Monday, December 1, 2008

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.