Microsoft Windows HomeServer.com

Sometimes, just sometimes, the deals Microsoft makes in growing its portfolio of web domains is a clear indication of what projects are cooking inside Redmond. HomeServer.com is just such a case. The domain is obviously connected to Windows Home Server, a new Microsoft server product designed for household environments and scheduled for market availability in the fall of 2007. Windows Home Server is designed as a smart, self sufficient hub, meant to be integrated at the heart of a home network. The product offers back-up, storage, and remote access capabilities, acting as a core, centralizing and securing the files from all the machines connected to the network.

In mid July, Microsoft celebrated the release to manufacturing of Windows Home Server. As of yet, the release date has not been disclosed, as it is connected with the OEMs that will ship the product preloaded on their hardware. Project Quattro debuted all the way back in 2004, and starting with the fall of 2007, Windows Home Server will become available from HP, and additional OEMs including Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, HP, Iomega, Lacie and Medion. However, Microsoft acquired HomeServer.com since 2006. "Microsoft bought the "HomeServer.Com" domain a year or so ago. The transaction that involved 3 companies, 4 foreign languages and 3 currencies. It took awhile to complete, and it is a funny story," stated Todd Headrick, product planner for Windows Home Server.

Well, if you attempt to access HomeServer.com, you will find that the address will redirect you to the Windows Home Server official web page on Microsoft.com. But with Windows Home Server having RTM-ed, the Redmond company is also getting ready to go live with HomeServer.com. Or at least this is what Headrick hinted at.

"When we enabled the Dynamic DNS services for Windows Home Server in the CTP build, we used to 2 test domains (livenode.com and livenode2.com) where Windows Home Server beta testers could get a personalized domain name for remote access to their home server while away from home. (...) If you registered a personalized domain name with either livenode.com or livenode2.com prior to this weekend (August 3, 2007), that domain name will get transferred over to HomeServer.com when you install the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version of Windows Home Server," Headrick explained.

Following the introduction of this change, all the personalized domain names ending in livenode.com and livenode2.com, will switch to homeserver.com. All that you'll have to do is log in with your Windows Live ID. "Any future domain names registered with either the Release Candidate (RC) build or the Windows Home Server 120-day Evaluation edition will be registered as livenode.com domains and will not be transferred over to HomeServer.com. All new domain names registered with the RTM version of Windows Home Server will be using HomeServer.com starting today," Headrick added.