Home Print Server

Contact

Home Print Server

Windows Home Server , code-named Quattro , is a home server operating system from Microsoft. Announced on 7 January 2007, at the Consumer Electronics Show by Bill Gates, Windows Home Server is intended to be a solution for homes with multiple connected PCs to offer file sharing, automated backups, and remote access. It is based on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2.

Windows Home Server was released to manufacturing on 16 July 2007 and officially released on 7 November 2007. Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server was released 20 July 2008, Power Pack 2 was released 24 March 2009, and Power Pack 3 was released 24 November 2009 . The next version of Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server V2 is expected to be released sometime in 2010.

Features

Centralized Backup - Allows backup of up to 10 PCs, using Single Instance Store technology to avoid multiple copies of the same file, even if that file exists on multiple PCs.
Health Monitoring - Can centrally track the health of all PCs on the network, including antivirus and firewall status.
File Sharing - Offers network shares for computers to store the files remotely, acting as a network-attached storage device. Separate categories are provided for common file types like Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos. The files are indexed for fast searching.
Printer Sharing - Allows a centralized print server to handle print jobs for all users.
Shadow Copy - Takes advantage of Volume Shadow Copy Services to take point in time snapshots that allow older versions of files to be recovered. However, after introduction Microsoft has recommended not enabling shadow copies on HomeServer for unspecified reasons, and had not fixed the problem by September 2008.
Headless Operation - No monitor or keyboard is required to manage the device. Remote administration is performed by using the Windows Home Server Console client software provided in the bundle. Also supports Remote Desktop connections to the server while connected to the same LAN.
Remote Access Gateway - Allows remote access to any connected PC on the network, including the server itself, over the Internet.
Media Streaming - Can stream media to an Xbox 360 or other devices supporting Windows Media Connect.
Selective Data redundancy - Guards against a single drive failure by duplicating selected data across multiple drives.
Expandable Storage - Provides a unified single and easily expandable storage space, removing the need for drive letters.
Extensibility through Add-Ins - Add-Ins allow third-party developers to extend the features and functionality of the server. Add-Ins can be developed using the Windows Home Server SDK, to provide additional services to the client computers or work with the data already on the server. Add-Ins can also be ASP.NET applications, hosted in IIS 6 running on WHS.
Server Backup - Backs up files which are stored within shared folders on the server to an external hard drive.

Technology

Windows Home Server is built on the same codebase as Windows Server 2003 SP2. It includes almost all technologies found in Windows Server 2003 SP2 but has been modified in some areas to remove or limit features. It also includes some new capabilities not found in Windows Server 2003 SP2:

Home Server Console

While the underlying operating system is built on Windows Server 2003 SP2, the configuration interface is designed to be user friendly enough that it can be set up without prior knowledge of server administration. The configuration interface, called the Home Server Console , is delivered as an RDP application to remote PCs - while the application runs on the server itself, the UI is rendered on the remote system. The Home Server Console client application can be accessed from any Windows PC. The server itself requires no video card or peripherals; it is designed to require only an Ethernet card and at least one Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer.

Drive Extender

Windows Home Server Drive Extender is a file-based replication system that provides three key capabilities:

Multi-disk redundancy so that if any given disk fails, data is not lost
Arbitrary storage expansion by supporting any type of hard disk drive (Serial ATA, USB, FireWire etc.) in any mixture and capacity — similar in concept to JBOD
A single folder namespace (no drive letters)

Users (specifically those who configure a family's home server) deal with storage at two levels: Shared Folders and Disks. The only concepts relevant regarding disks is whether they have been "added" to the home server's storage pool or not and whether the disk appears healthy to the system or not. This is in contrast with Windows' Logical Disk Manager which requires a greater degree of technical understanding in order to correctly configure a RAID array.

Shared Folders have a name, a description, permissions, and a flag indicating whether duplication (redundancy) is on or off for that folder.

If duplication is on for a Shared Folder (which is the default on multi-disk Home Server systems and not applicable to single disk systems) then the files in that Shared Folder are duplicated and the effective storage capacity is halved. However, in situations where a user may not want data duplicated (e.g. TV shows that have been archived to a Windows Home Server from a system running Windows Media Center), Drive Extender provides the capability to not duplicate such files if the server is short on capacity or manually mark a complete content store as not for duplication.

