Re-Enable your Windows Home Server LAN Connection on the HP Mediasmart Server

So I just helped one of my friends to re-enable his LAN ethernet adapter on his HP Mediasmart Windows Home Server. He disabled it without thinking and naturally, you can't access your server without an internet connection. We used my server to figure out whether the keyboard would work and which keys to press to navigate through the menus. Here is a tutorial on how to get your adapter working again if you accidentally disable it.

Remember that you will not be able to see anything while following these steps. Also, this tutorial is based off of the Windows Home Server operating system and so it should work on any hardware platform. No guarantees though.

1. Restart your home server.
   
   
2. Connect a USB keyboard to a USB port on the server (wait a minute or two to be sure the drivers are installed).
   
   
3. Hit CTR-ALT-DEL to bring up the log on screen.
   
   
4. Enter your administrator password ONLY.
   
   
5. Hit ENTER on your keyboard. You should now be logged onto your server and we can proceed to find our way to the Network Connections window.
   
   The steps from here on are going to be what you enter on your keyboard
   
   
   
6. Hit the WINDOWS key (the one that has the Windows logo on it that brings up the start menu).
   
7. Hit the UP arrow 3 times to move up the start menu.
   
8. Hit the LEFT arrow 1 time to highlight Programs.
9. Hit the RIGHT arrow 1 time to open the Programs list.
10. Hit the DOWN arrow 2 times to highlight Accessories.
11. Hit the RIGHT arrow 1 time to open Accessories.
12. Hit the DOWN arrow 1 time to highlight Connections.
13. Hit the RIGHT arrow 1 time to open Connections.
14. Hit ENTER to select Network Connections.
15. Hit the RIGHT arrow 1 time to highlight the adapter.
16. Hit the LIST key (the one with a little menu on it inbetween your right ALT and CTL keys).
17. Hit the DOWN arrow 1 time to highlight Enable.
18. Hit ENTER to hopefully Enable.

This should have enabled your ethernet port. You are basically navigating through all of the menus to get to the Network Connections window and finally enable the adapter.

After finishing try to open the shared folder from a computer on the network to see if it worked. You can also tell because the yellow light on the back of the server should start blinking indicating activity. A restart should not be required, but if this doesn't work then try again. It's much easier than soldering onto the headers to connect a monitor. Good luck.

How to Subscribe to a Google Calendar from Your Windows Live Calendar

I have been using Google services such as Gmail and Google Calendar for some time now. Recently I decided to give some of the newly updated Windows Live services a try. I began using Windows Live Calendar and the thing I liked the most was the To Do List. I have requested for Google to add a To Do List to their calendar for quite a while, but they still have yet to do so. I find the To Do List very useful for keeping track of my homework, tests, and project due dates for school. I figured since I was using the To Do list in Windows Live, I might as well use the calendar too since it's a hassle to use two calendars. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to subscribe to my Google Calendar from my Windows Live Calendar, so once I figured it out I decided to write a real quick how-to to help anyone else trying to do the same thing.

First, you will need to navigate to your Google Calendar and sign in.

Then click on Settings in the upper right hand corner.

Click on the Calendars tab.

Click on the calendar you want to share, for me it was Nathan.

Scroll down to where it says Private Address: and then click on iCAL.

Right click on the link that comes up, right click and select Copy Link Location.

Click OK to exit that window.

Now head over to your Windows Live Calendar and sign in.

In the middle on the top, click on Subscribe.

Leave the bubble that says Subscribe to a public calendar selected.

Paste the Google Calendar address you copied earlier into the Calendar URL: box.

Type the name you want for your calendar in the Calendar name: box.

Then select a color and click Subscribe to calendar.

You will now see your Google Calendar in the list to the left of your calendar. You can uncheck the box next to it if you don't want to show it on your calendar.

Also of note, there will be a little padlock icon next to every entry from your Google Calendar in your Windows Live Calendar. This is because your calendar entries are private and not publicly shared. if this annoys you, you can publicly share your Google Calendar and then copy the public iCAL link from your Google Calnedar settings.

You can also add other calendars on the web using a similar technique.