Home server free trial

[sgtspector]

You now can order a copy of Windows Home Server to try for 120 days. Just pay the shipping if you want to give it a try. Here's a link if you're interested. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...rver/eval.mspx

[ktkendall]

How much will it be to keep it active after the 120 days? I can't find anything that gives the price to keep it active after the 120 days is up. Looks like right now you can not buy this software by itself..

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by ktkendall Looks like right now you can not buy this software by itself..

Sure you can. I bought my copy from Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116395

[ktkendall]

Your right, I see it there for $169.99, but does anyone see any clue as to what it will cost if you go for the Microsoft free trial and want to keep it after the 120 days. Probably at least double what that OEM version is going for at Newegg.

[EzyStvy]

WHS is/was originally only going to ship with pc's.....Can try the following:

Send your pre-sales questions online to a customer service representative.

Contact Us: Questions About Microsoft Products

[Negeva]

Originally Posted by Panama Red Sure you can. I bought my copy from Newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116395

Care to give us an opinion? I've been looking at this for use in small home business environments with less than a dozen or so PCs.

From, online reviews I'm impressed; especially by the backup image system inplace if nothing else.

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by Negeva Care to give us an opinion?

Sure, I'd be happy to. As I mentioned in another thread, I was part of the Beta test program for WHS and really liked the idea of having a way to provide automatic backup to all my pc's. I run several pc's that just run Folding@Home but 4 are quite critical. Keeping the same info on separate pc's was my old way of insuring I didn't lose anything. Now, with WHS, everything is handled automatically for me. The hardware requirements allow you to use an older pc as your Server if you wish. I chose a P4PE-X mobo, 2.2GHz Celeron cpu, 1Gb of PC3200 memory (running at PC2100 speed) and two 320Gb Seagate IDE hard drives. Here's a list of the features of WHS that I found particularly useful.

1 - Automatic daily backup. You have to leave your pc running to take advantage of this. WHS does a quick check of your files and only updates the ones that have changed.
2 - Redundancy. All you have to do is run 2 hard drives (that's why I chose two), enable the Duplication feature and a duplicate image of your backup will be made on the second drive. That way, if one of your Server hard drives should fail you have the exact image ready to continue running.
3 - Easy Restore capability. If one of your pc's experience a data loss or hard drive failure, just pop in the new hard drive and the Restore CD that comes with the WHS software pack. You then restore your stored image from the Server. I haven't had to use this feature yet but it looks quite simple to implement.
4 - Remote Access. You can access your entire network from any remote location as long as you have an internet connection (and remember all your passwords ). I tested this feature one day during the Beta testing. I sat in a Panera Bread and logged into my main pc. It was just like using LogMeIn or GoToMyPC. I was literally viewing my home pc desktop on my laptop.
5 - File Server functionality. Each pc running the WHS connector has a desktip icon for Shared Folders on Server. Here you can keep any files you want to access from multiple pc's. I keep my password list, dvd data base and several other items on the Server so either my wife or I can access and change those master files as needed.
6 - The Server is "headless". Once you set up your Server, you can disconnect the monitor, keyboard and mouse and just let the tower run by itself. The only things connected to my tower are a power cord and network cable.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure there are more features I've forgotten but I think you can tell I really like Windows Home Server. You don't have to understand Linux to operate this system. Any basic computer user should be able to set this up. HTH

[cmichael258]

4 - Remote Access. You can access your entire network from any remote location as long as you have an internet connection (and remember all your passwords ). I tested this feature one day during the Beta testing. I sat in a Panera Bread and logged into my main pc. It was just like using LogMeIn or GoToMyPC. I was literally viewing my home pc desktop on my laptop.

Will Microsoft hit you with the terminal license fee after 90 - 120 days of using the remote access? If so, add about $400 more for 5 CALs