A pre-release version of Microsoft's next edition of Windows Home Server - currently working under the codename 'Vail' - has been leaked to file-sharing sites.

As reported over on ZDNet, the Community Technology Preview Release 4 of Windows Home Server 'Vail' - released to a select group of testers by Microsoft prior to a public beta testing period - has found its way on to file sharing sites, giving the public a sneak preview of the features that will find their way into the next edition of Home Server.

Promising "simple file sharing, remote access, home computer backup, expandable storage through Drive Extender, and media streaming both inside and outside the home," the newest feature to be highlighted in this release is - believe it or not - an app store.

Described as "an application catalog and product-wide extensibility model," the marketplace - styled, it would seem, on that available for smartphone devices - will offer "new services such as anti-virus, online sharing, and home automation [which] can be seamlessly and easily added to the solution."

Right now the current versions of Windows Home Server already have an add-in feature, however the installation method is convoluted and finding new add-ins that you want is a chore of creative internet searching. It should also encourage smaller developers to take on making new add-ins that can generate revenue for themselves.

The system requirements for the software are interesting: available in a 64-bit edition only - at least for now - you'll need at least a 2GHz x64 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a storage device of at least 120GB. Vail offers no support for any file system beyond NTFS, but has had a version bump to its code base - bringing it up to Windows Server 2008 R2 level. The 2GHz CPU seems the biggest kicker here, as many WHS boxes are built on Intel's Atom technology that exclusively sits under this frequency threshold.

While the new version certainly brings a bit of innovation to the table - and hopefully leaves some of its predecessors foibles behind - notable in its absence is any mention of small business support and more intelligent data security. Previously, Microsoft has mentioned its desire to re-brand 'Home' Server and make it the entry-level Windows Server product for both home and small business users - bumping Windows Small Business Server one rung up the ladder.

For its part, Microsoft is staying quiet on this leak and refusing to offer any suggestions of an official release date for OEMs or system builders.

Can you see this latest version of Windows Home Server taking off, or is it a solution looking for a problem? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Markus Klein

PART-1

A very popular new functionality of Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Edition is Unified Messaging. With this feature set you have some great options to remotely connect to your mailbox. Within this article I will describe how to install and set up Unified Messaging and look at how to configure Outlook Voice Access and test your configuration using the Microsoft Testphone Tool provided with Exchange Server 2007.
Adding the UMS-Server Role

One of the first steps to providing your users with Outlook Voice Access is to add the UMS-Server role to your Exchange Server 2007 box. This task is quite easy because you have two options:

  1. Using the commandline

Figure 1: Set up UM using the Commandline
  1. Using the GUI-Setup

Figure 2: Set up UM using GUI-Setup Tool
To do this you will have to be a member of the Exchange Administrators group.
Requirements

After we have successfully added this role we will now take a look at the tasks to be done to make Outlook Voice Access Availabe to users.
First, let's think about the users: their requirements are easy; the only thing they will want is a functional telephone, no matter which technology it is based on.
The requirements for your telephone network are a little bit more complex: you will have to provide a telephone installation that provides Voice over IP (VoIP) functionality, because Exchange Server 2007 will just be another VoIP device in your network. A lot of telephone systems provide this feature or at least lots of them could be prepared to work with VoIP. If you do not have a hardware telephone system, you should think of using a software telephone system.
A full list of supported devices can be found on the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Telephony Advisor page.
If these requirements are met and the systems are configured properly, your network is successfully prepared for configuring UMS support for Exchange Server 2007.
Be careful, if you run Exchange Server 2007 in virtual environments - it is currently unsupported to install Unified Messaging on a virtual server system, no matter which tool you are using.
Configuring Outlook Voice Access

After a successful installation, we can now begin configuring. You can do this using the Exchange Management Shell – but in this article I will describe how to use the Exchange Management Console.
The console should now look like this:

