One Response to “ Acer Aspire easyStore AH340-U2T1H Home Server ”

1. William W. Davis on March 19th, 2010 4:24 am

   QUICK SUMMARY: Acer’s AH340 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 this Acer AH340 home server, based upon my personal experience with it since purchasing one in late June 2009. (Note: I bought the earlier Acer Aspire AH340-UA230N Home Server model, which came with a single 1TB hard drive. The AH340-U2T1H — this model — is exactly the same as the AH340-UA230N EXCEPT it comes with a *2TB* hard drive). 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).

   **** July 2, 2009 UPDATE

   I’ve had this for just a few days now, and things are working nicely. I’ve got all my personal data on a shared folder, making all my data accessible anywhere on the Internet (by design – I could turn off remote access if I wanted). Everything is working very well. Using Offline Files and Folders (on XP Pro or Vista Pro/Ultimate), I’ve now got a great solution to carrying my data with me on my laptop. Note, though, that for the auto-backup function to work, your laptop should be plugged in, and I noticed this morning that the kids’ laptop didn’t go back to sleep after getting awakened for backup. That’s only been a problem with one of my four computers, so it’s probably computer-specific, and not a problem with WHS.

   I added another 1TB hard drive: Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD10EADS [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]. (You might want the 2TB version since this server has a 2TB drive). There’s no instruction on how to actually do that, but here’s the key: slide the orange knob on the front of the empty drive bay to take the cage out — swinging that cage door fully open will disengage a hard drive from the server (but at the moment, the cage is empty, so it really doesn’t do anything). One side of the mostly-plastic cage is meant to be gently bent so you an insert the new hard drive and fit it into the four button-pins (it’s not screwed into the cage). When you slide the cage back into the server, shut the cage’s “door” halfway until the cage is slid back as far as it can go. Then, fully close the cage’s “door” to make a snug fit between the hard drive and the server’s pin receptacle. I bumbled my way around to figure this out, as there are no instructions to explain this.

   When you power-on your server, it’ll recognize the new drive. You need to add it to the server’s storage space (whether you want to use it as additional storage or whether you want to enable data redundancy so your data is stored on two drives, not just one).

   By adding a 2nd hard drive, I can ask WHS to automatically make a copy of all my shared folders onto the 2nd hard drive, giving me data redundancy. Note: The WHS database that keeps track of all your backups is *not* redundantly stored, though. There is a free add-in to the server console (called WHSBDBB) which can make a backup of the backup database, but that’s a manual process. This is a limitation of WHS, not specifically with this Acer server.

   I bought a one-year McAfee license for the antivirus (by default, the server runs Windows Firewall and not McAfee’s firewall). The process was klutzy and confusing after I clicked “Buy Now” on the server console (under the McAfee tab). Although others appear to have gotten a six-month introductory license, my Acer server came with only 45-days, and when I renewed, it didn’t begin the year after the 45-day period, it began immediately, so I essentially lost out on a free 45-day window to use McAfee. (Update 8/29/09: I suspect that McAfee is the reason I get the “WHS Console blue screen” — keep reading.)

   I bought a new APC-branded UPS for the server. By plugging in the data cable running from the UPS to the USB port on the server, the server immediately recognized the UPS. I easily configured my shutdown wishes by remoting into the server (Control Panel > Power Options > Alarms).

   *** July 17, 2009 UPDATE

   I took a 2-week vacation and had the server running while away — it ran just fine, and although there was nothing to backup, I did have remote access to my files and I could remotely use the server console to control the server. However, shortly before I returned home, I did notice one small glitch: the server console apparently hangs and becomes unresponsive when trying to sign-on to the server (from another, connected computer) after a period of time goes by, or after certain tasks are performed on the server.

