HTPC Mk2: Ready for Windows7

On release of Windows7, it was time to upgrade the HTPC from the initial build.  I had done a test build with Vista Home Premium earlier in the year, and whilst I liked the look of Vista Media Center, I wasn’t happy with the performance of TV.

The initial build for the Win7 HTPC was identical to the original build with the exception of the Raptor 10,000rpm hard drive I had available – it seemed a waste not to use it, particularly when it’s no louder than the Samsung SpinPoint that it replaced.

The installation of the Windows 7 (64bit on an AMD 3500+ CPU) was it’s normal smooth self. On completion of installation, all the hardware with the exception fo the TV card was found and installed.  A quick search of the Terratec website landed me drivers (v284) for the Cinergy 2400i Dual HD Digital TV card, while a visit to the nVidia site netted me the up to date drivers for the 6150 on board video card.

Configuration of the media libraries against folders on the Windows Home Server was completely simple, and even more so after running the Media Connector.

Network cards annoy me

Bought myself a nice new DLink Gigabit switch (look – it’s Green!) last week to act as the heart of the network between the docking station, the home server and the HTPC. The docking station and the HTPC connected with the switch nicely, reporting 1 Gpbs. The server? Unfriendly.

I reconnected the cable to the router, to find that I had a nice solid 100Mbit connection.  Yes – the motherboard has a gigabit NIC onboard – I really really checked all the documentation for the board.  Really.   I updated the nVidia driver pack.  No change.  I swapped out the cable for a new Cat6 – no change.

What is odd is that the switch is auto-sensing – it’s supposed to decide whether to connect at 10, 100 or 1,000 based on what it is connected to.  When I connect the machine to the router, 100Mbit and rock solid.  Connect to the switch, the machine attempts to connect, and drops, attempts to connect, and drops.  And no throughput at all.

Now – you’d think that if I connected a 100 Mbit NIC to a 10/100/1000 switch, it would connect at 100 Mbit.  But I get nothing at all.

Is there something that I’m missing?  I’m going crazy here!

This weekends HTPC and WHS maintenance

Things to do this weekend:

• Play with the kids
• Help out around the house
• Update the Windows Home Server:  I installed an evaluation version just under 120 days ago, so it’s time to update.  So that I don’t go through this work for nothing, I’m using it as a test of the migration strategy I’ve been planning for the commercial installation of WHS that I’m planning for a pro-bono client this year.  Wait for advice on timing of WHS vNext.  Nothing to report at this stage.
• Continuing to test the Home Theatre PC for Windows7 video issues.

The Home Theatre PC (initial build): What’s inside?

One of the things that I proposed to do with this blog was to talk about computer based appliances – in other words, computer hardware that has been built up for a specific purpose, and which doesn’t necessarily expose the underlying computeryness during day to day use.

So it is with the home theatre PC.  Originally built in July 2006 with Windows XP Media Centre Edition, this machine has been:

• recording and playing back television;
• storing and playing back DVD’s and home movies;
• storing a copy of our MP3 collection and playing it back
• storing a copy of our photo collection, which acts as a screensaver when it’s not in use

This post outlines what’s in the HTPC for hardware and software, how it was built.  With the plan for moving to Win7, there are bound to be changes to come.

Automate WHS backup to external HDD?

While you’re on the Microsoft Connect website adding your vote and thoughts on MSE’s relationship to WHS, have a look at the other suggestions as well.  I’ve just voted in support of functionality to automate backup of WHS to an external HDD (link requires Windows Live profile to log in).  At the moment, a backup of the content of your WHS is only possible (excluding those that have a subscription to an online backup to the cloud) by:

1. Connecting an external drive to your WHS;
2. Opening the WHS console (and configuring the external drive as an external archive, if this is the first time);
3. Hitting the backup now button.

I suspect that any solution is going to require the pressing of at least one button somewhere, otherwise your WHS won’t know whether you’re intending on running a backup or doing a restore.  In any event, it would be nice if execution could be handled by the pop-up on the client – after all, the comms are already there to send messages to connected clients.

How would you like to see external backups work?

Update on MSE and WHS request

About a month ago, I posted questions about the strategy for MSE, particularly in relation to the home market, and specifically in relation to Windows Home Server.  In that time, the suggestion on Microsoft Connect has been voted up with 50 people marking it as important.  Thanks to all those that have added their support and comments.

