Acer Aspire AH340-UA230N Home Server Review

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(More customer reviews)QUICK SUMMARY:Acer's server, when configured correctly, provides home users and small offices a powerful solution for automated backups, restores, remote access and media server capability.However, configuring this server can be challenging, and Acer makes little effort to help its customers.Microsoft's Windows Home Server is a terrific -- and stable! -- operating system.Add a 2nd hard drive, too, and you've got redundant data storage.Cautiously recommended.

*** SPECIAL NOTE as of February 6, 2010:McAfee Antivirus automatically updated their software to Version 5, which totally screwed up my server!STAY AWAY from McAfee!!If you buy this server, immediately use Remote Desktop to open the server's Control Panel, choose Add or Remove Programs, and uninstall McAfee from your server!McAfee cannot be trusted!Read the end of this review to learn more.

What follows is my review of the Acer Aspire AH340-UA230N Home Server, based upon my personal experience with it since purchasing one in late June 2009. For 2010, Acer has refreshed their Windows Home Server lineup using faster RAM and the Intel Atom D410 and D510 CPUs which have a slight bump in processor speed and, for the D510, more L2 cache.Other than this, the AH341 and AH342 servers are *exactly* the same as the older AH340 server.

****** ACER HOME SERVER PRODUCT CONFIGURATION CHART ******

Acer Aspire easyStore AH340-U2T1H Windows? Home Server, Intel? Atom(tm) Processor 230 (512KB L2 cache, 1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB), 2GB (2/0) DDR2 667 SDRAM, 256MB flash ROM, 2TB SATA hard drive, Intel? Graphics Media Accelerator 950, gigabit LAN

Acer Aspire AH340-UA230N Windows? Home Server, Intel? Atom(tm) Processor 230 (512KB L2 cache, 1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB), 2GB (2/0) DDR2 667 SDRAM, 256MB flash ROM, 1TB SATA hard drive, Intel? Graphics Media Accelerator 950, gigabit LAN

Acer Aspire easyStore AH341-U1T2H Windows? Home Server, Intel? Atom(tm) Processor D410 (512KB L2 cache, 1.66GHz), 2GB (2) DDR2 800 SDRAM, 256MB flash ROM, 1TB SATA hard drive, gigabit LAN

Acer Aspire easyStore AH342-U2T2H Home Server (Black), Intel? Atom(tm) Processor D510 (1MB L2 cache, 1.66GHz), 2GB (2) DDR2 800 SDRAM, 256MB flash ROM, 2TB SATA hard drive, gigabit LAN

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What follows is my review of this Acer home server, based upon my personal experience with it since purchasing one in late June 2009.If you read this very long review, you'll learn quite a bit about this Acer server and the Windows Home Server operating system.You'll also read about some minor issues I've run into, and how to workaround those issues.I've owned this server for six months now, and it's been a good experience overall.If you buy this Acer server, you're not going to get much help from Acer. So for any problems, your own technical know-how and the Internet community are your best sources of help.

In short, I bought this Acer server and successfully installed it on my home network.In very large part, it's doing what it's supposed to be doing, that is, it automatically backs up my four-computer home network, and it gives me remote access to my data, too.Thus far, I have only one small, re-occurring issue which I'll share in a moment.

The out-of-box experience is pretty good, but don't expect much by way of documentation.You'll need to look elsewhere to understand all the ins-and-outs of using Windows Home Server (WHS).Although the "Quick Start" booklet seems very thick, it's actually got the instructions in about five or six languages, and so when you read the English section (if you read English), you'll only see how to set-up the server with a little narrative and black-and-white screenshots that are difficult to read.Fortunately, the setup is pretty easy, and they do include a larger poster with just the absolute essentials (which is what I used), and the poster was good enough.In short, plug-in the ethernet cable from the server to your wireless router, and you're in business.The server is heavier than I expected, and *quieter* than I expected (much less noisy than my desktop computer).

Then, you install a CD in one of your available networked computers to install the Server Console on the installed-from computer, and to begin configuring your new server.One things stands out in my mind here...the instructions say turn-on your server and wait until the blue LED light is glowing steady.Trouble is, there are about seven or eight lights glowing at this point (one light for each of the four disk drive bays, a power-on light, a network light, an "information" light, and possibly a disk activity light), and some of the lights glow purple, not blue.Suffice it to say that you should wait a few minutes just to make sure everything is settled before you start server configuring.

The server configuration went pretty well, I thought.Do a Google search for "Acer Windows Home Server Review" and you'll find a website where someone has very helpfully documented the entire install process using color screenshots of each step.The installed server console program (running on one of your networked computers) is not resizeable and won't maximize, which is annoying.You can use Remote Desktop Connection to actually login to your new server (if you're not familiar with Remote Desktop Connection, it lets you connect to another computer from the computer you're using).

In a very short time, my old, quirky Gateway desktop computer (circa 2003, XP Pro, 2Ghz CPU, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD) was recognized by the new Acer server, and I was creating user accounts on the server that match my desktop computer (you should use a password on your user accounts, and be sure to specify the same password on the server as what you use for the desktop/laptop account).

At this point, I had my first problem -- the Gateway's connection to the server would get lost inexplicably during the first attempt at a manual backup.Long story short, I completely reinstalled Windows XP Pro SP-3 on the Gateway desktop, reinstalled the Windows Home Server Console, and was able to begin getting successful backups until I got to the point where I restored all my digital media files (using Acronis and an external hard drive -- not using the new Acer server) and then tried a WHS backup, which fails inexplicably.Could be my aging and quirky Gateway hardware, but it's a fresh install of XP and the error messaging is vague and unhelpful.

