July 2009

I’m pleased to announce that today I’ve released a new Add-In to the Windows Home Server community. The Add-In is called “WHS Port Forward”, and it allows the user to utilize the UPnP feature of Windows Home Server to open forwarded ports from your router to your Home Server. This is useful if you have […]

I’m very proud to announce the birth of my second son, Zachary Darbie Kuretz. He was born on Friday July 24th at 11:40 AM, weighed 6 lbs 12 ounces, and was 20 1/4 inches long. It was an incredibly fast delivery, only 20 minutes after we arrived at the hospital, so very exciting and action […]

Long-time forum member “cavediver” was first spotlighted in my Massive Storage and the MediaSmart Server blog post, when he shared his 17-drive, 21 terabyte MediaSmart Server setup with us. A little while after he increased his storage capacity to 27 terabytes across 22 drives by adding an additional 4-drive Sans Digital storage enclosure. This led […]

July 7th 2007 is the day I first registered the MediaSmartServer.net domain name, and on July 31st the forums went live. Things started incredibly slow, as can be expected when you’re running an enthusiast site for a product that didn’t yet exist, and I was the only person posting for about the first 3 months. […]

Popular technology website Engadget has had a fun series they’ve been running called “Engadget’s recession antidote”, where they raffle off gadgets, games, other stuff that has been given to them by various companies in the industry. Today’s recession antidote is an HP MediaSmart Server LX195 that was provided by HP, and all you have to […]

The Windows Home Server Team blog has announced the details of Power Pack 3 for Windows Home Server, and made a beta available for you to test. Power Pack 3 will be a free update to existing Windows Home Server users via Windows Update. The timing of the official release has not been announced, however […]

My primary MediaSmart Server EX475 had been not functioning correctly for a few weeks. This is the server I’ve had in production at home since late 2007, shortly before HP launched them for sale. It’s been backing up all the PCs in the house since that time, and I don’t really do any testing or […]

HP has a nice promotion going on right now through the end of July, where you can get the MediaSmart Server LX195 for 50% off ($199) the retail price when you buy any HP consumer notebook or desktop on www.hpdirect.com. To take advantage of this deal, when you customize/purchase your PC online, you will have […]

Nigel “Cougar” Wilks has released a new version of his highly regarded FirePlay for Windows Home Server Add-In. The updated release is version 0.90.06 and includes the following changes: Added a favicon Improved the FirePlay Service to resolve Remote Access detection issues Resolves bug where Remote Access status is switched after install caused upnp issue […]

Forum moderator Nigel “Cougar” Wilks has just let me know that today he was presented with a 2009 MVP Award for Windows Home Server from Microsoft. This is a fantastic recognition of the continued community support and activities that Nigel has performed over the past year. Nigel has been a member of MediaSmartServer.net since the […]