Windows Home Server and blog self-hosting
I recently setup one of my old machines using Windows Home Server and thought it would be nice to run my blog on it instead of GoDaddy. The obvious approach was to use the terrific Whiist add-in and that’s exactly what I did at first.
I encountered the first problem when setting up the web site because my site had to be a subsite under the main site. I didn’t really want my site to be found at xxxx.homeserver.com/reggie so I started playing with domain forwarding and masking at GoDaddy. With the help of their fine support I managed to get www.reggieburnett.com redirected to my sub-web but none of the sub-links worked (photos, archives, etc). Plus I didn’t really like the CNAME redirect.
So this morning I set out to fix that and fix it I did. Here’s what I did:
- Removed forwarding of my site at GoDaddy
- Signed up for the free trial at www.zoneedit.com. You get free dynamic DNS support for up to 5 sites and 200 MB of DNS traffic (apparently that is *ALOT*)
- I was already using the excellent dd-wrt firmware on my Linksys router so I just needed to tell it to update zoneedit when my IP changes (and give it my hostname and credentials)
- Then I disabled my site using the Whiist add-in
- And finally redirected the default site under IIS properties to point to my blog folder. The /home and /remote subwebs are still there and point to the correct place.
Now you can go to www.reggieburnett.com and land on my self-hosted blog and I can also reach the WHS goodies through subweb URLs.
**EDIT** looks like my home link is broken but I can fix that with some web.config hacking. No time right now though. 
about 1 year ago
post more!
about 1 year ago
Any home hosting solution needs to have two fundamental characteristics. It needs to be simple enough for a "mom" or "dad" user. The Product Manager for Microsoft Home Server has been quoted as saying that his product is not about making a geek happy.
about 1 year ago
Windows Home Server Product is built around a barebones version of Windows Server 2003 seems to suggest that eventually, the content residing on retail computers will be web accessible, with Home computers becoming a part of the world-wide web.
about 1 year ago
Windows Home Server helps families and home-based businesses with multiple computers to organize, share, and automatically back up photos, videos, music, and other important documents.
about 1 year ago
In the dial-up world where retail infrastructure was poor, and computers malfunctioned frequently, there seemed no other alternative.
Clearly, a lot has changed since the time data centers were first setup. Retail internet connections have rapidly become faster and uptime is high.
about 1 year ago
It wasn’t too hard to see this one coming, but Microsoft has now officially rolled out the beta version of Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 which, among other things, brings with it a slew of new features that tie into Windows 7.
about 1 year ago
Windows Server 2003 seems to suggest that eventually, the content residing on retail computers will be web accessible, with Home computers becoming a part of the world-wide web.
about 1 year ago
Hi,
Nice article….This means very good news. Let’s hope more and more people adopt windows server technologies this way!
about 1 year ago
Microsoft is looking for guinea pigs to test Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 beta, which is – predictably – built around Windows 7.
about 1 year ago
The first self-hosting compiler (excluding assemblers) was written for Lisp by Hart and Levin at MIT in 1962. Because Lisp interpreters existed previously, but no Lisp compilers, they used an original method to compile their compiler.
about 1 year ago
Thanks for writing this. It was very helpful. Keep writing.
about 1 year ago
I posted your article to my myspace profile.
Regards
smith
about 1 year ago
It is so lucky of you that you have already started putting up your website. I have been studying sites and developing them so as to make a more attractive site. I do hope a few days from now i get to put up my own site also.
about 7 months ago
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so, Excellent post!
about 7 months ago
Hi there.
Thank you for a great post. It was very helpfull.
Anyone reading this post should bookmark this guys contents.
I have a new PC and needed some installation help so i went over to http://www.InstallSoftware.com but they did not provide me with the in depth
info this guy did. he kicks all the bigger sites’ butts.
Thanks Again
about 7 months ago
Thank you for a good post. So,I get experience is very good. Files Upload
about 6 months ago
It’s mistake after mistake with Windows, why don’t Microsoft sort it out?
about 6 months ago
Not sure I agree that it is mistake after mistake. They just don’t think about things the same. Sometimes they are just too late to the party (see Windows mobile). WinMo 7 might change that tho.