Datasheet

 If you run Vista Business, Enterprise or Ultimate, you can get at the
previous versions of files on the server using the same technique.
 If you have Windows Vista Home Basic or Premium — and you proba-
bly do — you can still get at the snapshots of server files, but retrieving
them is cumbersome and error prone (again, see Chapter 14).
While WHS does, technically, support “previous versions,” the previous-
version snapshots get taken twice a day, on a fixed schedule. They only
cover files on the server — there’s no independent “previous versions” sup-
port for files on the rest of the network’s PCs, even if they’re backed up every
night. Retrieving the previous versions of files on the server is easy with Vista
Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate — or, for that matter, with Windows XP.
Paradoxically, it’s considerably more difficult with Vista Home Basic or
Premium.
What Hardware Do You Need?
Microsoft publishes a set of minimum hardware requirements for Windows
Home Server. As is the case with most Microsoft minimum requirements, you
can stretch things a bit and still run the product reasonably well.
Don’t even
think about installing Windows Home Server in your home or
office unless you have a functioning network. If you’re going to try to reach
into your home network from afar, using WHS’s Remote Access capability,
you also need a reasonably fast Internet connection (ADSL, cable, satellite,
whatever). Specifically:
 WHS won’t help you set up a network. You need to have one working
before you can install WHS. (If you need help setting up a network, see
my
Windows Vista All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies or Windows XP
All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies
.) Microsoft designed WHS to go
on an existing network with two or more PCs, but you really need to
have only one PC on the network in order to get WHS to work.
 I hate to burst any bubbles here, but running a crossover cable between
two PCs doesn’t count as a functioning network. Sorry, Charlie.
 The network’s router (you can call it a hub or a switch) must have at
least one available jack on the back, so you can plug in your WHS server.
Although it may be physically possible to configure a WHS server using
a wireless network connection, you could go insane trying.
22
Part I: Getting Windows Home Server to Serve
05_185926 ch01.qxp 10/17/07 10:37 AM Page 22