Category: Tech

WHS Add In: DHCP

~ rbonini ~ 3 Comments

Now I’ve tried getting the built in DHCP server that is part of the underlying Windows Server 2003 working and it didn’t turn out very well.

Now, however a new Windows Home Server Add In takes the pain out of DHCP. DHCP4WHS is great. I just spent ten minutes getting it working.

This thing handles anything you care to throw at it: Remote Access, Remote desktop, VPN connections.

Basically I ticked the box on the Router setup page ( I have a Linksys  W54WAG gateway/Router) for DHCP Server Relay, typed in the the static IP address I’d just set up for the server (be sure to do this first), get the nameservers from the DSL  status page and finally, amend the port forwarding on my router to get Remote Access working. The nameservers are the most important bit as you need them to get online.

In the DCHP4WHS config page, if you do change settings, be sure to restart the service for the new settings to take effect.

I’ll grant you that a DHCP Server isn’t very sexy… but it does have something very unique that I think is worth bragging about… as far as I can tell DHCP4WHS is the first and only DHCP server written in C# and/or for the .NET Framework.

It is quite an achievement. I’d love to see the source.

In the finest tradition of Windows Home Server, DHCP4WHS “just works”.

It gets my Code2Fame vote.

(Thanks to MS Homeserver blog and We got served for the info)

SageTV for WHS

~ rbonini

If you’ve been reading my blog lately you’ll know I’m installing SageTV for WHS. The idea is to eventually have Freeview (for those outside Britain its free-to-air Digital TV) on all PC’s and Tv in the house come through WHS.

Now the Website isn’t entirely clear on exactly how SageTv 6 integrates with WHS.

Does it use the console? Does it run as a service (a big thing for WHS software since no-one is logged in most of the time)? How does it deal with the WHS folder structure? Does PlaceShifter integrate with the Remote Website?And a million and one other questions.

Now I was just browsing through the feature list for SageTv and it is impressive.

Here are my favorites:

    Multiple Tuner Support
    Record two or more shows at the same time! No limits to the number of tuners allowed. I can’t seem to find a card with more than two tuners so expandability is great.

    SageTV Studio Development Kit (learn more)
    Let’s you customize or develop new applications for SageTV . Need I say more?

    Support for multiple formats across multiple tuners (can mix MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/DivX hardware encoders). Better and better.

    Favorites ManagerTM
    Never miss your favorite shows whether it’s first runs, re-runs, or all episodes. This is good since I currently have Google Calendar remind me of shows 🙂 .

Sounds too good to be true. I’ll let you know how it plays out when I get it. It might be soon, it might not. Stay tuned.

Windows Home Server Updates

~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

Well, here’s another update.

The extra  1GB RAM is in and is working its magic on server performance (2Gb in total) .

Next, I’ve got to choose a TV tuner card (details here). And then there is SageTv to install and configure.

I also hear that Diskeeper 2007 has a WHS edition.

Diskeeper automatically keeps all of the hard disks (both internal and external) on your home server defragmented to optimise the speed and performance of the server. Unlike the standard Disk Defragmenter application included in Windows Home Server (and other Windows SKUs), Diskeeper runs as a service in WHS, and continually works on defragmenting your disks whilst the server is idle. Access the server, Diskeeper stops. Server idle? Diskeeper gets back to work so there’s no noticable performance hit whilst it’s running. They call it Invisitaksing.

Sweet. I checked the disks yesterday and most had more than 30% file fragmentation.

 I wrote a quick Vb console app to defrag all the drives automatically (using defrag.exe and the task scheduler), but I’m still testing it and I’ll post the code when I’m done. (its a stop gap, I know 🙂 ). So I’m desperate for Diskeeper 2007 to be RTM’d ( that’s Released To Manufacturing).

The homeserver.com domains are being registered. I just checked and swapped my domain over ( thanks to this reminder ).

And we have estimate retail pricing for WHS. Its a rumor that has yet to be confirmed.

I’m not sure weather to belive the £150 price tag. On the one had its rather cheap given the fact that Vista Home Premium is going for £135 from amazon.co.uk ( Home Basic: £79). On the other hand, it makes perfect sense since this is a product targeted at home users and should be in the same price range. On second thoughts, it also makes sense since people who buy WHS off the shelf most likely have spend money already building their server and won’t baulk at the price tag.

Update to the Update: Philip Churchill of the Ms Home Server blog suggests that it’ll go for £88.74 here in the UK.

Cheeky question time: if you’ve built a home server either for yourself or someone else, does that make you eligible for OEM prices? 🙂

Twist and Turn

~ rbonini

I think I’ll point you to a BBC op-ed piece that talks about the new technology of spintronics (lo-and-behold, there is a Wikipedia article. Honestly, is there anything that is not in that wiki? But I digress).

Quote:

“If you think about the spin of a particle, such as an electron, it can point up or down or at any superposition of the two; partially up or partially down,” said Professor Awschalom.

Each of these different “superpositions” can represent an almost infinite number of combinations of ones and zeros.

“You can store an almost infinite number of bits of information in one particle space,” he added.

This almost limitless number of possibilities would also pave the way for advanced computer processing, such as is needed in quantum computing.

“The spin of a particle is a very natural particle for quantum information processing,” said Professor Awschalom.

 

I’m used to reading about major conflicts between classical and Quantum physics, but can anyone give me more info about the “superpositions” part of this theory – I’m having trouble getting my head around it?

This is the explanation from Wikipedia:

Spintronics is the ability to change or influence the rotation of an electron.

Electrons have the basic properties of spin, charge, and mass. That the electron has superposition (being everywhere) at the same time, where theory states you can only know certain values but not simultaneously, one pair is momentum and position, and the other is energy and time. Electrons have 2 spin states +spin up and -spin down which are usually found in paired electrons. No two electrons can occupy the same quantum state. Spin up and spin down states of fermions have different energies depending on whether or not the spin states are aligned with the magnetic field or not. Electrons absorb photons quantum energy to change valence orbits, and they lose spin coherence by colliding with mutually resonant photons frequencies causing the electron to spin flip by energy transfer through mutual spin-orbit coupling and photon emission.

 

I’m still having trouble getting this (the superposition article in Wikipedia isn’t much help either).

Using Silverlight

~ rbonini

Not that I’ve used Expression Blend 2 to create anything fancy. I’ve done a two page test Slideshow in a quick feasibility study with regard to one of my pet projects.

Then I had to deal with the hosting. I’m using Sliverlight Streaming to deliver the applications to my webpages (via an Iframe, I belive).

It took a while to figure out how to upload the pages so that the service could understand what was supposed to happen with the application. then it took a wee bit longer to understand how to integrate the provided code on to my ASP.net page.

But I got it working, in the end 🙂 .

Now that I know it works, I have a few ideas.

And now I have to go and actually build the thing….

PS. If you get Error 2252 while running your application make sure that the path from your xaml file to the dll is correct. Took me a while to figure that one out. I find that its usually the simplest things that stump you 🙂 .