Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Standard 2003 (5 Client)

Rating:
Summary: No Terminal Services In This Edition
Review: Be forewarned if you are wanting to use this as an application server. The Terminal Services included in this edition are limited to two users and will NOT run in Application Mode. Microsoft claims this limited for security purposes, but you can do this on their full blown product, so I think it is more for $ purposes (they want more). As far as the product goes, the value is pretty good. You get an Exchange server, POP3 mail connector (this distributes email from a POP3 account to the proper Exchange account), fax sharing software, and Outlook 2003. Most things can be done through the Wizard driven interface, which can be a hinderance if you are trying to customize the product.

Rating:
Summary: Server Basics 101
Review: I just took on setting up my first small office network. We have four computers and a desktop that someone set up to run as a server. The 6 gig harddrive had long seen its time and needed to be replaced. I bought a Dell PowerEdge SC420, 4 Windows XP Professional upgrades (from Amazon at an amazing price and current rebate) and Windows Small Business Server 2003 (also at a great price). I've worked on PC's for years but never set up a office network with a server. I was very apprehensive and questioned my skill but this software honestly was ridiculously simple to install and deploy.

It guides you through the entire process step by step and I recommend it highly to anyone looking for their first server software. Of course it does have some very technical aspects that left me scratching my head but that's because I don't know what I'm doing. Setting up Sharepoint and Exchange will require some further reading on my part but shouldn't be that difficult to deploy.

I recommend this product very highly and didn't give it 5 stars because of my own inexperience and not being able to see what it can fully do. It also takes hours to install which is pretty typical for any Microsoft product. I did have the whole thing done in one Saturday though and it took about 8 hours altogether.