server
 

I have been asked to setup a small network for a local business. They want a all Windows network which is good for me and they want a mail server, web server, proxy (ISA) server, file server and another one for their other bits and bobs. I know that ISA and Exchange do not run well together. I am not sure how I can do this and they will be having 25 client machines connected. Does anyone have any suggestions? And for the webserver they have a decent connection, think its something like a 6mb connection so they will be able to host their own from it.

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Why have they asked you to set this up if you are not even sure what you are doing ? seems a bit odd that a business would do such a thing.

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Unless the customers do not know the OP cant do it and the OP is winging it. Im not saying he is but people like that make life very difficult for people like me to do business as it ruins the reputation of guys like me

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The product for this is M$ Windows Small Business Server 2003, you'll need the premium version if you need ISA. This all runs on one standalone server. All your workstations need to be Win 2k or Win XP Pro (home won't work). Max users 75.

It is a steep leaning curve to setup, if all you've had before is a windows peer to peer network, but a very flexible product when you get it right.

I wouldn't try and host a business website. Your better off paying for hosting so the webserver can push that data out. Just allow access to the server for the company users to connect and get their email etc. Outlook can be configured to allow web access, and other software also enables connectivity.

There are some good websites on SBS including www.smallbizserver.net.
Also check out the book: Windows Small Business Server 2003, Best Practices by Harry Brelsford.

As for the server, doesn't need to be phenominally powerful. I've got a Dell PE2800 with twin Dual cored 2.8 Xeons and 4GB RAM. You need to maximise RAM, but not the CPUs, one Xeon only would have done the job for our 20 users. Indeed I had to disable hyperthreading on the Xeons as ISA only support 4 CPUs not the 8 detected by hyperthreading. Key thing to think of with the server is data backup and quantities of storage, you also need to have a corporate level antivirus - not all integrate with SBS - I use Panda.

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I thought ISA Server was a firewall. Either way, I use Squid http proxy, it's brilliant and very easy to set up/use.

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ISA is a proxy and a firewall in one.

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Ah, never used it, wouldn't know. :)

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ISA can be a bit of a nightmare if u have a hardware firewall you will be fine - all ur clients will have the xp firewall on them anyway.

SBS 2003 will be fine for you and comes with lots of nice wizards to help but u sound like ur not to confident about setting up a 25 user network and getting it all to work - lots of stuff can and does go wrong :)
i currently support 8 SBS sites and it keeps me busy luckily its mostly users being silly than anything wrong with teh software.
and as said dont host a website on ur connection hosting a webserver is
a: security risk if all ur apps / data is on one machine (sbs2003) well it can be ok nothing is ever safe on the web :)
b: a waste of bandwidth - get a hosting package for 2 pound a month to do a better job than ur line will.

dont be fooled by server specs for a sbs server it will run on anything really u just need RAM as exchange will eat it up.
go for 2GB min ram
u want to consider storage - sata or scsi if you can afford it - dont worry about sata horror stories, hard drives break all the time ive gone through 6 scsi drives at the sites i look after and no sata drives have broken yet - oh and raid 5 them
u want 2 network cards (north internet / south lan)
and go for a dual core 2 cpu rig maybe from dell but dont configure it online - phone them get an email address then haggle with the indian chap over what u want.
consider backup as well - onsite backup as well as an online backup and rotate the backup media onsite.
good luck :)

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ISA is a very good enterprise scale firewall.
Its only a nightmare if you dont know what your doing, like any other piece of technology or software

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early days of isa where a nightmare and 25 man server setup isnt an enterprise plus he dosnt know what hes doing so a firewall on a router will be fine i think.

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I didnt say it wouldnt be fine - I said that its a good firewall. And it wouldnt be an early version of ISA? 2004/6 are all wizard driven.

If he doesnt know what he is doing then he shouldnt be doing it, hardware firewall or software firewall.
Security is better in depth, so router, then if ISA is available - use it.