Third, how can the author recommend small office/home office (SOHO)–level firewalls while also stating that a small business doesn't really need Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000? These boxes do very little to stop real intrusions from the Internet, plus they have little or none of the other features that ISA Server 2000 includes. The price of ISA Server as bundled with SBS 2003 is a bargain, and the product is excellent.
Finally, a point that's important to include in any article about SBS is that if you approach the upper user limit (75 users in SBS 2003), you'll need a hefty server to service all the users, unless all they do is type Microsoft Word documents and send and receive only a handful of email messages every day. In past SBS versions, the 75-user limit has applied to user logons, not to the number of users you can set up in Active Directory (AD). You can set up 500 users if you want, but only 75 can log on to SBS at the same time.
—Walter Muma
wmuma@wmuma.com
Walter is correct that Hotmail.com doesn't have a POP connector and therefore wasn't the best example of a POP mail provider. However, he's mistaken about MSN.com's ability to support POP. I get mail through POP from MSN.com every day. In any case, the point is that SBS 2003's POP connector can and does retrieve mail from POP accounts.
Walter is also correct that SBS 2003 doesn't support Terminal Services application mode. I didn't mention that in my article because I don't consider it a major shortcoming in SBS 2003, which isn't designed to function as an application server. I believe there are two reasons why Microsoft didn't design SBS 2003 to be an application server. First, the system is targeted toward smaller businesses, which are unlikely to require Terminal Services. Second, a potential performance problem exists when you run Terminal Services applications on a system that also runs Microsoft Exchange Server, file and print services, and DNS and functions as a DC. If you want to run Terminal Services in application mode, I think you're better off getting a second server.
Regarding ISA Server, I didn't intend to recommend that businesses don't use SBS 2003 Premium Edition, which includes ISA Server. I believe that firewalls are necessary, and ISA Server includes a good firewall. If your business doesn't have a firewall, SBS 2003 Premium Edition would be a good value. However, many standalone firewall products can provide protection that's as good as or better than the protection ISA Server provides. Most businesses that I'm familiar with already have firewall products in place. For those businesses, little will be gained with a second firewall.
My article does state that SBS 2003 is licensed for use on a single server. It also addresses the 75-user limit.
—Michael Otey
Necessary Unnecessary Services
I'd like to pass along a tip regarding disabling one of the services mentioned in Michael Otey's article Top 10: "Unneeded Services in Windows XP" (January 2004, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 40722). When I turned off the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service, I discovered that I could no longer add groups or users in Active Directory (AD).
—Theresa Baldwin
theresabaldwin@halliburton.com
OOPS
In Jeremy Moskowitz's Buyer's Guide: "Change and Configuration Management Tools" (January 2004, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 41097), an incorrect toll phone number was listed for ManageSoft. The correct number is 617-532-1600.
In the "Change and Configuration Management Tools" product table, two vendor names were dropped from the contact information that accompanies each product listing. Novadigm is the vendor to contact for Radia Management Suite, and ScriptLogic is the vendor to contact for ScriptLogic 5.0. We apologize for any inconvenience these errors might have caused.
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