Home Server Part 2

You guys probably know that I'm a little bit of a software-phobe. I've always been able to get hardware to work and really quite enjoy the challenge of resolving their issues, but where software is concerned, I don't enjoy it near as much. This is why my projects quite often are technological successes after which it comes to a grinding halt until I get around to resolving the software problems to make it all work.

So far, the home server has been a pretty good example. It's been up and running (and well) for several months. It quietly sits in the corner of the office going about its business without nary a peep. We've enjoyed the ability to put files in there and have access to them from any machine as well as have it unobtrusively back up our stable of computers giving us peace of mind. However (and there's always one of those, right?) it hasn't nearly fulfilled it's potential. One of the main reasons I went with this software was that it would easily "server" media across a home network while keeping it in a safe (backed up) central location. We have a LOT of media, maybe not as much as some folks, but hundreds of CDs, thousands of photographs, and plans to add more once I get my archiving system up and running again. Like any family, there is tons of the stuff just waiting its turn to get digitized. Everything from old family photos that need to be scanned, to old high school choir VHS tapes that need to be captured, and even some vinyl records as well as cassettes to be saved. So the server has its work cut out for it.

So, where to start? For me, that was getting on Half.com and finding a copy of the Windows Home Server Bible book, by Greg Kettell, & Jennifer Ackerman Kettell, published by Wiley. I almost always look on Half.com first, then Amazon, then Half Priced Books for any published material. I found this book and had it shipped for less than a third of it's MSRP. I used this book to set up the server and learn about the more advanced functions of WHS. It's been indispensable!

There are a number of goals I have for this server in terms of sharing content in our home. The first, which as to give us peace of mind has already been achieved, as well as the second of creating a central shared place to store and access files. The next goal was to centralize, and hopefully eliminate duplication of media files so they can be accessed from anywhere, both internal and eventually external to our network.

What has started to drive this has been the completion of the Media Computer in the A/V stack. The concept with that machine is that it wouldn't contain any media files except on a temporary basis, but be able to access content and display it on the "big-screen", and/or play it through the main system. For our family, that's music; we have a lot of it and handling CDs is old, plus it will quite often create a situation where "you" play the same ones over and over again.

The ideal plan is to rip CDs losslessly into the music folder of WHS. The reason for lossless is obvious, but I chose to do this in WMP using WMA file format might not be. As would some of you, I'd say that iTunes is a better product and we are a multi-iPod family, but AAC isn't universal and IMHO, Apple products tend to be a little archane in terms of working with non-apple products. I just think, that iTunes will have no trouble pulling in the WMA files on the server, whereas the reverse isn't going to be true without a lot of hassles and work-arounds. I'm open to differing opinions and suggestions here. In order to get this done, I changed the rip settings in WMP to lossless then pointed the output folder to some folders I created in the W7 Libraries with are in fact residing on the server. The WMP couldn't see the server directly, through the desktop "shared folders" shortcut, but was able to see anything I put in the libraries of the machine. This allowed me to rip directly to the server and not have to move files after the fact.

I've been ripping a bunch of CDs this morning and now need to go test this out on the media computer and my laptop. If it doesn't work, I'm going to come back and commit the computing version of "sepukku".......stand by.......

OK, personal crisis averted; it worked! Now comes the grunt work. Culling through my files located in various computers, then moving the files, followed by the lossless ripping of many CDs! Then it'll be on to the photos followed by working out the kinks in setting up the DVR. Stay-tuned as they used to say: I suspect that it is going to be a long-running series.

OH YEAH! I almost forgot, I'm playing with XBMC (another free product) on the media computer, so of course that's going to be another episode of hardware addict vs. software!