Have you added your vote?

What Maxine McKew thinks about internet filtering

Short answer?  Not much.

Like many other Australians, there are lots of things that I love about Australian society, but of course don’t talk about, as we all know that acknowledging the positive status quo is against the law .  There are things that don’t like, but I accept because it’s part of living in a democratic society.  Equally, there are those things where my own views mirror that of Australian society, and I think should be eradicated, such as child pornography.  As a father of two little wonders under five, I find the concept abhorrent.  On this issue, the Australian Labor Government and I agree.

Where we disagree is how to go about protecting the innocent community.  Rhetoric offered by Senator Conroy suggests that those that object to the ‘clean feed’ internet filtering policy are supporters, or advocates of child pornography.  This absurd view appears to be blindly accepted (in the main) by the party room.  Wanting to learn more about the views of my sitting federal member, I took the (unusual for me) step of writing a letter to the member for Bennelong, Ms Maxine McKew.  Surely with her history as an investigative journalist (her website mentions her 30 years as a journalist / in public life no less than four times in two pages), she will have asked the hard questions and formed her own view, and all she has been waiting for to break her silence is for someone to ask her opinion of her.

What follows is the correspondence chain between Ms McKew’s office and me, and a reproduction of the letter I received from her.  I’ve reproduced all the email correspondence and a scan of the letter that I received here.  There are a couple of things that are really important to note before you start to look through:

• Maxine is an awful correspondent.  Her responses are generic, her turnaround time horrendous, and her obfuscation obvious.
• Based on other feedback from others that have corresponded with their federal member, it’s essentially the same letter that Senator Conroy and Ms Gillard are using
• I still don’t really know where Maxine McKew stands on the issue.  She avoided my simple questions.  All I received was a form letter which she (and her staff) were too lazy or disinterested to tailor to the correspondence received.  Maxine – you’re welcome to respond either to me personally or via comment to this blog – I’ll publish in full without modification.

With her much publicised background as a seeker of the truth, and asker of the hard questions, I should be surprised by her immediate ducking of the questions.  Perhaps her time as a journalist watching politicians duck her questions was simply on the job training for her transition to politics.

I look forward to your comments and feedback.  Should I have let it lie?  Should I keep chasing?

Show your support for WHS & MSE

Following the traffic and interest on the subject of Anti-Virus and Windows Home Server yesterday, I wandered on over to Microsoft Connect to make a feature suggestion for Windows Home Server (requires a Windows Live log-in to access).  Once logged in, you’ll see that others are voting up the suggestion – right now it stands at 12.  You have the ability to add your vote and your comments.

In addition, I’ve started asking questions on the Microsoft Answers website.  The answer is that there is no answer at the moment The response from one of the MSE MVP’s suggests that the next version of WHS will be 64bit based (which lines up with the comment that I made about Win2k8R2 recently), however it remains that there have been no official announcements.

Anti-Virus on your Windows Home Server?

Funny that.  Only three days after making a reply to a comment on my blog to this effect, someone has discovered a seemingly innocent and benign way to inject malicious content into your network, and directly to your Windows Home Server.  Naturally, it relies on an automated process to obtain data, which lends truth to the maxim that if someone (or something) else uses your machine, then it’s just not secure. (Thanks to Jim at We Got Served for the heads-up)

If Microsoft are nice enough to step up and offer free protection for your machine, then, in my humble opinion, you are nuts not to take advantage of it. Microsoft Security Essentials has reviewed well, and is free to users with genuine software.

But here’s the question:

Why is there no version of Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows Home Server?

It’s the same demographic, and the addition of a MSE Add-in to WHS would add a further layer of win to what are currently two seperate outstanding applications.  It seems that I’m not the first to ask the question.  Steve Boots, who is a Windows Live MVP opines in those threads that AV on a WHS is unnecessary.  I respectfully disagree with him.  I suspect that all those that are running the uTorrent and My Movies Add-ins do as well.

Windows Home Server vNext release date?

Today I made the seemingly unsubstantiated claim on Twitter that WHS vNext would be released in the first half of 2010, which was followed by many requests for more information / detail.  Insofar as written detail or links, I’ve got nothing that will excite you.  Sorry.  But I can add some context to my comments.