WHS and remote desktop?

[VirtualLarry]

I am (slowly) building a storage server with WHS. I want to enable internet access to it, and allow me to RDP in and work on an account directly on the server, mostly development work.

How does this work? I know that WHS is based on SBS2003, which is based on XP.

Do you still create user accounts on WHS? Can you? Or does all of the WHS server stuff happen on a default account that the installer sets up?

Likewise, how does the file-sharing work? Can I password-protect individual shares, or do I create user accounts on WHS and assign shares to them?

Can a create a local account, and using RDP, install software onto it, and access it remotely over the internet?

Speaking of RDP, does it use certificates or some kind of encryption such that it doesn't send the password over the internet in a way that it can be sniffed?

Edit: One more thing, installing dev tools generally installs debugger hooks, will those interfere with WHS's normal operation in any way?

 

[RebateMonger]

Remote Desktop works identically as with XP. You'd normally log in with the local Administrator account. I believe that WHS already comes with Remote Desktop enabled for the Administrator account and RDP excepted in the Firewall. But I'm not 100% sure. It's been a while since I built a new WHS.

The WHS Management Console, available from the Remote Desktop or from any of the client PCs after the WHS Client Connector software is installed, has options to enable/disable sharing of the various shared folders and to enable remote web access.

You can create up to ten User accounts, and define which User accounts can access which shared folders, which accounts can do remote access, and what each accounts' rights are. You can also enable a "Guest" account for anonymous access to folders and for anonymous remote web access.

WHS uses the SBS 2003 remote access method, which switches to TCP Port 4125 rather than TCP Port 3389, is not subject to "man-in-the-middle attacks", and is fully encrypted throughout the connection and login process. It uses a server certificate. The SBS remote access method is considered as secure as you can get without multi-factor authentication.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Can I run an XP VM inside WHS, and connect to it remotely via remote desktop? Just thinking of my older triple-boot machine that used to be my main machine for a number of years. It would be nice to have it around. I was thinking of virtualizing it, using VPC7 on Win7 Pro 64-bit, but even better if I could install it onto the server and remotely access it.

 

[RebateMonger]

I've virtualized WHS inside of XP (using Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005 R2). That made more sense to me because XP had direct access to hardware and I was using it as a media PC.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've virtualzied WHS inside of XP (using Microsoft's Virtual Server 2005 R2). That made more sense to me because XP had direct access to hardware and I was using it as a media PC.

I want to do the opposite, I want to virtualize Win98se, Win2K, and WinXP, inside of WHS.

 

[RebateMonger]

I want to do the opposite, I want to virtualize Win98se, Win2K, and WinXP, inside of WHS.

I wouldn't expect to have a problem virtualizing those inside of Server 2003 (WHS) using either Virtual PC or Virtual Server. Not unless MS had some kind of artificial limitation on those virtualization products inside Server 2003. But I don't know of any such limitation. I've just never tried it. I was going to run Windows Home Server inside of Server 2003 using Virtual Server 2005 R2 to back up a client's office computers. That Server 2003 was only an office file server, so it had virtually nothing to do all day.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Can you watch YouTube using Remote Desktop (over a suitably high-bandwidth connection), and get the audio too? Does remote desktop send audio?

The server would be running on 25/25 FIOS internet, and the client would be running on 16/2 comcast.

 

[Raduque]

I dont think WHS has sound services included.

I'm not understanding why you're trying to use WHS like a local workstation?

 

[pugh]

I dont think WHS has sound services included.

I'm not understanding why you're trying to use WHS like a local workstation?

correct. And I wonder the same too.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I dont think WHS has sound services included.

I'm not understanding why you're trying to use WHS like a local workstation?

So that I don't have to have two boxen powered on, instead of just one? If it's not feasable, then I guess I can install Win7 Pro onto a box and use that.