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Deploy your own exchange server

This is the short list. The reasons and the details are on Installing and checking your exchange server. What the server is for: What the exchange server is for.

Before you start

• A 64-bit Windows 10 PC (version 1607 or newer) that can stay on.
• An address your devices can reach - step 5.
• Nothing paid: no hosting, no certificate, no subscription.

Steps

1. Get the package. The exchange server is in no released package yet, so there is nothing to install today; Windows servers says where it stands. The Server edition you can get today (winget SerZhyAle.FastMediaSorter.Server, or the setup file from the Server edition page) shares folders over SFTP and does not contain the exchange server. Not from the Microsoft Store: a Store app cannot run as a Windows service.
2. Answer Windows. On “Windows protected your PC” click More info, then Run anyway. On “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” click Yes: it adds the Windows service and one firewall rule for the server program. The installer is not signed, so Windows warns.
3. Open Share Manager and go to Media Exchange Server. On a fresh install the first-run guide walks you through the port, the firewall and service choices, the public address, the first account and the certificate.
4. Create the first account. It is your own account, and the PC joins it by itself.
5. Give the server an address. Take the first that fits:
   • a public IPv4 address, or a free dynamic DNS name such as myhome.example.net, with one port forwarded in the router to this PC - see Home network;
   • IPv6, when your provider shares one address among many customers - no forwarding is needed, but a device with no IPv6 cannot reach the server;
   • neither: the server then works on your own network or through a VPN into it.
6. Get the connection string. In Share Manager choose Get connection string..: it gives a text, a .fmsexch file and a QR code of the same string. It holds the server’s address and the fingerprint of its certificate, never a login or a password.
7. Add the server on the phone. In FastMediaSorter open Settings, the General tab, My devices, then tap Add server. Paste the string, or Scan QR, or Choose file, then enter the login and the password. The server’s card says Connected, devices: 1 or more. More: My devices.
8. Check it from another network. Switch the phone to mobile data and open My devices again. A card that connects proves the server is reachable from outside.
9. If it does not connect, the app says at which step it broke. Check in this order:
   • the PC with the server is asleep or off;
   • the port is not forwarded, or the provider blocks incoming connections;
   • the network offers only IPv4 or only IPv6 where the address needs the other;
   • the Windows network is public - set it to private;
   • a VPN is on, on the device or on the PC;
   • the router’s guest network keeps the devices apart;
   • the date and time on a device are wrong.
10. Invite people if you want to: make an invitation in Share Manager for each relative or friend. See Accounts, invitations and passwords.

Keep it running

• Set sleep to Never in the Windows power settings: a sleeping PC answers nobody.
• Leave automatic time on: the certificate and the sign-ins depend on it.
• Update by installing over: the accounts, the devices and the certificate key survive.
• Tell the people you invited before you switch the PC off for long.

Take it back

Open Windows Settings, Apps, and uninstall the entry of the package. It removes the service and the firewall rule the installer added.

Back to the exchange server or to the portal start page.