Figure 3: Exchange Management Console after a successful installation of Unified Messaging
Before we start with the detailled configuration steps, let's clarify some vocabulary:
UM Dial-in Plan
An Exchange Dial-in plan is a container in Active Directory that represents sets of users’ telephone number extensions. Each Dial-in plan consists of: the subscriber access, dial codes, dialing rule groups, features and general settings.
UM IP-Gateway
Each UM IP-Gateway represents the IP-Address or FQDN of your VoIP gateway(s).
UM Mailbox Policy
A UM Mailbox Policy defines the message texts for the mailbox itself, the PIN policies and dialing restrictions
UM Auto Attendant
A UM Auto Attendant can be used to define how calls are mapped or routed during business and non-business hours.
Now you can easily activate unified messaging for your users. Just choose the appropriate settings on the user’s mailbox context menu.
Setting up “ExchangeUMTestPhone.exe”

Now that what these expressions stand for, we can configure them as needed. Now - after all configuration is done - we can begin testing if everything works properly with your Outlook Voice Access configuration. For this purpose Microsoft developed a small tool that is delivered with Exchange Server 2007 called “ExchangeUMTestPhone.exe” that can be found on the Exchange Server 2007 DVD and under the binaries folder of your Exchange Server installation.
To set up a client computer to run this tool, you will have to do the following:
  1. Install the 32-bit Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 on the client computer that will run the Exchange UM Test Phone application.
  2. The following list shows the files that you must copy to a local folder on the client computer:
  • <%windir%>\assembly\GAC_32\Microsoft.Collaboration .Media\
    MediaVersionNumber\Microsoft.Collaboration.Media.d ll
  • <%windir%>\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Collaborati on\
    CollaborationVersionNumber\Microsoft.Collaboration .dll
  • <%windir%>\assembly\GAC_32\SIPEPS\SipsepsVersionNu mber\SIPEPS.dll
  • Exchange Server\bin\exchmem.dll
  • Exchange Server\bin\extrace.dll
  • Exchange Server\public\Microsoft.Exchange.Common.dll
  • Exchange Server\bin\Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Common.dll
  • Exchange Server\bin\Microsoft.Exchange.Diagnostics.dll
  • Exchange Server\bin\Microsoft.Exchange.Net.dll
  • Exchange Server\bin\Microsoft.Exchange.Rpc.dll
  • Exchange Server\bin\ ExchangeUMTestPhone.exe
Now you can start this .exe file and it should run properly and present you the following:

Figure 4: ExchangeUMTestPhone-Tool
With this tool you can choose between four modes and test them if they are running properly:
  • Call answering (Test Call Answering Functionality with the Unified Messaging Test Phone)
  • Subscriber Access (Test Subscriber Access Functionality with the Unified Messaging Test Phone)
  • Auto Attendant (Test Auto Attendant Functionality with the Unified Messaging Test Phone)
  • TLS functionality (Test TLS Functionality Using the Unified Messaging Test Phone)
Each link describes the test scenario in detail, and tells you clearly what prerequisites are needed for this scenario.
In general, any problems during your tests should occur now. Within my “real world” deployments of Unified Messaging these probes became essential for me to just make sure that everything was set up properly and no configuration errors were made.
Troubleshooting Unified Messaging

If things are not working properly, the ExchangeUMTestPhone tool is your premier troubleshooting tool, too. As described in How to Debug Unified Messaging with the Unified Messaging Test Phone, you can quite easily switch to debug mode by creating an .ini file with the appropriate settings.
After restarting your Exchange Unified Messaging Service, you will now be able to debug your problem. Due to the better logging functionalites that are now available with the debugger, you should see where the error occurred and how to fix it.
To activate Unified Messaging Server Logging, you may use the Registry Editor and change the following setting:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\MSExchange UnifiedMessaging\Diagnostics
The supported logging levels are:
  • Expert = 7
  • High = 5
  • Medium = 3
  • Low = 1
  • Lowest = 0
After a service restart, your event log should display very detailed error messages.
Another solution to solve your unified messaging problem may be the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant, which is installed by default on your Exchange Server box.
Conclusion

As you have seen in this guide on how to install and test unified messaging on Exchange Server 2007, the configuration of this new service is not as complex as it seems to be. If you take a straightforward approach and make sure that every setting is correct, you should be successful. And if there are some problems, Microsoft has added tools to Exchange Server 2007 that help when troubleshooting and solving your unified messaging problems