Microsoft Pressures Testers After Software Leak

narramissic writes "ITworld reports that Microsoft is 'taking tough measures to find out who leaked a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Home Server to The Hotfix.net blog.' The software preview was posted on the site by a user named 'Richard' soon after it was released to a small group of testers. In an e-mail to MVPs whose names contain 'Richard,' Kevin Beares, the Windows Home Server community lead at Microsoft, wrote: 'For right now, you have no access to the beta until I can find the Richard who posted the WHS (Windows Home Server) CTP on this site.... I will work with the Connect Admin team to determine which one of you is the real culprit of this leak.'"

Comments

NOT a Model employee

[rueger]

"The software preview was posted on the site by a user named 'Richard' soon after it was released to a small group of testers."

I'd think that Microsoft's bigger question whether someone this dimwitted should allowed to work with their code. Why would I not be surprised if "Richard" really was the guy's name. Talk about poor judgment.

Re:Now they are really screwed...

[Fox_1]

The "Canary Trap" from Patriot Games or some other Tom Clancey Novel. Instead of unique spelling mistakes, a selection of unique words to each email using a Thesaurus . One email says "We will find out who did this" another "We will discover who did this" another "We will locate who did this" and etcetera ...

Of course all they can find out is who leaked the email, there is no reason the Richard who leaked the email is the same person who posted the bad review. My AdultFriendFinder name is Richard Steel, you won't find me in the phone book under that.

Re:WHS

[Anonymous Coward]

Well for starters:

1) Single instance store automatic differential backups. none of this shitty "dd" stuff; this compares each 4 kb block with a database on the server and only uploads ones that have a different hash. Very efficient and very nice.

2) Automatic warnings if any Windows machine on your network has AV or AntiSpyware turned off.

3) Automatic warnings if any of your machines has not backed up in the last several days. (and the software will wake machines from sleep mode to do the backup and then have them go back to sleep).

4) Ability to serve as a remote control gateway to your computers (where you go to the website of the server and can initiate secured remote desktop sessions to your other machines from there with only 2 ports forwarded to the server and none to any other machines.

But then again, I have actually tried the beta instead of just making shit up about it.

Re:WHS

[Technician]

Want a Windows Home Server? Load a copy of Linux/*BSD and Samba on to a spare PC.

Want to save some power, desk space, and money on hardware?

http://www.simpletech.com/commercial/simpleshare/

Here is a Linux package without the bulk and power requirements of a PC. The wall wart to power it is rated at 36 Watts max. It provides disk encryption, user based or share based access control, SMB and nfs. With the addition of external USB drives it provides RAID mirroring and striping. If you don't use RAID, it can simply expand using external USB drives. If you are not using both USB ports for drives, it can be used as a USB printserver.

For the ultimate geek, the firmware is hackable. You can add telenet for example. No warranty for making a brick however.

Units other than the 160 Gig model have a 3 year warranty. (I've used it. I mis-configured the software by enabling user based rights and share password based rights (a no-no that is not documented) and they recovered it under warranty.

Drive spin-down works except under version 1.07 of the firmware where drive health monitoring keeps it awake.

Have you read Slashdot before?

[Overly Critical Guy]

If this was Apple, we would get a bunch of people bitching about Apple's secrecy, like we always do. Kudos on the "I'm pointing out Slashdot double standards, mod me up!" karma whore routine, though. It's a worthy classic.

And you're wrong, there will be plenty of Microsoft shills defending Microsoft.

Re:Have you read Slashdot before?

[Falladir]

I think you're confused about what a shill is. They're not Microsoft shills if they're not being remunerated. Most of the MS defenders are probably just innocent, clueless fanboys and maybe some more mature supporters.

To accuse someone of being a shill is a very serious thing. Please don't de-fang the word by broadening its meaning to include innocent fanboyism.

(If you really do think that there are dozens of paid Microsoft employees surreptitiously posting pro-MS comments, then your use of "shill" is correct. I'm assuming you're not that paranoid.)

Re:Have you read Slashdot before?

[jb.hl.com]

I've been called a shill before. By the same person, actually...in fact, that person has directly accused me of being paid by Microsoft and has made references to my being employed by Steve Ballmer.

Which is odd, because last I checked my job involves selling groceries. And I'm a Mac user (albeit one who doesn't happen to think Bill Gates is some kind of anti-christ).

Re:Why bother?

[omicronish]

I'm not sure what all your "home server" does, but coming from you it probably uses far more hardware than most people want to buy for the purpose and it probably locks me into using one of your buggy, insecure operating systems to access it. Put another way, you're going to have a tough time convincing people who want to have a hard drive shared on the network (probably 99.99% of all people who would want a "server" in the house) to go with your buggy crap rather than the linksys router.

It'd be nice if you would at least familiarize yourself with the product before you bash it. Windows Home Server provides a variety of services, including:

• Redundant storage by duplicating it across multiple drives, and the ability to easily add/remove drives. Also, drive letters are gone; WHS treats all drives as one big pool of space.
• Remote access of files beyond the LAN, plus the ability to setup a personalized domain to access your server. All of this is optional and disabled by default if you're concerned about security.
• Backup and restore entire computers on the network. It backs up one copy of duplicate files across the network to save space. You can also restore individual files.
• Ability to install your own apps on WHS. It's based on Windows Server 2003 R2, and there aren't any restrictions on installing software on it.

So can the Linksys and Airport Extreme devices do the above? Don't be a blind basher.

Now regarding alternatives to WHS: If you simply need network storage without backup, remote access, and a full Windows OS environment, then stick with Linksys, Airport Extreme, and the variety of other devices that let you attach hard drives. But WHS sounds like a great option if you want those additional features.