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Controlling WHS remotely RRS feed

  • Question

  • Hi all,

    My apologies if this isn't the right forum for this question...I also considered the add-ins forum but wasn't sure.  Hopefully a mod will move it if needed.  Anyway, I just isntalled WHS last night and at first glance, it looks like the Connector software is rather limited in what it allows a user to do remotely.  I plan to run this server in a headless configuration, and I am not willing to swap my monitor/keyboard/mouse around every time I need to tweak something on the server...

    I suspect I'm not alone in this desire, and actually searched for quite a while trying to find an answer but I am rapidly running out of lunch hour and wanted to get this posted before returning to work, so here goes.  Does the Connector have some option to allow a user complete control of the WHS desktop and I'm just missing it so far?  Or is there an add-in to allow remote desktop control others have used and can recommend?  What is the best way to accomplish this?

    Thanks very much in advance,

    RJ
    Tuesday, April 28, 2009 5:54 PM

Answers

  • You can use Live Mesh. https://www.mesh.com
    • Marked as answer by richj44 Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:13 AM
    Tuesday, April 28, 2009 5:57 PM
  • Have you used Remote Desktop from a client machine to access the WHS?  There's also an Advanced Admin Console add-in (http://keinplatz.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8C36276B2BB53CB6!307.entry) that adds a lot of functionality.
    • Marked as answer by richj44 Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:13 AM
    Tuesday, April 28, 2009 7:44 PM
  • No, the connector doesn't have any option to allow complete desktop control. By design, Windows Home Server is simple and easy to use for non-technical folks. The only supported interface for modifying and tweaking your server is the Windows Home Server console; anything that would require full desktop access is unsupported. It's also potentially dangerous; if you don't have a good bit of familiarity with servers in general, and with the differences between a regular Windows Server 2003 server and Windows Home Server in particular, there are familiar tools and techniques that can cause a variety of issues, right up to data loss and even the need to wipe the server and start from scratch. A good rule of thumb is that if you don't see it in the console, it's certainly unsupported, and may have a potential to cause some harm.

    That said, you can use remote desktop to connect to your server. You will need to use the Administrator account and the password you created for the console when you set up your server. By default, the firewall on the server is configured to allow connections only from the local subnet; I would recommend against changing this, as there is a known "man in the middle" attack that Remote Desktop is vulnerable to that would make it potentially dangerous to access your server this way over the internet.

    You should take a look at the documentation available through the console and connector Help facilities, and on the Microsoft site here. That will probably answer a lot of questions you might have.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    • Proposed as answer by Ken WarrenModerator Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:25 PM
    • Marked as answer by richj44 Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:14 AM
    Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:25 PM
    Moderator
  • Just a final update to let everyone know I'm happy now (FWIW). I installed the Advanced Admin console but it wasn't immediately obvious how to connect remotely...then it just closed itself after 5 seconds for no apparent reason. When the same thing happened when I tried again, I gave up. I have spent two weeks trying to get Linux to do what I want it to do with this server and my frustration tolerance level is about on zero now. Then I turned on Remote Desktop and it just worked. Ahhh...sweet. Thanks again!
    • Marked as answer by richj44 Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:13 AM
    Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:13 AM

All replies

  • You can use Live Mesh. https://www.mesh.com
    • Marked as answer by richj44 Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:13 AM
    Tuesday, April 28, 2009 5:57 PM
  • Have you used Remote Desktop from a client machine to access the WHS?  There's also an Advanced Admin Console add-in (http://keinplatz.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8C36276B2BB53CB6!307.entry) that adds a lot of functionality.
    • Marked as answer by richj44 Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:13 AM
    Tuesday, April 28, 2009 7:44 PM
  • No, the connector doesn't have any option to allow complete desktop control. By design, Windows Home Server is simple and easy to use for non-technical folks. The only supported interface for modifying and tweaking your server is the Windows Home Server console; anything that would require full desktop access is unsupported. It's also potentially dangerous; if you don't have a good bit of familiarity with servers in general, and with the differences between a regular Windows Server 2003 server and Windows Home Server in particular, there are familiar tools and techniques that can cause a variety of issues, right up to data loss and even the need to wipe the server and start from scratch. A good rule of thumb is that if you don't see it in the console, it's certainly unsupported, and may have a potential to cause some harm.

    That said, you can use remote desktop to connect to your server. You will need to use the Administrator account and the password you created for the console when you set up your server. By default, the firewall on the server is configured to allow connections only from the local subnet; I would recommend against changing this, as there is a known "man in the middle" attack that Remote Desktop is vulnerable to that would make it potentially dangerous to access your server this way over the internet.

    You should take a look at the documentation available through the console and connector Help facilities, and on the Microsoft site here. That will probably answer a lot of questions you might have.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    • Proposed as answer by Ken WarrenModerator Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:25 PM
    • Marked as answer by richj44 Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:14 AM
    Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:25 PM
    Moderator
  • Thanks for the help everyone.  I suspected that Connector wasn't designed for that purpose but I wanted to ask.  Otherwise it would be my luck to spend hours searching for a solution only to find that Connector did it all the while.  I'll look into mesh, the advanced admin control add-in, and the remote desktop as well and see which performs the best.

    And Ken, I will definitely keep access restricted to my LAN.  As for breaking something, well...I probably will.  I learn best by having to fix stuff I've somehow broken, and I don't have much experience with servers, so learning is about 50% of the point of setting this up.  :)  But I won't have any mission critical data on it for a while so it won't hurt too much when I do screw up.

    Thanks all,

    RJ 
    Tuesday, April 28, 2009 10:37 PM
  • Just a final update to let everyone know I'm happy now (FWIW). I installed the Advanced Admin console but it wasn't immediately obvious how to connect remotely...then it just closed itself after 5 seconds for no apparent reason. When the same thing happened when I tried again, I gave up. I have spent two weeks trying to get Linux to do what I want it to do with this server and my frustration tolerance level is about on zero now. Then I turned on Remote Desktop and it just worked. Ahhh...sweet. Thanks again!
    • Marked as answer by richj44 Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:13 AM
    Wednesday, April 29, 2009 1:13 AM