Top 10 reasons to use Windows Home Server in your SOHO

[z3r010]

Since we had such a great response from our previous post on the Top 10 reasons to use Windows Home Server, we thought it would be beneficial to share our thinking on the business side of things. Don’t let the name Windows Home Server fool you into thinking that this product was created for home use only. A lot of the reasons that you would use Windows Home Server in your home are just as applicable to a small or home office. Windows Home Server provides a dependable and affordable way to organize and safeguard your work on up to 10 computers. In order to help you see how Windows Home Server could enable you to work more efficiently and effectively, take a look at the top 10 reasons to use Windows Home Server in your SOHO.



1. Conveniently backup important data with automatic image-based backup of up to 10 computers every day.

2. Quickly restore an entire PC, a specific hard drive, or individual files and folders in the event of data loss.



3. Remotely access PCs while away from the office to access files, check e-mail, review financial information, or look up an address or phone number.

4. Create a centralized and security enhanced location for important work documents that can be accessed by everyone in the company.



5. Easily find and share information by organizing data in a security-enhanced centralized location.

6. Help reduce downtime with automatic monitoring of the health of your computers on the network to keep them active and available.

7. Easily expand storage space and add new capabilities as your business needs grow.



8. Grant permissions for varying levels of access by team members to your business documents.

9. Easily extend your investment with new Windows Home Server add-ins for things such as virus protection, power management, and online storage.

10. Easy to use and set-up Windows Home Server in as little in 2 hours.

 

Hopefully, you are now ready to buy your very own Windows Home Server and start running your business at its full potential!

If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of using Windows Home Server in your SOHO, take a look at our Small Office/Home Office page on the Windows Home Server Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/soho/default.mspx

-Nicole

More...

 

[bobtran]

Great...I've been advocating this very thing for a long time. This is far more than just a home server. This will do the job of a SBS at a MUCH smaller price point and still offers the robust services that a small business would find most helpful including the daily backup of mission critical data files, shared production files, and data duplication to avoid loss due to unforeseen circumstances such as a virus or drive failure and should you chose....a web presence for your small business included at no additional cost. At less than $100, I don't see how can you go wrong using this product.

 

[pparks1]

Small businesses though are likely going to need a few extra functions that Windows Home Server doesn't really provide. Things like DHCP, Active Directory and perhaps Microsoft Exchange.

 

[myzr7]

Thanks, for posting the bloggings for WHS. Keeps me actively thinking about my WHS and trying new things with it.

 

[bobtran]

Small businesses though are likely going to need a few extra functions that Windows Home Server doesn't really provide. Things like DHCP, Active Directory and perhaps Microsoft Exchange.

I'm not so sure about this. Most small businesses with less than 10 computers don't in fact use active directory in my experience (far too much overhead and skill required). Windows Home Server can in fact be set up as a DHCP server and very few small businesses use exchange (far too expensive), most that I have been involved with simply contract their email services. Exchange requires a much higher level of IT skill than the average non IT small business would likely have in house.

Now I agree that some small businesses will have a geek on staff but not most 10 pc or less shops unless they are in the IT business and then all bets are off, they might even use Linux servers.

This misunderstanding is probably my fault as I probably should have said "Very small business" instead of small business.

 

[KazeNoKoe23]

Thanks for posting. Good to see Windows Home Server has more uses than just for the home.

 

[Lordbob75]

When (if) I get an office, this is what I will be using there. I cannot afford a full server (nor do I need it), so I will be using this.

I also use it at home, and LOVE it.
Though it still does not recognize MSE as an anti-virus.

~Lordbob

 

[bobtran]

When (if) I get an office, this is what I will be using there. I cannot afford a full server (nor do I need it), so I will be using this.

I also use it at home, and LOVE it.
Though it still does not recognize MSE as an anti-virus.

~Lordbob

It probably never will recognize MSE because it is a Server OS and requires a Server AV. As far as I know there aren't any FREE Server AV's. I personally use "AVAST for Windows Home Server". When I purchased the one year subscription I was offered 2 additional years for a pittance as an upgrade during the online purchase. I ended up paying $56.00 for 3 years which is pretty good in my book and as I use AVAST home on my PC's everything plays nice together.

I have been using it since it came out and have no complaints so far. If I were to go back to work I would definitely use this product in my office although I don't foresee the need at this time and I already have one running at home.

If I were to build a new one I would definitely base it on the Atom N330 platform for home use (you can connect up to 1 IDE and 2 SATA drives to these MB) or an AMD dual core for a work environment due to the need for more drives.

 

[z3r010]

If I were to build a new one I would definitely base it on the Atom N330 platform for home use (you can connect up to 1 IDE and 2 SATA drives to these MB) or an AMD dual core for a work environment due to the need for more drives.

