Windows Home Server For Dummies [Paperback]

Woody Leonhard (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470185929 | ISBN-13: 978-0470185926 | Publication Date: November 19, 2007 | Edition: 1

If you work in an office, you probably don’t lose much sleep worrying about whether your files are safe if your PC melts down. Company IT departments handle those things for business networks. But how about all those precious photos, address lists, the family genealogy, and everything else that lives on your home network? Windows Home Server can save the day if one of your personal PCs hiccups, and Windows Home Server For Dummies serves up all the stuff you need to know to put it to work.

Forget everything you’ve heard about previous versions of Windows Server; this all-new variation has been designed for people who don’t wear white lab coats or pocket protectors. Woody Leonhard has tested it and it passed with flying colors. If you have a home or small business network, this book shows you how Windows Home Server helps you

• Share files among all the PCs in your home
• Access your files from anywhere
• Make regular backups automatically
• Store files securely
• Play music, TV shows, or movies on your Xbox
• Share multimedia across your network
• Keep your virus protection and system upgrades up to date
• Get regular reports on the overall health of your network

Windows Home Server For Dummies provides sage advice on choosing a version of Windows Home Server, installing it, setting up users and passwords, using remote access, scheduling automatic scans and backups, and having fun with multimedia.   Trust Woody— you’ll sleep better.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Have a home network? Make it safer and more useful

Share your stuff, access it remotely, back it up, and play movies on your Xbox

What happens when your hard drive hiccups, or the kids accidentally let loose an unfriendly computer virus? If you have Windows Home Server installed, your precious pictures and documents are still safe, and you can access them from anywhere. This friendly guide helps you get it up and running and shows you all its cool tricks!

Discover how to:

• Choose and install Windows Home Server

• Set up users and use shared folders

• Share multimedia across your network

• Play music or video on your Xbox

• Set up automated backups

About the Author

Woody Leonhard is a bestselling author and has been a Microsoft beta tester since Word for Windows 1.1. He covers Windows and Office topics on his popular Web site, AskWoody.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 357 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (November 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470185929
• ISBN-13: 978-0470185926
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've written a whole lotta computer books over the years, starting with "Windows Programming for Mere Mortals" in 1991, going through the "Hacker's Guide to Word for Windows" (with Vince Chen and Scott Krueger), the "Mother of All Windows Books" and "Mother of All PC Books" series (all with Barry Simon), then the "Underground Guides" to Word, Office, Telecommuting, and many more, "Word Annoyances", the "Woody Teaches Office" series, and the "Special Edition Using Office" series (with Ed Bott). I'm probably best-known for my "Dummies" books, which tell the straight story (whether Microsoft likes it or not!) in a way that won't put you to sleep.

My books have been translated into dozens of languages, and are widely available at bookstores, computer shops and warehouse chains all over the world. I've edited several series of books for various publishers. I've also written hundreds of magazine articles, most recently for PC World and the late, lamented PC/Computing magazine. I used to publish a handful of electronic newsletters, and print newsletters before that, but now confine myself to dispensing news, advice, and a wee bit o' insight, at www.AskWoody.com and my column in the Windows Secrets newsletter, www.WindowsSecrets.com.

I started in the computer book biz in a very odd way. I wrote a novel. An action-adventure novel, no less, set in Saudi Arabia. I never found a publisher, although I keep threatening to dust the novel off and submit it again. But along the way, I came to know - and love and hate - a brand new word processor known as Word for Windows. I wrote a lengthy electronic book about all of WinWord 1.10's bugs, which were legion, and how to work around a whole bunch of 'em. Posted it on CompuServe. Andrew Schulman (who wrote "Undocumented DOS" and "Undocumented Windows" among many others) stumbled into my "Hacker's Guide to the Univers", and he asked me to write a book for him. It all went downhill from there.

My writing has won an unprecedented eight Computer Press Association awards and two American Business Press awards - more than any other computer book author, I think. I was one of the first Microsoft Consulting Partners, and a charter member of the Microsoft Solutions Provider organization.

I still think of computers as a "means", not an "end". I wonder when people lost sight of the fact that PCs were invented to make life easier, to get your work done and get home early. I firmly believe that PCs make passable slaves but horrible masters.

I'm impressed with much of what Microsoft is doing to Windows, although the continuing security screw-ups really leave me shaking my head. I'm much less impressed with what's happening to Offfice. In my opinion, Microsoft is using its monopoly on the desktop to sell more server software, making Office updates less and less compelling for the individual or small business user. Like me. And I'm appalled that Microsoft is now selling a "service" that protects us from the flaws in their own product.

Yes, indeed, the gods must be crazy.

I went to grad school in Boulder, Colorado (M.S. and A.B.D. in CS/Software Engineering), worked in Saudi Arabia for five years, then spent 15 years on top of a mountain in the Rockies. I moved to Phu ket in 2000, with my teenage son, Cocker spaniel and beagle. I live in the hills above Patong now, with my long-time girlfriend, Add. If you ever get to Phu ket, drop me a line! It's an incredibly beautiful place to visit. Or to live, for that matter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, May 1, 2009

By 

Engineering Geek (Orlando FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Windows Home Server For Dummies (Paperback)

As with all Dummies books, or at least those that I have read, this one does an excellent job of giving you the basics. It doesn't provide all of the ins and outs of WHS, but that's not what a Dummies book is for. As a computer engineer, I read the dummies book for any new technology I'm going to deal with, then I get one of the all-inclusive books to give me the details. For the average WHS installer and user, the Dummies book is all you need.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for newbies in home server, February 8, 2008

By 

Dick C. (MN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Windows Home Server For Dummies (Paperback)

This book is excellent for anyone who wants to learn about home server. I read this book prior to purchase a HP MediaSmart Server. It helps me a great deal while I was installing the server. The instructions are precise, accurate and yet humorous. A truly well-written book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home Server for Home User, April 19, 2010

By 

Buster Killion (Concord, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Windows Home Server For Dummies (Paperback)

This book tends to fill in the holes left by more 'in depth' and highly technical books on the market. It explains some of the processes much more simply, not making the assumptions that the reader is a computer geek. It is very readable and does cover all the areas that a typical home user would need to know.