   Today, for instance, I installed then uninstalled the AutoExit 2008 add-in program, and after uninstalling, I couldn’t use the server console any longer. This is not an infrequent problem with WHS. Trying to logon just creates an empty console window after I give it my authentication credentials. Rebooting the server appears to be the only way to get the server console to work properly once more. (August 7, 2009 Update: I reported this issue to Acer. Here’s what they said: “Unfortunately, we are unable to offer support for this type of issue…”). I’ve done plenty of Google searches, and this is not a widely-reported problem, but it *may* be caused by McAfee. (August 9, 2009 Update: After a few days of console unresponsiveness from a networked computer, yesterday the server console connected once more, even without a server reboot!)

   For me, that’s not a big problem because I can still reliably use Remote Desktop Connection to access the server. Get familiar with Remote Desktop Connection on your operating system. Windows XP, Vista and 7 all have Remote Desktop Connection which allows you to connect to another computer (though WHICH computer you can connect to depends — for instance, you can connect to a Windows XP Professional or Windows Home Server computer, but not a computer running Windows XP Home Edition). If you can’t remotely connect to your server, you’ll wind up rebooting the server using the power on/off button — very inadvisable for the place you’re storing backups and shareable data! Also, if you plan on using remote access via the Internet to get to the server console, then look at the HP servers, not this Acer!

   All other functions are working just fine: automatic backups, data redundancy, remote access to files & folders, remote control (of my other networked computers — getting control of the server itself remotely is dicey due to the bug I’ve mentioned). I like this Acer-branded Windows Home Server, and would certainly recommend it to others with at least a hobbyist’s interest in computers and/or networks. The installation was easy (except for the issue with the Bellsouth modem/router, which I had to resolve to get remote access to my server and data). It’s not for grandma, though, unless you’re providing grandma with IT support.

   One thing more: it is very easy to remove the Acer default home page from your server’s personal website. Do a Google search “change the default Acer homepage” to learn how.

   *** July 21, 2009 UPDATE

   Last night I used this Acer to create a media server. I just moved folders from the My Music (XP) or Music (Vista) folder into the Music folder of the Acer Windows Home Server. When the server console is first installed on any networked computer, it also makes ready for installation the Windows Media Center Connector, which allows Windows Media Center to easily find all those pictures, videos and music on the home server. After installing and rebooting the Connector software on each networked computer, Media Center finds (slowly — you’ll see new albums added and appear while you’re browsing your media library) everything on the server. Streaming from the server to the networked computer was flawless. Album art somehow makes its way to the server, too! Now I’m search of a solution that lets my old stereo tap into that digital storehouse on the server (without spending nearly $300 on a Squeezebox).

   One last thing: When downloading data from the server using the Internet, if your download is large (say, 100mb or more), the download will finish but your web session seems to time-out, and you have to close the browser and reconnect. Short downloads of either files or folders didn’t have this problem. My DSL upload speed is 512/Kbps (that’s in ‘kilobits’), so the download is no faster than about 52/KBps (that’s in ‘kilobytes’). For me, that translates to about 3MB/minute in download speed. Eg, you won’t be streaming video over the Internet, but music streaming is fine.

   *** July 25, 2009 UPDATE

   I played with video streaming recently. I’ve got lots of AVI files taken with a Canon digital camera. The AVI’s do not stream well at all, but that appears to be an issue either with the AVIs themselves or with the codecs I’m using (I have plain vanilla Microsoft Media Center or Media Player). Interestingly, I tried streaming a 720p, HD video clip in WMV format (across my home network, not the Internet), and the streaming was perfect! Note: both the CPU and network bandwidth (on a g-network) had plenty of headroom left to do other tasks while streaming the HD video clip. To stream my AVIs, though, I have to use a video converter to create WMV files.

   Today, the server console icon glowed yellow (warning). Apparently the server monitors the Internet connection of its own website, and it was telling me that the website wasn’t available to Internet connections. Seems as if Bellsouth was doing something to my DSL line, but I thought it was cool that the server would warn me that my website wasn’t available! Soon after, when the DSL was up, the server console icon went from yellow back to green. The same icon glows yellow for other reasons, too, like if a computer hasn’t been recently backed-up, or if you add a new hard drive but don’t configure it for backups. Very nice features.

