily.homeserver.com, although we think that one's already taken). This lets you access your folders on the server through a Web browser running over any broadband connection -- at your office, a mate's place or a Net café. You can also use your awesome Admin-level powers to dig into any PC connected to your home server, as long as it's had remote access enabled and (of course) is switched on.

Remote control: got broadband and a UPnP router? Then you're just a few clicks away from getting a secure Web page for accessing your home server when you're not at home

Getting our server online was so fast and fuss-free that we wondered if we’d done it right. Isn’t this stuff supposed to be all terribly hard, causing grey hairs to sprout and leaving furrows etched deep in one’s brow? Yet with just a few clicks, and no fiddling with IP addressing (even if your broadband ISP uses dynamic addressing), our server had its own online portal page. Provided your router has UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) enabled you need only enter a Windows Live ID to access the online host (which during the beta stage is Microsoft's livenode.com), then choose a subdomain name. Each user can log onto the server through a secure Web page, browse their folders and download files just as if they were sitting back at home.

For bonus points, when you select multiple files to download they're automatically compressed into a ZIP archive before the download kicks in. You can also upload files, either individually or in a batch. As you can see from the screenshots, we were using Firefox and connected without a hitch.

Home away from home: the default home page of our server, which the WHS beta hosts at livenode.com (this will change to homeserver.com at release date)

Let me in: as long as remote access has been enabled, any user can log into the server remotely

Browse in your browser: all shared folders plus your personal folder are available through almost any Web browser

It works both ways: users can remotely download files (they're automatically compressed into a ZIP archive before the download begins) and upload new files which are flung straight onto the server

If you're keen to keep closer track of the progress of Windows Home Server as it heads down the road to release, check out the Windows Home Server team blog.

Skip to:

• Page 1: Introduction
• Page 2: Logging on
• Page 3: Managing users
• Page 4: Administering your Windows Home Server remotely
• Page 5: Backing up to WHS
• Page 6: Adding hard drives to the pool using WHS' raid-like features
• Page 7: System requirements and how Microsoft's luring in the community
• Page 8: The inbuilt web-server: your data-centre in the cupboard