December 2004
SBS2003—A Great Small/Home Office Server

Is keeping track of your files, e-mails and projects on multiple computers becoming unmanageable? Do you wish you could find the same information on your desktop and laptop, even have them look exactly the same? Or, how about running your business and home office computers from the same place? Microsoft's Small Business Server can do this and much more. And, you can use SBS2003 to manage children's computer and internet security settings.

With Small Business Server 2003, Microsoft has developed a Server operating system for small businesses that is affordable, useful, and fairly straight forward in setting up and maintaining. SBS2003 can run on medium to high end desktop pc hardware configured as a server or low end server hardware. After the basic installation and some hands on tweaking, the server will have a shared calendar, contact, task and e-mail program for up to 5 users. Additional user licenses can be added for up 75 total users.

After getting this system up and running, following the basic setup wizards and attaching the computer to your network, SBS2003 can be used to store and backup your important files. Additionally, it can be configured to give you remote access to files and e-mail. Collaborating on files and projects is another great feature built in to SBS2003. Using SharePoint Portal and Exchange Server your whole company can work on files and projects without worrying about which version is the most up to date.

Now, for the home office users who share internet connections, wireless networks and computers with other family members, SBS2003 can help keep personal files and e-mails separate from business ones. Security settings can be used to keep kids from damaging computers, losing files and visiting inappropriate material on the internet. My favorite feature of using a Windows Servers on a small office and home office network is the ability to have files and e-mail/contact management data backed up automatically. Using what is called off-line files and folders, you can be assured that you have a copy of your files and Outlook data in at least two places at all times.

This is just an introduction to a great product that can help any business manage files, projects and e-mail data. Please contact me if you would like to learn more about the SBS2003 and how your small/home office would benefit from it.