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.

On Blogging

~ rbonini

Hugh Macleod, in his imitable way, has a list about why we now blog less:

Here is Reason one:

1. We got busy. For many of us, blogging created opportunities for us in the offline world, just like the early blog evangelists predicted. And as we found out the hard way, it’s actually quite hard to do stuff and blog about it at the same time. As my father, a very smart and observant man once quipped, “A lot of these bloggers seem to have a lot of time on their hands”. That may have been true in 2002, back when the recession was still on. It’s certainly less true with a lot of people I know.

Check the other reasons out.

[via Shel Isreal]