Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: media, server | Themes: Networking
3. Installation and Setup
Despite the wide range of the HP EX475 MediaSmart server’s capabilities, it is extremely easy to set up and use. Because the unit includes no video interface, it must be connected to a network—ideally, with a functional DHCP server to assign it a local network address—for setup to begin. To start the process, you need only plug in the power cord, hook up an RJ-45 connection to a local switch or hub that can access your router (and Internet link), then power up the unit. After that, you’ll use the HP Software Installation Disc (a CD) to install HP MediaSmart Server software and the Windows Home Server Connector software to establish communications with the device. You’ll be asked to run HP Update to make sure the software is up-to-date and, if your PC doesn’t already have Windows Installer 3.1 and the .NET 2.0 (or later) framework installed, you’ll be asked to install them as well. Next comes the HP MediaSmart Server software and the Windows Home Server connector. On our Vista PCs, the process took about seven to eight minutes, while on our Windows XP machines it took less than six minutes (across various versions these are the only Windows desktop operating systems that Windows Home Server and the HP EX475 MediSmart server supports).
Once all the pieces were in place on our first target desktop (a machine running Vista Ultimate Edition), it immediately recognized the HP EX475 MediaSmart server and gave a clean bill of network health, thanks to current Windows updates, a working Windows Firewall, plus current antivirus and antispyware software on that machine. Once installed, a Windows Home Server icon appears in the Windows system tray, which you can double-click at any time to log into and run the Windows Home Server console shown in the next screenshot.
From the main Windows Home Server Console window, the MediaSmart Server tab lets you grab software updates, manage remote access, work with Web share for photos, manage the unit’s LED brightness and establish iTunes server settings. Other tabs let you do a whole lot more.
The primary features of the HP EX475 MediaSmart server come from Windows Home Server, which we list and reflect upon as follows:
- Remote Access: provided your router knows how to work with Windows Home Server (Microsoft offers a helpful article and a list of compatible routers in this regard), set-up is pretty much automatic. To enable remote access on our Netgear FVS124G, however, we had to enable pass-throughs for TCP ports 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS) and 4125 (Remote Desktop Proxy). After that, we could log into the EX475 from the Internet and access any of its shared files and folders. This is pretty handy for users who need occasional remote access to documents or media files from home.
- System Backup: Right out of the box, the EX475 will happily back up (and manage backups) for any and all of the Vista and XP machines on your network. We have to rate this as one of the biggest pluses for this product, along with the restore CD that may be used to do bare-metal restores on any machines on your network for which the EX475 contains a recent backup. Our only beef against this capability is that it’s pretty slow: we can do an image backup of our Vista machines using Backup and Restore’s “Back up computer” capability onto local internal or eSATA drives in about 15 minutes; this utility took over an hour to complete on either of our local Vista machines. That said, the normal backup schedule is between midnight and 6:00 AM, so speedy backup won’t be a high priority for most users during the wee hours of the morning.
- Media Sharing: Right out of the box, the EX475 is equipped to share music, photos and movies for all users who can run Windows Media Player version 11, as well as for users running recent versions of iTunes (7.5 or newer). This makes it easy and natural to use the EX475 to store media files, and to make them available to PCs anywhere on your network.
- File sharing/shared storage: The EX475 makes one heck of a file server. Whether we were accessing HD video files (some over 4 GB in size), documents or various software or update files, we found the EX475 to be fast and capable. Network throughput regularly exceeded 100 Mbps for file access or transfer, and we simply weren’t able to bog the unit down on our local network, even when running simultaneous file transfers or media file accesses from all four of the PCs on our LAN (2 Vista, 2 XP, 3 GbE, 1 Fast Ethernet).
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The review of the Mediasmart server was good but missed the mark, specifically in failing to mention the community of enthusiasts who continuously develop new software to expand the machine's capabilities. There is so much more to it than just backups and NAS!
The author also refers to the Mediasmart as having RAID, which it doesn't. It uses a somewhat different system of spanning multiple disks and making them appear as a single drive, but will make critical files redundant on multiple drives if a user wants.
Sure, it's an expensive machine, but like anything, there are deals to be found if one looks for it.
While this article is an interesting and informative read, it veered off course badly in its conclusion when the author stated “For those with home networks, we think the HP EX475 (or its less powerful and costly EX470 cousin) make sense only for those with lots of PCs and devices to manage”.
Every network, large or small, needs to provide a backup of important data. The HP MediaSmart Server does this often forgotten task automatically, through its daily backup of Client PC’s and Duplicate Folders on the server. The LaCie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition does not provide this capability, because it is an NAS, not a true Server, as evidenced by its lack of hard disk expansion, file redundancy, and Network Health monitoring, etc.
The old adage, “You get what you pay for” is never more true than when you compare the HP MediaSmart Server to the LaCie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition! There is no comparison, and the price reflects that.
While it might be convenient for basic Windows users to buy a solution like this from HP, an experienced user could get more mileage out of a low-end notebook computer with a decent hard drive and all of the hard disk expansion you might need with either USB, firewire, or eSATA drives externally. Several Linux-based server packages are available for media servers as well as Unison, rsync, or simple SMP or FTP for files and backup. Mac users can use Time Machine for a more elegant automatic backup. Mac & Linux users are not likely to want Windows Home Server packages.
Good article. I have a LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini Home Edition and I love it. The author made an error though when he said the LaCie has an embedded 900 MHz Marvell processor. In fact it only has a 400 MHz Marvell processor.
As well, Interlude in his comment above made an error when he said 'The LaCie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition does not provide this capability'. The desktop applications which come with the LaCie does provide a Windows and Mac application for automated backups of data on my PCs to the HipServ OS on the LaCie drive. Its based on rsync and it works really well for me. It does folder and file backups, but thats all I need. To boot, the LaCie device fully supports both the Mac and Windows which I love. The Windows Home Server does not provide this capability - Microsoft says Windows Home Server supports the Mac, but when you read the fine print it only supports the Mac if you install Vista on it. That is NOT supporting the Mac. As well, Interlude was incorrect when he said that the LaCie is not a true server - the LaCie drive runs HipServ which uses as its base the RedHat Linus Enterprise Server 4 OS. The same server OS that many banks around the world depend on.
The LaCie device even allows me to make a secondary backup to an attached USB hard drive through the HipServ MySafe feature. The LaCie may not have multiple drives, but it least that it will not corrupt my data... unlike the Windows Home Server does.