HP delaying MediaSmart Home Server till the holidays?

Bad news for those anxiously awaiting the release of HP's MediaSmart Home Servers. Turns out, HP may be holding off on the launch due to Microsoft's "last minute bug hunting and tweaks." Reportedly, HP will be delaying shipment of the product "by 75 to 120 days," which means that eager to-be-customers won't be able to wrap their palms around the Windows Home Server-based device until "late fall." Of course, the wait should bring about a finer tuned OS -- including "more reliable remote server access, automatic router and firewall setting tools, and enhancements to synchronizing features" -- but we know all too well how hard patience is to come by.

[Rob @ Aug 31st 2007 7:14AM]

No surprise there.
MS ...
They're always delaying their releases.

[Dave @ Aug 31st 2007 8:26AM]

Ummm... MS has already finished and released Home Server. This is HP delaying their product based on it because the HP software they are adding probably sucks.

[Will @ Aug 31st 2007 9:25AM]

Wrong Dave. This is a pure MS delay.

[Victor @ Aug 31st 2007 9:05AM]

Alright I need some help here... I've done a fair bit of reading on this WHS hub bub... but I still have NO IDEA what the major, relevant difference is between a WHS... and a networked HD with remote access like the Western Digital My Book World Edition II?

Somebody PLEASE enlighten me!

[Neal @ Aug 31st 2007 10:35AM]

Will and Rob, you are very incorrect, WHS has been released to manufacturers for over a month now, it's done and has been.
http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/archive/2007/07/16/ship-it.aspx


Victor, here's more than you might have wanted to know but here goes:

With WHS, you can do the following -

- Backs up all your home PC's (up to 10 of them) nightly, weekly, whenever you choose (even has a "back this PC up now" feature)

- Want to get a bigger HDD in your PC and don't want to reinstall? "back up now" then install the new HD, partition it and run a restore, you are back up in ~20 minutes

- Offers protected and unprotected backups. Protected will mirror this data on seperate physical drives in case of hardware failure, unprotected just makes a copy on the server to backup what is on your PC

- Single Instance Store (new MS tech) is used, where only one copy of any unique 4byte chunk of data is stored to the server. Any other chunks exactly the same are earmarked where they need to be restored to, but not saved to the server over and over again. This makes backing up more data and different clients more efficient the more data you add to the server. A typical 10TB backup will occupy around ~300G on the server

- Access your Home Server and the files on it from ANYWHERE you have a computer with internet access - WHS autoconfigs any uPnP router (or you can manually config the router if it's not supported) to allow incoming connections to the server. You connect securely through having a free personal subdomain on Microsoft's www.homeserver.com domain as a perk for owning this O/S. Using this you can copy files to or from the server anywhere in the world, using a Windows Live login/password for security

- Access any of your PC's at home from anywhere in the world via the homeserver.com free access to the home server - it provides a bridge that you can use to jump to any PC in your home network to remote desktop into sercurely.

- Buy it pre-installed on hardware from HP, Fujistu-Siemens, Iomega, Gateway, Medion, and Lacie, or buy the System Builder version and throw together your own hardware.

- Expandable on the fly add or remove hard drives to expand or shrink storage. No RAID so you don't have to know how this works, just use the wizard to add or remove disks, disks don't have to be the same size or anything.

- Back up PC's, *nix or Macs, wired or wireless. Server is headless (no keyboard/monitor/mouse is used after intial setup, you just use the remote console to control it)

- Allows darg and drop access to all folders and files backed up, even different versions of the files in case you need a copy that you backed up 3 weeks ago before some changes were made

- Setup accounts and permissions for who can access which files on the server from both inside our outside your network (great to allow a guest account you can let others get to shares you open for files/pics - no more photobucket or looking for places to host your files online)

- Min specs are P3 - 933Mhz, 128Meg RAM, USB2.0 meaning a great use for old hardware if you have a new PC and junk laying around, just buy the System Builder. I've seen setups with 20+ hard drives none over 100G in size and it runs great with full redundancy.