   ***** JULY 29, 2009 UPDATE

   One last word. Yesterday I tried restoring one of my laptops (I figured, “No problem” because I’d restored two other computers just fine). However, the Restore CD failed to load a Windows default network driver that worked with my laptops network adapter! I learned two things: 1) Once you install your server, take the steps necessary to do a restore (even if you abort it at the last step) to ensure you *can* restore. 2) If the default network driver won’t work with your computer’s network adapter, download the right driver, unzip it, and put the (*.sys, *.inf) files on a USB drive’s root directory, as you’ll need to perform an extra step of loading the network driver during the restore. Once I did that, the Restore program found/loaded the right network adapter driver, and I was on my way once more.

   ***** AUGUST 4, 2009 UPDATE

   Thought I’d mention to everyone that the Windows Home Server backups do **NOT** backup the Recycle Bin, temp folders, shadow copies, or the client-side cache (if you use Offline Files & Folders, those copied folders are stored in the WindowsCSC folder). This is important to know because if you restore your computer BEFORE you have synch’ed all your files and folders (using the Sync Center in Vista), you’ll lose those changes after the restore is complete. The backups aren’t image-based like Acronis (which saved my hide because I was able to get to the client-side cache in an Acronis image backup). Also, the nightly backups do **NOT** backup the shared folders on the server (Photos, Videos, Music, and all user shared folders). If you have 2+ hard drives in your server, you can turn-on duplication so the shared folders are copied onto a second hard drive (for data redundancy), but you won’t gain the benefit of incremental backups that keep track of the changes to those shared folders. You can use an external hard drive to make a backup of the shared folders (to have an offsite backup of your data), but that method doesn’t give you automatic, nightly backup of any changes to the shared folders. Lastly, shadow copies aren’t supported in Windows Home Server. So, if you want to keep track of all your incremental changes to your files, store them on the local hard drive, not the server, so they’re backed-up every night. If you don’t care about incremental changes, store them on the server so they’re shareable and accessible via your WHS website.

   *** AUGUST 30, 2009

   Thought I’d share the good stability I’m having with my Acer server. It’s been running 24/7 for the last 18 days (18 days ago it performed an automatic update of the operating system and rebooted). I’ve had no further trouble with the server console not responding/connecting — until today! This morning, McAfee ran a once-a-week virus scan, after which the Acer red information light began glowing (meaning “Critical” network problem — apparently, McAfee real-time protection stopped working either during or after the weekly scan), and the WHS Console application got a blue screen when trying to logon. I don’t know for certain that McAfee is the cause of the WHS Console blue screen (which, btw, is different than the Windows BSOD…the WHS Console blue screen just means that after entering a password, the console application won’t appear…you can still reliably use the console by using Remote Desktop and launching the console directly from the server Desktop). However, I see others have had this same problem running WHS on an *HP* server that also was running McAfee. After waiting a few hours, the red light turned to blue and the McAfee service apparently starting running again on its own. The WHS console still doesn’t connect from a networked PC, though. Throughout this, though, the server still was accessible. To get the WHS Console to respond, use Remote Desktop Connection to your server, open Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+END), click the Users tab and look for any connections (besides the one you just established) and logoff any hung-up connections. That’s what cleared up the problem for me. I don’t know why I had a hanging Administrator connection, but I did, and logging-off that connection caused the WHS Console to respond normally once more — without rebooting the server, which also would have worked.

   After 18 days, remote access from the Internet works flawlessly, streaming music over the Internet works fine. Backups happen every night (as long as my laptops are plugged-in to the wall socket). I was reading about Verizon’s 4G network where upload/download speeds are fast enough to support streaming video. The future looks bright with Windows Home Server and this Acer!

