I ended up taking the WHS machine back. I could not justify keeping it. I think I need a combination of a "server" and a media machine. And I did not see that in the HP WHS Machine.
Also, I have had some medical things going on lately that prevented me from delving deeper into the home server concept. I did do some work on VPN with mixed results. I tried the Linksys Gigabit wireless N VPN router. It was a disaster. Got two of them and neither one worked. I spent a number of hours on the phone with linksys support and no luck. Returned them and got a refund. I tried using the Windows VPN and it actually worked (but not every time!).
The medical things were cataracts. I had surgery on both eyes and now I can see great! While I had only one eye worked on, I could see how bad my vision had become. But it's all better now, so I can get back into my PC stuff.
All for now. Happy Computing.
Dave
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Windows Home Server (continued)
OK so recently I bought an HP Mediasmart Home server (EX 470). This is the one that has 500GB of disk space on one disk. It hast 3 drive bays empty so you can expand storage.
Some observations:
-You cannot schedule individual backups for PC's. The backup program handles all the scheduling. So you can't specify that PC A backs up at 10:00am and PC B backups up at 2pm. Don't work that way.
-Although you can't use remote desktop to get into XP Home or Vista Home Premium, you can use remote desktop connections to get into the server. Once there you get numerous warnings that anything you do can "break" Windows Home Server, and you'd be better off to use the Windows Home Server console.
-During setup I could not change the workgroup. I had to remote in and do it through the computer properties. Once that was changed I got all my pc's and the server into the same workgroup.
That's about it. I am deciding whether or not to keep the server. I could return it in 30 days.
Some observations:
-You cannot schedule individual backups for PC's. The backup program handles all the scheduling. So you can't specify that PC A backs up at 10:00am and PC B backups up at 2pm. Don't work that way.
-Although you can't use remote desktop to get into XP Home or Vista Home Premium, you can use remote desktop connections to get into the server. Once there you get numerous warnings that anything you do can "break" Windows Home Server, and you'd be better off to use the Windows Home Server console.
-During setup I could not change the workgroup. I had to remote in and do it through the computer properties. Once that was changed I got all my pc's and the server into the same workgroup.
That's about it. I am deciding whether or not to keep the server. I could return it in 30 days.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Quicken - Conclusion
OK, after a number of months devoted to the "quicken problem" the conclusion is....Nothing.
Intuit support was unable or unwilling to fix the problem. And it's time to move on now. I have a work-around for my client. He does not want to use the work around. And since I didn't write the quicken code, I cannot fix it myself.
So I make this recommendation to Quicken users. Do stuff manually and then if you want, download. The manual entries will serve as a double-check for the downloaded entries. I would recommend that if you have investment accounts, to download them as they tend to be complicated to put in manually. Fidelity investments seems to work fine, so I would highly recommend them.
That's it for today.
Peace,
Dave
Intuit support was unable or unwilling to fix the problem. And it's time to move on now. I have a work-around for my client. He does not want to use the work around. And since I didn't write the quicken code, I cannot fix it myself.
So I make this recommendation to Quicken users. Do stuff manually and then if you want, download. The manual entries will serve as a double-check for the downloaded entries. I would recommend that if you have investment accounts, to download them as they tend to be complicated to put in manually. Fidelity investments seems to work fine, so I would highly recommend them.
That's it for today.
Peace,
Dave
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Windows Home Server
Microsoft has released a home server operating system, Windows Home Server. It is based on Windows Server 2003 with some noteworthy exceptions. The biggest of these is that you do not create a domain. In order to use Windows Home Server (WHS) you run "connector" software on your windows client machines. This connector provides services such as security, logon, and maintenance.
WHS provides automated PC backup services that you can schedule. You can also get into your network from outside using remote desktop. Some of these services require the client PC's to run XP professional or Vista Business. This is due to WHS's roots in Windows Server 2003.
I have seen an implementation of WHS on the HP Media Smart Home Server and it is excellent. The Media Smart Server can be configured up to 1 TB of disk space on multiple hard drives. The server has three "drive bays" that have slide in/slide out "sleds" in which to mount your hard drives. When you add or remove a hard drive, the Operating System (O/S) recognizes what happened and reconfigures accordingly.
Although WHS can be considered Network Attached Storage (NAS), it performs many more tasks and does them well. I'd recommend getting the 500gb HP server, and adding your own disk drives. I am also hoping that developers will write home control and similar programs for use on a WHS server to truly give owners "homes of the future".