Additional information can be found on the Windows Home Server Technical Brief for Drive Extender

A known limitation of Drive Extender is that it in some cases changes date/timestamp of directories and files when data is moved around between disks. According to Microsoft this is currently expected behaviour. This might hinder you from using clients that commonly is used to sort media by date. Examples are Xbmc, MediaPortal, Squeezebox Server. Previous mentioned programs will work just fine with WHS in any situation, except when sorting by dates. You might get false positives due to WHS has moved files.

Computer Backup and Restore

Windows Home Server Computer Backup automatically backs up all of the computers in a home to the server using an image-based system that ensures point-in-time-based restoration of either entire PCs or specific files and folders.. Complete computer restores are initiated through a restore bootable CD, file based restores are initiated through the WHS client software which allows the users to open a backup and "drag and drop" files from it. This technology uses Volume Shadow Services (VSS) technology on the client computer to take an image based backup of a running computer. Because the backup operates on data at the cluster level, single instancing can be performed to minimize the amount of data that travels over the network and that will ultimately be stored on the home server. This single instancing gives the server the ability to store only one instance of data, no matter if the data originated from another computer, another file, or even data within the same file.

Computer backup images are not duplicated on the server, so if a server hard drive fails, backups could be lost, however, of course, the original source machine should be available. The "Server Backup" feature added in Power Pack 1 does not include duplication of backup images.

Remote File Access

The system also offers an SSL secured web browser based interface over the Internet to the shared file stores. The release version offers access to the web interface via a free Windows Live-provided URL, which uses Dynamic DNS. The web interface also allows the uploading to and downloading of files from the content stores. However, there is a limit of 2 GB for a single batch of upload.

Remote Desktop Services

The system also supports Terminal Services Gateway, allowing remote control of the desktop of any Windows computer on the home network. Currently supported systems are those which would normally support Remote Desktop: Windows XP Professional, Tablet and Media Center editions, Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions and Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. The web interface also supports embedding the Remote Desktop ActiveX control, to provide remote access to home computers from within the web interface directly. Remote sessions can also connect to the Home Server console to configure the server over the internet.

Add-Ins

Windows Home Server allows for developers to publish community and commercial add-ins designed to enhance the Windows Home Server with added functionality. As of January 2010, nearly 100 of these add-ins have been developed for the WHS, including applications for antivirus & security, backups, disk management, automation, media, network/power management, remote access, and more. The Windows Home Server SDK (Software Development Kit) pr

Answer

...

EasySIGN - Sign Making Software - Print Server Master

Home. Home; Sign Making; Digital Printing; Engraving/Routing; ICC Color Calibration ... All the benefits from the EasySIGN Print Server-Pro license plus: Internet enabled logbook ...

...

Citrix Printing & Microsoft Printing | ThinPrint

Home » Products » Overview » .print Application Server Engine

...

Digital Home - Print Server - Wireless MFP Print Server ...

Home >Digital Home >Print Server ... Wireless MFP Print Server (MPS-304WU) Key Features ： (1) Support MFP Printing ...

...

Citrix Printing, Microsoft Printing, VMware Printing ...

Home | ... .print Server Engine .print Application Server Engine .print Engine for ...

...

Answer

...

What is print server? Definition from WhatIs.com

Print servers are used in both large enterprise and small or home office ( SOHO) networks. In a large organization, a single dedicated computer serving as a print server might ...

...

USB Print Server for Small or Homes Offices

China USB Print Server for Small or Homes Offices. USB Accessories

...

Digital Home - Print Server - Wireless MFP Print Server ...

Home >Digital Home >Print Server ... Wireless MFP Print Server (MPS-301WU) Key Features ： (1) Support MFP Printing ...

...

Print Server Help: MediaSmart Home

Newbie here! Sorry if this has been covered before, but a search did not highlight any relevant results. Can I use my EX470 as a print server for the wired and wireless computers ...

...