I have a client who needed to get a new file server for their office location.
Deciding that Windows was just not going to do the job for various reasons, I used a great open source solution FreeNAS to get the job done.
Everything was going great until OS X got involved.
Another valuable tool to keep your computer running efficiently and smoothly is Disk Defragmenter. This tool tidies up fragmented files on your hard disk drive.
As your hard drive gradually fills up with stored files, there comes a time when you need to delete redundant files to make more room. This leaves empty spaces from the deleted files scattered over the disk.
So, when you download a large file, or install more software, there may not be enough room in any single space on the disk to fit the entire file. Windows has no choice but to store the file fragments in several places. This makes for a fragmented file.
The more fragmented the files are on a drive, the more your computer’s performance and reliability suffers as the hard drive has its work cut out searching for these scattered pieces files. Hence it is slow loading your data.
In the earlier versions of Windows, the Disk Defragmenter was a vital tool. When you ran it, Windows displayed a graphic image of a fragmented drive showing the before and the after.
In Windows 7, the graphic display previously seen in the earlier versions of Windows is no longer visible. Instead, all the action happens behind the scene so you miss out on the graphics.
BranchCache is a network performance tool available in Windows 7 and Server 2008. It acts like a proxy in that it works only when requested by a client user. The typical user scenario where BranchCache will be useful is where a branch office has a slow link back to the central office. Any downloads that might occur will be slow because of the bandwidth connection. BranchCache is designed for such remote office operations.
There are two modes in which BranchCache works, hosted or distributed. In hosted mode, a 2008 server located on the branch office hosts the cached files. In Distributed Cache mode, a branch server is not necessary; file copies are directly cached onto the PC’s at the branch location.
When BranchCache is enabled, if there is a request for data across the network, a copy of the data or file is downloaded from the intranet website or a file server and it is cached locally within the branch office. As the need arises if another user in the branch requests the file, the user gets access to the content almost immediately as it is downloaded from the local cache rather than over a limited bandwidth connection back to headquarters.
The How:BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and it is estimated that it accounts for approximately 27-55% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009.
BitTorrent protocol allows users to receive large amounts of data without putting the level of strain on their computers that would be needed for standard Internet hosting. A standard host’s servers can easily be brought to a halt if extreme levels of simultaneous data flow are reached. The protocol works as an alternative data distribution method that makes even small computers with low bandwidth capable of participating in large data transfers.
As you may be aware the Divx Tech Preview for Windows 7 Allows Xbox 360 extenders to play natively without transcoding MKV files.