Peace,
Dave
WHS provides automated PC backup services that you can schedule. You can also get into your network from outside using remote desktop. Some of these services require the client PC's to run XP professional or Vista Business. This is due to WHS's roots in Windows Server 2003.
I have seen an implementation of WHS on the HP Media Smart Home Server and it is excellent. The Media Smart Server can be configured up to 1 TB of disk space on multiple hard drives. The server has three "drive bays" that have slide in/slide out "sleds" in which to mount your hard drives. When you add or remove a hard drive, the Operating System (O/S) recognizes what happened and reconfigures accordingly.
Although WHS can be considered Network Attached Storage (NAS), it performs many more tasks and does them well. I'd recommend getting the 500gb HP server, and adding your own disk drives. I am also hoping that developers will write home control and similar programs for use on a WHS server to truly give owners "homes of the future".
Peace,
Dave
Quicken Saga - Continued
Well it's now April 20th and I still do not have a satisfactory answer from Quicken's authors, The Intuit company!! I've been working the problem of download issues with multiple banking institutions since January 2008 with no end in sight!!
The institutions originally were with the checking accounts of Washington Mutual, and Bank of America. Now my client cannot get downloads from his two American Express credit card accounts!!
I don't run into these problems because I do not download transactions. I input all my transactions manually so unless I forget to enter a transaction, everything is ok. Actually this is the recommended way to run Quicken even if you do download. In this case when you download, you get a window that details transactions and you can "match" them to the ones you input manually.
But my client is very busy and he does not want to manually input all his transactions. So I am in a continuing battle with Intuit. I have contacted their "office of the president" and had about 5 support phone calls with no resolution. The most recent phone call was about the Amex problem. Finally after about two phone calls, Intuit is now throwing the problem back at Amex.
Needless to say this is most frustrating!! And I do not know where it goes from here. Unfortunately, I think the only work-around right now is to input transactions manually. The client is not going to be satisfied with this explanation but since I did not write the Quicken program, I cannot go in and fix it.
Peace
Dave
The institutions originally were with the checking accounts of Washington Mutual, and Bank of America. Now my client cannot get downloads from his two American Express credit card accounts!!
I don't run into these problems because I do not download transactions. I input all my transactions manually so unless I forget to enter a transaction, everything is ok. Actually this is the recommended way to run Quicken even if you do download. In this case when you download, you get a window that details transactions and you can "match" them to the ones you input manually.
But my client is very busy and he does not want to manually input all his transactions. So I am in a continuing battle with Intuit. I have contacted their "office of the president" and had about 5 support phone calls with no resolution. The most recent phone call was about the Amex problem. Finally after about two phone calls, Intuit is now throwing the problem back at Amex.
Needless to say this is most frustrating!! And I do not know where it goes from here. Unfortunately, I think the only work-around right now is to input transactions manually. The client is not going to be satisfied with this explanation but since I did not write the Quicken program, I cannot go in and fix it.
Peace
Dave
Friday, February 8, 2008
Quicken 2008 Premier
I have a client who has a problem downloading transactions from Washington Mutual & Bank of America accounts. I have been conferring with Intuit's Quicken support for about 3 weeks now and they have not solved the problem. I will put more detail up here but for now, suffice to say I have been in contact with what is called "the office of the president".
Monday, November 12, 2007
Hamachi
I found a problem with Hamachi. It makes my pc's disappear from my "network places" or "network on Vista.
I found that the Hamachi network "adapter" is still enabled even if you are not running the client. So I disabled it (on all pc's) and that seemed to work. Now every pc seems to be appearing where it should and not disappearing.
Granted this may be a problem with an old version of Hamachi. But I don't need to run a vpn so I will simply keep the "adapter" disabled on all PC's.
*** LATEST UPDATE ***
** Oh and in case anyone wants to know, I don't do corporate IT work. **
talk soon,
I found that the Hamachi network "adapter" is still enabled even if you are not running the client. So I disabled it (on all pc's) and that seemed to work. Now every pc seems to be appearing where it should and not disappearing.
Granted this may be a problem with an old version of Hamachi. But I don't need to run a vpn so I will simply keep the "adapter" disabled on all PC's.
*** LATEST UPDATE ***
** Oh and in case anyone wants to know, I don't do corporate IT work. **
talk soon,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)