You most likely haven’t heard about it, but Microsoft recently released a new version of Windows called, "Microsoft Windows Home Server". Your first thought is probably, "I don’t need a server at home." While you may not *NEED* a server at home, it’s possible you could really benefit from one if you have more than one computer at your house. Read on to find out what it can do for you.

Windows Home Server (WHS) can serve as a single storage place for all of your files and your media. All of your photos, music, etc all stored in one place so you can access them from any computer. You can even access them from your XBOX, your phone, and other devices. A BIG benefit to WHS is that it can be set up to automatically backup all of your computers. This isn’t a file backup, it’s an image backup which means if you had a hard drive failure, for example, all you would need to do is install a replacement hard drive, pop-in and boot off the recovery CD that comes with WHS, and after a while, your PC will be just the way it was the last time the bacup was taken!

If you have a large collection of music on your WHS, you can stream that music to any computer in the house. But what I like to do is stream the music to our XBOX 360 which is in the living room. You can enjoy the music on your WHS in any room in the house that has a compatible device. Also, if you have a large collection of digital photos on your computer, you can benefit there as well. Just like your music, you can load the pictures onto WHS and access them from any compatible device.

Here’s what we did the other day. First, I started some music playing on the XBOX. Then, I told it to show us a slideshow of all of the pictures we took from the year 2001. We sat there in front of the big screen TV listening to great background music and watching our pictures displaying nice and big for all to easily see. Way better than looking at the pictures on your small computer screen. Way better than looking at pictures printed on photo paper.

Another great advantage to WHS is that each person in the house can store their files on their own personal storage area on the server. That way, no matter which computer they sit down to use, all of their files are there and available to them.

WHS is one of the best products Microsoft has come out with in a long time!

Interested in setting a WHS up? Here’s what you need. First you need a computer. It doesn’t have to be a new computer. I used a 5 year old computer and it works great. It just needs to have a very large hard drive and a good bit of system memory. Then you need WHS. You install WHS on the server. Then you install the connector on each PC. Then you set up a user on the server for each person in the house. Configuring WHS couldn’t be easier.

For more information on WHS see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

If you want to set up a WHS, we here at Computer Troubleshooters can help. We can build a server for you, or we can just take an old computer and install WHS on it for you. We can set it all up for you and show you how to use it.

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Do You Have a High Long Distance Bill?

If you do and you have high-speed internet, you can make long distance calls over the internet using your computer for free, or at VERY low cost. First you’ll need a headset for your computer.

Here’s an example of one type of headset. You can get them for under $20. The headset plugs into your computer. Next, you need the software. Go to skype.com. Download and install Skype. Once you have a headset and Skype, you are ready!

Skype can be used in 2 ways.

The first way is that you can call for free from one computer to another computer. The person on the other end would have to have a headset and skype on their computer too.

The other way you can use Skype is that you can use it to call a regular phone number. This service isn’t free, though. It costs $3/month for unlimited calls within the US. The good part about it is that the person on the other end doesn’t have to have Skype. You can call anyone with a phone.

If  you don’t like headsets, you can actually purchase phones that plug into your computer’s USB port.  Even cordless phones!

Wondering about the quality of calls placed over the internet? It’s really good. It’s a lot like the same quality you get with your cell phone. You may be surprised to find out that we here at Computer Troubleshooters use Skpe to place outgoing calls in order to keep our main line open. So you may have spoken to us in this way and not even known it.

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