Product Reviews

Microsoft's new Windows Home Server (WHS) operating system is networked storage on steroids. Essentially, it allows hardware makers to create a PC without a screen that plugs into your router and looks after the boring but important stuff on your network: backing up your PCs, storing all your shared files in one place, and offering niceties such as enabling remote access and supplying media to devices around your network.

As great as that all is, HP has gone a step further with the MediaSmart Server (MSS), adding more consumer-friendly features to the already excellent - if rather boringly administrative - WHS. First is a significantly expanded help system, which gently walks you through every stage of server setup and configuration. The Home Server Console, which you use from your PC to interact with the server, has been tweaked to make it more accessible, offering plenty of guidance to what's otherwise a challenging set of jobs.

Secondly, while WHS already includes the ability to stream music, photos and video to other PCs (and your Xbox 360, if you have one), HP also includes an iTunes server, which means it will appear as a shared library on any Mac or PC running the application. It also cleverly collects together all the compatible music and video on the server, so it doesn't matter where the files are actually stored, which makes life much easier.

But the most ambitious addition is HP's PhotoSmart Web, which uses the powerful operating system to host a photo sharing website on the MSS itself

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- no more subscriptions or flaky online services. Once set up via the easy-to-use wizards, you can then choose who can view, download, comment or add to your galleries, with each visitor being given their own login. It looks great, and HP has managed to make it deceptively easy. We can see plenty of people choosing a MediaSmart Server for this brilliant idea alone.

The hard stuff

On the hardware side, HP has managed to make the MSS box surprisingly appealing. With alluringly tapered sides, and a set of dimensions that's just on the right side of cute, you won't feel obliged to shut it in a cupboard. And while it's not so totally quiet that you'd want it right next to you when sleeping, you'd only hear it in a silent room. Four removable trays behind the mesh door at the front make it easy to add more hard disks to the two already fitted, with 3TB (3,000 gigabytes) achievable today without replacing the existing drives and no limit to future capacity. There are also four USB ports and an eSATA port at the back, allowing you to add storage there too.

In addition to the excellent backup and sharing features already in WHS, you've got a very attractive package. But we do have two reservations. The first is the price, particularly given how cheap low-end PCs and NAS (network attached storage) boxes are these days. Granted, there's nothing else on the market that offers quite this set of features, but we'd feel happier if it was £75 cheaper. Our second issue is power consumption. For something that'll be left on 24 hours a day, the MSS's 60 watt appetite is source of some concern.

If you've only got, and only ever plan to have, a single PC or laptop, the MediaSmart Server isn't for you. But if you've got two or more computers on the go, or are planning to get serious about digital media (and especially photo sharing), this is a great little box. We suspect the initial batch will end up mostly in the hands of enthusiasts, but this is a product with masses of potential and, if you can overlook the cost, one that will bring unique benefits to any home network.