Windows Home Server and the Hamachi Surprise*

Synchronizing your digital life is a necessity in today’s modern world.  When you work for a company with a good IT department, you can keep up with the mothership using a collection of software applications and Virtual Private Networks (VPN’s).

But, let’s say you’re at home.  Maybe you have a home office, or maybe you just need to access stuff from your computers at home once in a while.  There are many options that can help you get the job done (and everyone has their own preference).  I’m going to talk about the way(s) I do it.

Use what you’ve got

If you have a Windows Home Server (WHS), then you may have seen the Remote Access section of the console screen.  I’ve set this up and have been able to upload and download files to and from my WHS when on the go.  Same goes for family members for whom you set up an account (to share files, pictures, etc.).

You can even get Remote Desktop access to any of your computers that have the WHS Console installed (and are currently online).  There’s also Live Mesh (in a later post), LogMeIn (related to Hamachi), and GoToMyPC… and many more.

Make it stick

Something I found helpful in my WHS setup was to permanently fix a few variables in order to make sure everything runs just right.  In particular, WHS will take advantage of a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) router and automatically configure the settings it needs in order to participate in the outside world.

My router is UPnP enabled, but it doesn’t always remember its settings.  That meant my WHS would drop out of sight until I got back home.

The fix for this is easy.  All you have to do is get into your router configuration screen for the “Applications” or “Virtual Server” (each router is different) and permanently enable “Port Forwarding” to WHS.  Port forwarding isn’t that hard.  I don’t know why all these sites make it sound like a mystery.

If you have a UPnP router and enable WHS’ remote access, you will probably see some automatic port forwarding that WHS has already done for you.  To make it stick, help WHS by doing the following:

• Copy down the entries from WHS in the router’s Port Forwarding or Applications area.  There should be a few different entries like Port 443, Port 80 and 4125.
• Give your WHS a fixed IP address on your network by manually setting your WHS’ network adapter’s IP address (some routers let you hand out the same DHCP address all the time just by clicking a button).
• If you change your WHS’ IP address, update your port forwarding settings.

This guarantees that your configuration won’t change if you reboot any of your equipment.  Also, it’s a server, it shouldn’t be roaming around your network, right?

Advanced topics in remote access

Here’s where things get interesting.  Getting files through the remote WHS interface is OK, but not all that flexible.  So, what I’ve done for many years is use my own VPN to get remote access.  Using a free application called Hamachi, you can get access to more of each machine’s services.  In particular, you can:

• Connect to a Remote Desktop directly (without going through WHS)
• Set up VNC on your machines for remote access (I can explain why in another post)
• Browse shared folders using Windows Explorer on your remote computer
• See if machines are online or not
• Map a drive to a folder share on the Hamachi network

Hamachi is a secure (see Open Source comment below), reliable, and zero configuration VPN.  It is free, but also has some paid options which might be attractive.  It is not Open Source which irks some people.

Installing Hamachi on each machine you want to access remotely just takes a few clicks.  Here are some tips for best results:

• Choose an inordinately LONG password for your Hamachi netowrk (and write it down).  You are, after all, exposing your home network to the big bad world.
• Open Remote Desktop on your WHS and install Hamachi directly on that machine.
• When Hamachi gives you the option, choose “Run Hamachi as a Service” on your WHS machine, or any machine with multiple users.  This ensures you will have access to it at all times.
• Choose descriptive names for your machines so you know which is which.  Sometimes these machine names don’t quite resolve into their IP addresses well, so be sure to display each machine’s Hamachi IP address in the client window for easy, direct IP address access.

Now add OneNote

Remember how I said I synchronized my OneNote Shared Notebooks to WHS when I was at home or on the go?  The secret ingredient is Hamachi.  If you’ve already mapped your drive letter to the OneNote Shared Notebook location on your WHS, all you have to do when you’re on the road is:

• Start Hamachi
• Let it log in
• Open My Computer on your computer
• Double-click your OneNote shared drive (it will say “Disconnected” at first)
• The drive will open up if you are connected to Hamachi

Once the shared drive opens, OneNote is ready to go!

There’s still more to cover here, so if you want clarification on one point or another, I will be happy to expand it in a later post.  Hopefully this gives you some pointers on how to keep more of your digital life in sync!

* if you wonder what the surprise is, I just thought it sounded like an old Bud Light ad.