Re: MS Action pack arrived

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Graham,

The versions of the backoffice products aren't really crippled as such, -
they are the exact same builds of code that are shipped with the full
retail
versions, they are just optimised to run with a minimal memory footprint,
and restricted to a smaller number of client connections. Apart from that I
believe they are the same, so you will not lose any functionality or
features.

In actual fact, there are a number of extra goodies included in SBS that
just aren't available in any other way, one such example being the POP3
connector for Exchange (this was in SBS4.5, I assume it's still in SBS2K).
This lets you set your exchange server up as a client to a POP3 mailbox, so
you can have your email from any ISP's free email accounts  downloaded to
your exchange server, and then delivered to individual mailboxes. Other
things in SBS include a modem sharing service, and an enhanced fax service.

Of course, there are some restrictions with SBS. - the client connections
being one, but IIRC, the connection limit is either 25 or 50 clients - I
imagine that should be enough for you!!  Also, when you build SBS, it
insists on being the PDC in a new domain, - you cannot add it to an
existing
domain. - therefore you can only ever have 1 SBS server in any NT domain.
(once you've built your new domain with the SBS server as the PDC, you can
add additional BDC's without any problem).

Note, I'm referring to SBS4.5 here, but from what I understand, SBS2K will
be much the same....

I think SBS is a great product for home use!! - all the backoffice apps you
want, extra goodies as mentioned above, and a single integrated manegement
console to install, configure, and administer the lot!

I do have a copy of SBS2K as well, I just haven't got around to upgrading
my
SBS4.5 server yet, - hopefully over the Xmas holiday I'll have time to do
that..

I can't see why you would need to wait for advanced server.... Are you
planning to have 8GB RAM? are you planning to cluster? are you planning to
go to 8-way SMP? do you need to use Network Load Balancing? - unless the
answer to any of these is yes, the Vanilla server will be enough for your
needs.

I believe XP server versions are still a couple of months away, so I
wouldn't want to wait for those. W2K server is a stable & mature
product now
that we have had 2 SP's... ;-)

The feature in XP Pro similar to Terminal Services is called "remote
Desktop" and is really just a remote control service, I believe it is
limited to a single remote connection only, and disables the local console
whilst a session is active...

just my thoughts...

Paul G.


>
>My action pack has just arrived and contains Small Business Server 2000
>amongst other things. It does not contain W2K Advanced Server, this
>apparently will be sent to me in January. The question is, should I go
>ahead
>and install SBS 2K or is it worth waiting for W2K AS. In particular I
want
>to be able to use Terminal Services with my ePODs. The pack also
contains
>SQL server and Exchange server so I would almost certainly install
those
>directly without using the crippled versions in SBS. Another option is
to
>use WXP Pro as my 'server' for now (I believe it has something similar
to
>TS
>built in) and wait for a copy of WXP Server. At the end of the day I
want
>to
>limit the number of times I rebuild my server, so what is the
>recommendation.
>
>Graham
>


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