Windows small business server 2003 r2 help

dazsly · 18 Jul 2007 at 18:03

Hi there, I need to purchase the above server software for the company I work for, What are the benefits for this software as apposed to the server 2003 full version?

Also if I have one windows 2003 server and 25 users which do I need user cals or device cals? Im a bit confused with the cals. Thanks :confused:

csmager · 18 Jul 2007 at 18:36

dazsly said:
Hi there, I need to purchase the above server software for the company I work for, What are the benefits for this software as apposed to the server 2003 full version?

Exchange 2003, mainly. It's all wizard driven too, which can be nice.

m4cc45 · 18 Jul 2007 at 18:50

It also has Sharepoint.

However it can only have a maximum off 75 users.

M.

oddjob62 · 18 Jul 2007 at 19:01

As above

Standard has
Exchange 2003
Outlook 2003
Microsoft Shared Fax Service
Sharepoint (free anyway so not such a biggie)

Premium also has
SQL 2005
ISA 2004

A big selling point you only need an SBS cal for each connection, not a server CAL + exchange CAL + sql CAL. So not only is the initial package cheaper, but licensing is as well.

dazsly · 18 Jul 2007 at 19:04

Thanks guys, can you lockdown users desktops to stop them installing programs and blocking internet access?

oddjob62 · 18 Jul 2007 at 20:35

dazsly said:
Thanks guys, can you lockdown users desktops to stop them installing programs and blocking internet access?

Yes for both, although it does depend how granular you want to be with your internet blocking.

m4cc45 · 18 Jul 2007 at 21:06

Better getting premium if you wan't to lockdown the internet as that has ISA (Internet Security Accelerator) which contains a proxy and firewall amongst other things.

For locking down the desktops just use group policy.

M.

Jimathy · 18 Jul 2007 at 22:56

Have a look at www.smallbizserver.net for more info on SBS than you can shake a stick at.

The Small Business Server Best Practices books are also worth a read if you've never used SBS before.

Only consider using device cals if you have way more users than you have computers. As mentioned before your limited to 75 users or 75 devices in the SBS world, also its best from a management point of view to use user cals OR device cals rather than a mixture of both.

brendy · 18 Jul 2007 at 22:56

Its also worth remembering that 2003 sbs wont allow more than one sbs server on its domain, it must be the root of the domain and cannot run in a workgroup mode.
You can add an exchange server, isa server etc though but its more of a bodge than good domain practices.