I found Home Server to be intuitive to use and very effective at backing up data as well as monitoring my home network's health. Its simplicity and automation will make it a winner with many home users. More technically savvy users, however, may find its limitations frustrating.

Getting started: Backup and recovery

Once the server is connected to your home network, a special piece of software called the Windows Home Server Connector needs to be loaded on each of the users' PCs. You can attach as many as 10 computers to the server. I was able to simply browse to the server's software folder and install the connector from its location on the server.

By default, Windows Home Server backs up each computer running the Connector software every night. It's necessary to leave computers turned on in order for the backup to run, though the server can communicate with PCs that are either sleeping or hibernating, waking them up for the backup. Once the backup is complete, the PCs can go back to sleep.

The systemwide backup schedule can be set to keep backups for a specific number of days, weeks and months. At the end of the defined period, the oldest backup for that period is deleted to make room for the newest backup. You can change the number of backups and retention times to suit your network.