I use these Atom 330's for both my home servers (WHS & 2008R2) I love em

 

[bobtran]

If I were to build a new one I would definitely base it on the Atom N330 platform for home use (you can connect up to 1 IDE and 2 SATA drives to these MB) or an AMD dual core for a work environment due to the need for more drives.

I use these Atom 330's for both my home servers (WHS & 2008R2) I love em

Nice..I especially like the wall/desk mount. Thanks

 

[garysgold]

Thanks John.

 

[Lordbob75]

When (if) I get an office, this is what I will be using there. I cannot afford a full server (nor do I need it), so I will be using this.

I also use it at home, and LOVE it.
Though it still does not recognize MSE as an anti-virus.

~Lordbob

It probably never will recognize MSE because it is a Server OS and requires a Server AV. As far as I know there aren't any FREE Server AV's. I personally use "AVAST for Windows Home Server". When I purchased the one year subscription I was offered 2 additional years for a pittance as an upgrade during the online purchase. I ended up paying $56.00 for 3 years which is pretty good in my book and as I use AVAST home on my PC's everything plays nice together.

I mean it does not recognize it on my computer.

~Lordbob

 

[bobtran]

When (if) I get an office, this is what I will be using there. I cannot afford a full server (nor do I need it), so I will be using this.

I also use it at home, and LOVE it.
Though it still does not recognize MSE as an anti-virus.

~Lordbob

It probably never will recognize MSE because it is a Server OS and requires a Server AV. As far as I know there aren't any FREE Server AV's. I personally use "AVAST for Windows Home Server". When I purchased the one year subscription I was offered 2 additional years for a pittance as an upgrade during the online purchase. I ended up paying $56.00 for 3 years which is pretty good in my book and as I use AVAST home on my PC's everything plays nice together.

I mean it does not recognize it on my computer.

~Lordbob

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "does not recognize it on my computer", Do you mean that you can't see the .exe or that it the machine doesn't see an AV product on the machine.

 

[Lordbob75]

It probably never will recognize MSE because it is a Server OS and requires a Server AV. As far as I know there aren't any FREE Server AV's. I personally use "AVAST for Windows Home Server". When I purchased the one year subscription I was offered 2 additional years for a pittance as an upgrade during the online purchase. I ended up paying $56.00 for 3 years which is pretty good in my book and as I use AVAST home on my PC's everything plays nice together.

I mean it does not recognize it on my computer.

~Lordbob

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "does not recognize it on my computer", Do you mean that you can't see the .exe or that it the machine doesn't see an AV product on the machine.

I use it as my AV on my desktop and laptop. WHS has the feature where it says it is unprotected w/o AV.

~Lordbob

 

[bobtran]

I mean it does not recognize it on my computer.

~Lordbob

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "does not recognize it on my computer", Do you mean that you can't see the .exe or that it the machine doesn't see an AV product on the machine.

I use it as my AV on my desktop and laptop. WHS has the feature where it says it is unprotected w/o AV.

~Lordbob

Interesting....I would have assumed that Microsoft would recognize their own AV but maybe its still too new. I will check my setup for what you are posting about. I have MSE installed on my desktop along with Avast. I will test my WHS.
Disabled Avast...get warning.....enable MSE....warning goes away....disable MSE....get warning....enable Avast....warning goes away.

Are you running the PP3 beta on your WHS? If not I would recommend trying it and see if this resolves your issue.

Some people think that you don't need to run AV on your server and others like me believe that your Windows Home Server is your last best line of defense and as such should be protected at all costs by server AV but it is up to you. Remember that I am a Retired Database Administrator and that means I am professionally paranoid.

 

[Creer]

Thanks z3r010 for the info.

 

[myzr7]

Woke up this morning to a yellow flag. Got something to trouble shoot. Nice! I like it.

 

[suprattalljdm]

Trying to talk my boss into getting this. We have 9 computers here and the only networking we have is a Win 7 Homegroup.

 

[JRS47]

Set my WHS a week ago on a old system had in basement 2.8 ghz P-4 512 ram took one of my hard drive out of my PVR 500 gb and one out of my main system 640 gb plus the 250gb that was in system only thing had to buy was new network card but all is great can access all files music movies from one place.Already have plans for one at my shop this will do me just fine. Will use Jetway intel atom 330 for that system

 

[Darryl Licht]

Image based backups???

Can you give me more info on the image based backups? For example, I have a SOHO network I will be setting up in Scottsdale this January and Id like to image each of 4 systems to the WHS once they are setup and working properly. I dont see where I can do a complete drive image on WHS.

When I setup a backup, it adds both HDDs on my main system, then excludes many directories that I want included. How can I stop anything from being excluded?