The Windows Home Server Enthusiast Community

I've created a Windows Home Server Add-In called Remote Notification. This is a very early Beta release, and while the basic functionality has been verified there are still likely to be bugs. Please let me know if you find any!

So far this has been tested with the following SMTP providers:
Gmail (SSL and User Auth)
Comcast (User Auth)
Dreamhost (User Auth)
An unnamed corporate server (no auth required)

The .zip file containing the .MSI installer and Readme file is available here:
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/downloa ... cation.zip

UPDATE: I've also made the test tool for generating notifications available, see here: viewtopic.php?t=20

And here's the info from the Readme:

Title: Remote Notification
Version: 1.0.0.47 Beta
Date: 9/11/2007
Author: Alex "Big Al" Kuretz
http://www.mediasmartserver.net

Copyright (c) 2007 Alex Kuretz

WHAT IS REMOTE NOTIFICATION
===========================
Remote Notification is an Add-In for the Microsoft Windows Home Server
operating system. It is designed to forward the System Health Notifications
from the Home Server to an email address. This can be particularly useful
when configured to send to an email address that forwards an SMS (text
message) to the user's mobile phone.

Remote Notification should intercept all WHS notification events, even
those issued by other 3rd party Add-ins, as long as those Add-ins use the
documented WHS SDK to add notifications.

Remote Notification consists of a WHS Settings tab for configuration, a
Windows Service for receiving the Notifications and sending the messages,
a RemoteNotification.dat file for storing persistant data, a handful of
registry entries, and this README file. Some debug information is written
to the Application Event Log on the Server; you'll need to use Remote
Desktop to view these entries.


LICENSE
=======
Remote Notification is protected by copyright law.

Remote Notification is free for personal use but may not be redistributed
without written permission from the author. Commercial users, distributors,
or manufacturers should contact me for a license.

This software is provided "as is" with no implied or expressed warranties.


INSTALLATION
============
Install Remote Notification by copying the RemoteNotification.msi file to the
Software\Addins share of your Windows Home Server.

Start the Windows Home Server Console, select Settings, then Add-Ins. Select
Remote Notification from the Available tab, and click "Install".


UPGRADING
==========
To upgrade from a previous version of Remote Notification, please uninstall
the previous version via the Add-Ins settings tab of the WHS Console, then
follow the normal Installation instructions.

Your settings will have been saved in the registry, simply review that they
are accurate, then apply your changes.


CONFIGURATION
=============
Remote Notification requires the user to configure their SMTP server in
order for the notifications to be sent. Remote Notification supports servers
that require SSL (secure) connections, and User Authentication.

Remote Notification has many of the common Mobile Phone providers
pre-configured in the drop-down selection box, to enable easy configuration
of email to SMS messages. The common format is:
<10digitnumber>@mobileprovider.com
For example: 9705551212@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Remote Notification also supports the forwarding of notifications that have
been suppressed in the WHS Console.

Use the "Send Test Notification" button to test your configuration settings.


KNOWN ISSUES
============
* This software has not been tested very extensively, please report bugs!
* Help file is not implemented, so the Help button doesn't work.
* WHS Console freezes while sending Test Notification mail (especially if
settings are configured incorrectly, and the send times out).
* Gmail SMTP seems to only work on port 587, not 465.
* English is currently the only supported language, though Remote Notification
should install and work correctly on non-English versions of WHS.


FUTURE PLANS
============
* Support configuration of multiple recipients
* Better formatting/parsing of Notifications for 160 char limit for SMS
* Localization of strings, let me know if you can translate!

Superb add-in. Could you please keep our site http://mswhs.com updated with latest update information at PhilipChurchill at mswhs dot com. Thanks again.

Hi Phil, thanks for the feedback, and for the entries on your site! I'll try to keep all interested parties up to date.

So there's been a fair bit of traffic through this forum post, and over 250 downloads of the .zip file. I'm interested to hear feedback or any requested features. My ideas so far:

* Would two recipient configs be enough (email and SMS), or should this support unlimited recipients?
* How about an RSS feed from the server where you could monitor health changes?
* Is there interest in being informed of any of the other available WHS events, such as user changes (add/remove), backup status, anything else?

Thanks!
Alex

Hi,

I have been using the add-in for about 2 weeks and so far so good. No crashs and lots of great information about the server and how it is running.

Two recipients would be very good, I have different home and work email and use one or the other but never both. Who wants to work from home :-)

RSS feed would be great also, You could add the info to a Vista RSS Gadget, or better yet a Vista Gadget for the sidebar to monitor the server health...hmmm.

Yes - love to know how the backups are running, going. I do some over the internet so they are slow and can sometimes run over time.
- Is it possible to track remote logins via the Internet?

Cheers
DB

Hi DB,

Great to hear your feedback! At this point I'm planning to add support for unlimited recipients, so that issue will go away. I'm not familiar with Vista Gadgets, but that sounds like a pretty good idea! I think I'll start with RSS first, though.

Backup info should be no problem, and I suspect that the Remote user access is captured in the User Info notifications, since that shows up on the server console. Great idea!

Thanks again for your feedback, and keep checking back for the next release, hopefully within a couple weeks. I'm super busy with work, school, and family, but code when I can.

Alex

I would love to try this out but it seens after I double click the file it look as if the installer is going to load, then just closes and never installs..

Any ideas?

Hi Parky,

First, thanks for trying the Add-In! Perhaps you're not familiar with how add-ins work on Windows Home Server? Check out the Install section of the readme above:



If you're still having issues, let me know!

Thanks,
Alex

I had a nice experience today, woke up and my phone had a text message letting me know that there are updates to download on my server. So I now have the IE7 updates installed, pretty cool! I probably wouldn't have noticed for a couple days if I had just waited until I next logged into my server.

This did expose a bug, though. Apparently, the Notification never gets removed, since the server reboots. I guess I need to add a check for a notification that existed prior to reboot, but no longer exists after coming back up.

Works like a champ. This will be awesome when I install a home server in my parents' house later this year.

Thank you so much!

Awesome, so great to hear the feedback, thanks for posting!

On another note, I'm still looking for FR and ES translators. I have a DE translation that I'm working on integrating into the next release which should have some nice improvements.

Thanks,
Alex

I had it send the test one time. But ever since I get a huge error that says No connection due to target machine actively block it.

I have a screen shot i can email to you![/img]

PM sent with my email address. Thanks for reporting the issue!

Edit: I had a thought - I've only gotten gmail to work on port 587, not on the normal SSL port of 465. Which are you trying to use?

Update: agrooms had his issue resolved, it was a conflict with Norton Firewall blocking SMTP traffic.

Hi yakuza,

I can make the French translation of your great Add-In

Do you have a strings file for each localization ? (if not, I will send you a simple text file)

Thanks,
David

Awesome, thanks David!

I'm currently on the road traveling and won't be able to get you those strings for a few days, I'll send you a PM within the next week.

Alex