Notably, my three laptops (running XP Media Edition w/1GB RAM, Vista Ultimate w/2GB, and Windows 7 Ultimate w/4GB of RAM) backed up their contents perfectly -- no troubles at all, even backing up a very large VMWare virtual hard drive (which is a single, physical, 20GB file on my Vista laptop).

Very cool feature:This Acer will wake-up either a sleeping or hibernating computer to do the backup in the middle of the night!So, don't turn-off your computers, just put them in sleep/hibernate mode so they don't use much power, but will still get backed-up.(Note:WHS does *not* use Wake On LAN technology, which doesn't work reliably in all environments - the WHS technical strategy for waking sleeping/hibernating computers works much better than WOL).The WHS backups are incremental, so you can return to any previous point in time during a restore -- you aren't limited just to what was done last night.This is handy if you want to restore your computer to the way it worked one month ago, when it was working reliably (you'd probably do a 2nd restore, then, to load all your most recent data following the system restore).

To get remote access to work correctly, you need to modify your ISP's modem setups (your ISP's modem most likely has a built-in router, too).Choose "Bridged over Ethernet" protocol in the modem setups, and then configure your wireless router that's attached to the modem so it is a PPPoE connection (you'll need your ISP's account name and password for the router configuration).Once I got through this headache, I was able to gain remote access to my server -- very cool feature!!(BTW, don't count on any technical help by AT&T/Bellsouth - you won't get any that's helpful to you).You may also have trouble if your ISP blocks certain ports, like ports 80 and 443.One Amazon customer reported that Verizon blocks those two ports which are necessary to get remote access to your server.(ISPs generally don't like the idea of you running a server from a residential high-speed connection).

I did a successful restore of my quirky Gateway computer, just to see what that's like.Very simple.Install a Restore CD in the computer (which must be connected by ethernet, not wirelessly), and choose a backup on the server you'll use for the restore.I did this twice, and it worked perfectly and easily.A computer with XP SP-3, Office Pro and maybe 5GB of personal data was restored in about 20 minutes!

In short, it's a 4-star product because I can't backup my digital media files on my Gateway.My Gateway desktop hardware *is* quirky, so that very well might be the problem root cause, but even still, the WHS backup is unhelpful in diagnosing the exact issue for me.(The Windows Event Viewer alludes to a buffer space issue with a socket, but that's beyond the home consumer's ability to understand).

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Product Description:
Designed for households and home-based businesses with multiple PCs, the Acer Aspire EasyStore home server (model AH340-UA230N) offers a simple way to network home computers, centralize, share and protect digital data as well as access it remotely from anywhere in the world. The EasyStore AH340 comes with a 1 TB hard drive, but it also includes three additional hot-swappable hard drive bays that enable expansion up to 7 TB--providing more than enough room for filing, storing and backing up a vast library of songs, videos, photos, games and documents.
Spec Check

Intel Atom Processor 230
Microsoft Windows Home Server
1 TB Hard Drive
2 GB DDR2 Memory
3 hot swappable hard drive bays
5 USB 2.0 Ports
1 eSATA Port
Gigabit Ethernet

The Acer Aspire EasyStore AH340 home server offers a compact footprint and stylish blue LED status lights (see a larger view of the features).

It includes three hot-swappable hard drive bays with simple, easy access to the drives (see a larger view; also see a view of the rear of the server). Offering a compact footprint of just 7.8 x 7.1 inches, the EasyStore AH340 is both stylishly and functionally designed with a piano black bezel that's complemented soft blue LED status lights. It's powered by an Intel Atom processor 230, and it features 2 GB DDR2 memory, 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet, one eSATA port, and five USB 2.0 ports. The one-touch USB copy function enables quick file uploading--just plug in a USB device, push the button on the EasyStore AH340, and the data is automatically sorted and stored by file type into designated folders.
The Microsoft Windows Home Server operating system centralizes digital media in one location, making it easy to access files, photos, videos and music from any PC on your network. It also protects critical data by creating an image-based backup of every home computer every day, so you can restore a single file or an entire PC. With Windows Home Server, users can access the home network from the office or the road, for full access to their files and applications, just as if they were sitting in front of their home PC.
The hot swappable HDD cage enables you to increase your data storage by adding up to three 3.5-inch internal hard drives--allowing you to max out your storage capabilities at an amazing 7 TB (yes, that's terabytes). The cage is outfitted with release levers for each drive to keep them secure. In addition, a recovery/reset pinhole provides additional data protection by enabling system restores and data recoveries with just one-touch.
The server works with DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) 1.5 Certified Home Server (DMS) and digital media player (DMP) to enable music playback as well as photo and video viewing on a TV. For internet security, the EasyStore AH340 comes with a 60-day free trial of McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008.
24/7 Global Access to Your Data
The Aspire easyStore offers a variety of networking benefits inside the home as well as remotely. For example, parents can access their children's homework while traveling for business. They can also upload videos and photos from sports events or summer vacations to the server, even while away from home. At any time, from anywhere, every family member with a PC in the home network can access photos, videos, music and other documents from the home server.
This centralization of digital data saves significant time by eliminating the need to transfer data from one PC to another, every time someone wants a photo, video or other document that's stored on another PC. It's also a safeguard. If a netbook or notebook is damaged, lost or stolen, users don't lose their data along with it, since it's backed up at home. In addition, when a new system is added to the network, it's quick and easy to upload data from the computer to the server.

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