Pedro Innecco

The idea around this documentation is to modify the M34 software set-up to allow it to run as a Windows service under Windows Home Server (WHS).

A while ago, I acquired a Siemens DECT (cordless phone) to use at home in my office. I opted for Siemens first because they’re a market leader in DECT phone, and also because they had an interesting product called M34; a USB device which would allow a computer to join your DECT set-up.

With the M34 device you could do things such as remote control your computer over the telephone, have Skype calls routed to your phone system and other sorts of data transmission between your PC and DECT set-up. I got the M34 with the objective to set it on a home server, as soon as I could get one.

However, the M34 software was built around a desktop perspective. That is, its supporting software that communicates with the device were built to interact with users that are logged in into the PC. It technical terms, this means that the M34 software was not designed to be ran as a Windows service.

This documentation is a work in progress which I would like to share with people interested in using the M34 with a WHS. It is by no means a final documentation, but by sharing it with the world I am hopping to get more users interested in finding the best solution around setting the M34 with WHS as a Windows service. If there is any progress on this project, expect this documentation to change over time. Otherwise, consider it to be just the published results of my initial tests!

The processes involved in this practice are:

1. Installation of Siemens M34 USB hardware and device drivers on the server
2. Creation of a service account to load the M34 software as a Service
3. Creation of services for M34
4. Configuration of M34 under the created service account

1. INSTALLING THE SIEMENS M34
   1. Download the latest drivers from Siemens website. If you downloaded it from another PC rather than WHS, move the driver self-extractable executable to a shared folder of your WHS.
   2. Log-in into WHS as the administrator. If you have a headless server you must log-in from another PC using Remote Desktop Connection.
      1. You can find it on the Start menu under Accessories -> Communications. Once Remote Desktop Connection started, type-in the IP address or NetBIOS name (network name) of your WHS (example: 192.168.0.10 or HPSERVER).
      2. Make sure to log-in with the username ADMINISTRATOR, using the password you have chosen when you set-up your WHS.
   3. Once logged in as administrator, execute the setup program for the drivers.
      1. You should follow the instructions provided with the M34 manual. An updated copy of the manual should be included with the downloaded drivers in PDF format.
      2. The basics are that you should NOT plug the M34 device until you are instructed to do so, and that you should select the correct base station you plan to use with the M34 when asked by the set-up.
      3. If you plan to use skype, make sure you select to install Skype as well, but don’t choose to load Skype on starting Windows since you are on the administrator account. So far I didn’t manage to have Skype and M34 working harmoniously as Windows services, and I plan to cover Skype in a separate document.
   4. There might be a point where the driver will ask you to plug the device and wait for “FOUND DEVICE” messages to pop. However, if you are using Remote Desktop Connection to manage the WHS, it is likely that no such messages will pop-up. You must SKIP this process and install the drivers manually after finishing the installation (and restarting WHS). Make sure you have the M34 device plugged into a USB port of your WHS at this stage.
   5. Once the installation is finished and WHS has been restarted, log-in again as administrator. On the Start menu, right-click My Computer and choose properties. Once loaded, click on the Hardware tab, then click on Device Manager. You should see several Devices with a yellow exclamation mark which are related to the M34 device. These are:
      • Cordless Internet Access
      • Cordless Device Configuration
      • Cordless Device Line Access
      • Cordless Device Update
      • Cordless PC Control

      NOTE: You must right-click each device and choose the option Update Driver.

   6. Once the Hardware Update Wizard appears, choose the (Advanced) option and click next.
   7. When asked for the search and installation options, choose the option “Don’t search, I will choose the driver to install” and click next.
   8. When asked to select the driver, the Siemens driver should be listed the each device (because you installed the drivers, remember?). WHS will say that the driver is not digitally signed. Ignore the warning and click Continue Anyway.
   9. Select the listed driver and click next. Again, make sure you do this for every single Cordless device that has a yellow mark on it.

   Background: The whole ordeal about having to manually install the drivers is because Siemens didn’t care to digitally sign their drivers (this is a Microsoft initiative to reduce the ammount of bad drivers which could crash a PC). An alternative would be to temporarily disallow the driver signature warning. But this is something I don’t like doing (for newbie readers: the hard way is good! It forces you to learn more)

   Once all drivers are installed, you can now proceed to the next stage, which is the creation of the M34 service account.