Chris Gray's blog

I'm a Development Lead on Windows Home Server

First Channel9 Video -- building a lightweight NAS device

Well, this is my first post here -- wonder if I'll get bored of it or what will happen :)

anyway, Mike Hall and I put together a little video that shows the consruction of a lightweight NAS (Network Attached Storage) device running WindowsCE 5.0.  You'll see a few technologies that we've added -- the biggest is our CIFS/SMB server.  this is the server component that is used when you access a file/print share with \\server\share.  Our server doesnt include many of the features that are included in WindowsXP or 2003 server but does have most of what you'll want.  Most notibly we dont include DFS (distributed file system), ACL's on a per-file basis, our filesystem is limited to 120GB, and the max file size we can support is 4GB. 

In addition to the file server you'll see a nifty little UI that we built -- the idea is that without much effort a 3'ed party can tweak our our UI (for branding etc).  You can modify the toolbars, pages -- really anything.  I hope to do either a little video or a whitepaper that describes more about this.

You can check out our video on MSDN's Channel9 at http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=15298 -- please feel free to post comments here if you want features or something

Published Thursday, July 29, 2004 4:25 PM by chrisgray

Comments

 

Mike Schinkel said:

Chris, that was totally cool. But since I'm not immersed in WinCE, I was kinda lost by it. What software do you have to buy? How much does it cost? How do you license it? oem? Is it available on MSDN Universal? Where should I go looking for more info?

July 30, 2004 1:21 AM
 

David Heise said:

Great video! Great small file server! Very impressive, maybe I'll have to start developing for WinCE now.
July 30, 2004 9:00 AM
 

Chris Gray said:

The only software required is WindowsCE 5.0, I believe you can get a free evaluation kit from Microsoft. I'm not 100% on this URL but you might check it out http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/getstart/evaluate/default.aspx

I'm not sure about the licensing (I so live in my own little world) -- this would be a good blog entry huh :) I'll check it out and put in an entry.
July 30, 2004 10:22 AM
 

Mike Schinkel said:

I researched it quite a bit and found out about the licensing; "core" vs. "pro." Core is typically for head-less operation. However, core does not include RDP, and pro is much more expensive. It would seem offering RDP for headless operation would make the most perfect sense as it would allow remote administration of a headless device, yet it doesn't come in the core package. Who is involved in making those marketing decisions? Do they have a blog where I can contact them?
July 30, 2004 7:31 PM
 

Chris Gray said:

I believe RDP is Terminal Services Client (so you can remote the desktop of another computer on your CE device). If you look at it like that I guess it makes sense that RDP isnt in the core (it requires a video driver and lots of complicated code)? Mike Hall knows lots of stuff about this sort of thing, he's got a blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall
July 31, 2004 12:49 PM
 

Mike said:

Yes, super cool video, and great camera work ;O)

Here's the scoop...

1. There's an evaluation kit available for Windows CE 5.0, this is a "full product" that runs for 120 days - the O/S image created by the tool is not time limited.

2. If you decide to purchase the tools then check out the "How to Buy" page - here http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/howtobuy/default.aspx

3. If you are building devices for non-commercial use then you don't need to license the operating system image - take a look at the EULA (End User License Agreement) that ships with Windows CE 5.0

- Mike
July 31, 2004 2:03 PM
 

Mike Schinkel said:

Cool. Any comments on the RDP and why it was left out of the core? Everything else makes sense, but that kills the ability to set up remote admin of a device w/o writing lots of ASP code.
August 1, 2004 11:10 PM
 

Wayne Taylor (Kryptos) said:

What are the reg entries in the video?

I wanted to have a go making my own?

Cheers

August 2, 2004 6:53 AM
 

Chris Gray said:

oh I think I see where you're going :) we dont have an RDP server on CE -- just RDP client, if you need to do remote configuration the only way we have is with a web config page
August 2, 2004 10:36 AM
 

Wayne Taylor said:

Sorry, I think you misunderstood....if your last comment was the response to my post.

In the video before you build the CE image, you enter some registry settings, the reg settings you are entering is cut of, hence I can't see it to copy it, this I can't build my own NAS device as you did in your video.

Hope that makes sense!
August 2, 2004 12:40 PM
 

Chris Gray said:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\HTTPD\VROOTS\/RemoteAdmin]
"HTTPDRestartTimeClient"=dword:8
"HTTPDRestartTime"=dword:4


these just readjust the refresh timings from 30 seconds to 8

basically the idea is this -- when you supply a password to the ISAPI it needs to restart the webserver, problem is the client hasnt downloaded all the data yet so restarting will result in broken links. These settings tell the server to wait 4 seconds to restart and tells the browser to wait for 8 seconds to refresh.

You might need to adjust the values here for your platform.

-Chris
August 2, 2004 3:24 PM
 

Wayne Taylor said:

thanks!
August 2, 2004 5:03 PM
 

Jeffrey Drake said:

Chris Gray is the coolest!
August 3, 2004 6:33 AM
 

Mike Schinkel said:

>> RDP server vs. RDP client

Ahhhh! So next question: RDP server in WinCE 6.0?!?
August 3, 2004 4:51 PM
 

Bill said:

Nice video. Can we use this a music server with our stereo? Does this device support running media player ? If so, how do we hook it up to the stereo?
August 10, 2004 6:33 PM
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