   Oh, if you want to remove the built-in McAfee software, you’ll need to do so using the server’s Control Panel (so you have to use Remote Desktop to get to the server). You can’t remove McAfee using the console’s function of installing/uninstalling server “add-in” programs because the McAfee add-in program isn’t listed. Acer has somehow baked in the McAfee product in its implementation of the WHS operating system.

   Let me reiterate one point I made earlier: If you buy this Acer, don’t expect *any* help from Acer’s technical support. Either you’ll have to figure out your own problems yourself, or you’ll engage the Internet community for help. If you’re not comfortable doing this, buying a server — especially from Acer — isn’t for you.

   **** SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 UPDATE

   My Acer server rebooted itself last night when it automatically installed the Windows updates from Microsoft. Unbelievably, I didn’t ever have to manually reboot the server in the last 30 days! It quietly ran and did its automatic, nightly backups of my 4 PCs, and the server reliably streamed music for me every day at work over the Internet. The server’s last reboot was after the August install of Windows updates. I never had a Windows-based computer that was this reliable.

   **** OCTOBER 26, 2009 UPDATE

   Still running like a charm! Backups are done every night, as long as the laptops are plugged in. BTW, the server does backup Windows 7 machines with Power Pack 2 (Power Pack 2 is a major software service release from Microsoft; it includes bug fixes and often some new functionality. This is a free download, and you should install it when you’re first setting up your server.) The only time this server reboots is to install the once-a-month Microsoft updates. The server is simply rock-solid. (Note: As of November 24, 2009, Microsoft made available Power Pack 3 which adds some additional enhancements, especially for Windows 7 users. You should update WHS to Power Pack 3 to get the latest bug fixes and enhancements. If you already have a Windows Home Server and have automatic updates turned-on, then Power Pack 3 will automatically install itself).

   *** NOVEMBER 17, 2009 UPDATE

   My quirky Gateway desktop’s hard drive crashed! I’ve never had a hard drive crash before! The Gateway had two 80GB hard drives, so I yanked the master drive which crashed, and made the slave drive the new master. Popped in the Acer PC Restore CD and the original C drive contents was restored in less than half an hour. Because automatic backups occur nightly, I lost nothing. Although I don’t have the 2nd hard drive anymore, all that data is accessible from one of the backups on the Acer server. The whole ordeal was just a minor inconvenience, rather than a disaster. Very, very cool.

   *** JANUARY 15, 2010

   Weirdly, after a monthly update, my Acer server wasn’t seen by Windows Explorer as one of the networked computers in my workgroup. It was still addressable by its IP address, though, and I could still see data in Explorer via the mapped drives I added earlier. I just couldn’t see my server as one of the computers in my Windows workgroup. What’s up? Long story short, this can happen with Windows workgroups. You can do web searches to learn all the gory details, but here’s what you need to do if this happens. Power-off all computers (I also powered off my router and modem, too). Then, power-up just the Acer server, firstly (or the modem, router, then the Acer server). Wait 10 minutes or more so the server goes through all it’s start-up tasks. After that, power-on all the other computers on your network. This seems the best way to make the Acer server the “master” recordkeeper for all the computers in a Windows workgroup. I tried this, and it worked for me.

   *** FEBRUARY 6, 2010

   My Acer server went on “Critical” status today. Why? McAfee’s antivirus files are out-of-date. They haven’t been updated in two weeks. Why not? I tried manually updating them via the console; no dice. I tried other measures, too, all unsuccessful. Finally, I had to uninstall/reinstall McAfee using McAfee’s horrible web interface. But why did I have any problem at all? Here’s why: McAfee’s just automatically updated their software on my server from version 4.9 to 5.0. However in the process, my “McAfee Total Protection” stopped working correctly, and I’ve spent most of a day trying to uninstall/reinstall McAfee all without success! Lesson learned: Don’t buy a license to use McAfee antivirus! Try another antivirus made for Windows Home Server. I’m trying Avast’s antivirus right now — 60 day free trial.

   Questions? Try commenting and I’ll do my best to answer back.
   Rating: 4 / 5

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