The basic things it can do that an attached remote HDD can't are:
- Scheduling the backup at a specific time by waking all remote clients
- Providing secure remote access to your storage anywhere on the internet
- Allow a gateway for using Remote Desktop into any PC you have in your home network from the internet
- Allow you to create accounts to manage who can access what, even remote accounts that friends and family can use to access data (no more looking for hosting sites)
- Headless use; once installed it just sits in a closet or corner, full access is through a web or MMC interface.

[chris fredette @ Aug 31st 2007 11:19AM]

it's a server. not just attached storage. It can me used and easily set up as a personal web site as well.
You can do remote access and install 3rd party apps yes but the biggest deal is automated back up of all machines on your network and it has software raid so all your data is imaged. What makes it different then a regular raid device it that you can change your protected space(mirrored) on the fly, you and easily add any combination of hardrives and if one fails you can just stick in a new one that is completely different than the one that failed and the data will be copied to it.
This is like the drobo but with the quality of a windows business server. It will have other things like online back up too.
I played with the HP one at CES in January and it is very cool. When you see one in action you will understand.

[Will @ Aug 31st 2007 10:46AM]

Heard of Vista? I heard that was RTM'd too.

[Will @ Aug 31st 2007 10:48AM]

Regardless.

HP could have released now. Everything is ready to go. But they opted to wait for the changes that Microsoft has planned to make the end user experience much more enjoyable.

[Neal @ Aug 31st 2007 10:55AM]

I'd love to have you back up your opinions with facts, or even a link? First I have heard of any delays, especially since you cannot "take it back" once you release it, just put out patches.

[Will @ Aug 31st 2007 10:59AM]

http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/archive/2007/08/30/windows-home-server-updates.aspx

"HP has decided to include these first software updates in their MediaSmart Server. Both HP and Microsoft believe that these updates are in the best interest of potential customers and will insure the best out-of-the-box experience. All of our Windows Home Server partners and customers will automatically receive the update once posted to Windows Update."

[Neal @ Aug 31st 2007 11:09AM]

Exactly

*HP* has decided to wait. No one else, the software is out, in fact people in Australia and New Zealand already have it now. HP is likely not ready and is taking this chance to point the reason for a delay elsewhere. No other hardware OEM is waiting for these updates, and as stated -

"As with most Microsoft products, updates to Windows Home Server will be automatically available throughout the lifecycle of the product and the WHS team is working on an update that will be available in September."

So if the update is availible in September, why are they waiting until the Holiday season? Most likely in order to get more initial sales. I don't blame HP, it's good marketing, but fess up to the reason why they are waiting. I still see nothing to substantiate your claim that HP has everything ready to go now.

[Will @ Aug 31st 2007 11:14AM]

I can see where you are coming from.

As I have seen the product in action for my self, I cannot see why they would need to delay it for any other reason.

[chris fredette @ Aug 31st 2007 11:32AM]

It's also a all-in-one small, lowed powered, headless package that can be modified anywhere on the net too.

[sygyzy @ Aug 31st 2007 1:58PM]

Man, I've been waiting for this to come out. I thought we were on the home stretch and now this?

[David J. Heinrich @ Sep 1st 2007 7:17PM]

What about security, relative to Linux or BSD?

I've just started to want a data-storage solution (the 100GB secondary HD on my laptop is almost full). I used Linux a while ago on my laptop (Gentoo), trying to make it a desktop environment, but it was just too much work -- getting Xfree to work was just too hard.

But I did basically get Gentoo setup, and know that Linux and BSD are great for servers.

So, what's the advantages of Windows Home Server over Linux and BSD? I imagine almost for certain it's easier to setup, but aside from that? What about security & stability?

[David J. Heinrich @ Sep 1st 2007 7:21PM]

Also, if WHS isn't as secure as BSD or Linux, what about using a BSD or Linux minimal setup as a "gateway" between your WHS and the rest of the world, when setting up a web-page?