Consulting / Home Setup - Questions

[boggsie]

I have a need to get up and running with MS Small Business Server 2003.

And, as it turns out, I need help with formatting so the diagrams are readable.

I need to be able to practice, tweak, etc. the SBS setup, while not distrupting my existing home network.

Existing network is relatively simple:

MODEM
|
ROUTER
| |
| |
| |
PC PC

The router completely isolates the PC's from incoming traffic. I can surf the web, get mail, etc. but GRC's port scanning indicates that all ports are stealth.

I need something a little different in order to add SBS, but not radically change my existing setup.

I believe that the change depicted below will:
1) permit my PC's to continue to access the web, even when the SBS isn't working quite right.
2) Permit my PC's to access the inside facing SBS web site.
3) Permit the external facing SBS web site to be visible to the internet via opening the IP to the DMZ.

I am not sure how to properly refer to this type of setup and thus, am having a difficult time locating a diagram and narrative on how to accomplish this.

MODEM
|
==ROUTER==
| |
| |
| | (DMZ)
| SBS
| |
| |
| |
==ROUTER==
| |
| |
| |
PC PC

Any thoughts on where I should look or your experiences are welcome.

Thank you,
-boggsie

 

[RebateMonger]

Microsoft has a couple of whitepapers on how to set up SBS. There are also a couple of good books on the subject. Brelsford's first SBS 2003 book is available at Amazon. You DON'T want the "Advanced" version of book.

I listed the "Standard" SBS setup, inluding router setup, in this post.

Putting a second home router underneath your SBS Server will cause you nothing but headaches. Use the built-in SBS NAT routing functions.

 

[boggsie]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Microsoft has a couple of whitepapers on how to set up SBS. There are also a couple of good books on the subject. Brelsford's first SBS 2003 book is available at Amazon. You DON'T want the "Advanced" version of book.

I listed the "Standard" SBS setup, inluding router setup, in this post.

Putting a second home router underneath your SBS Server will cause you nothing but headaches. Use the built-in SBS NAT routing functions.

Thanks much. I do appreciate your thoughts and guidance. I have Brelsford's first book. I have used it to successfully setup SBS with the built-in NAT functions and ran this way for more than two years.

The consistent problem was/is, whenever I am working on or tweaking the SBS, reboots, etc. essentially terminate the connection and disrupt internet connectivity for the rest of the site. We are in the process of moving locations and I wanted to investigate an alternate setup.

I am trying to figure a way to:
a) permit interior (back-end) administration of the SBS
b) permit exterior facing web sites (DMZ)

This is completely demonstrated by many of the FAQ's and administration walk-throughs I have seen, including Brelsford's book.

The issue I have is satisfying the above as well as:
c) serve internet connectivity outside of the SBS

Any follow-up thoughts? 🙂

 

[RebateMonger]

You will lose Internet connectivity to client PCs when SBS is rebooted. I typically reboot my SBS Servers once a month, as part of MS's monthly patch cycle. I do it after-hours. It's offline for a few minutes a month. I wish my ISP was that reliable.

I've never had an SBS 2003 Server "go down". Sure, it's possible, but doesn't happen often. If you REALLY NEED 100% uptime for your web sites, you may want to look at clusters.

One of the most secure ways to host externally-facing web sites is to use SBS Premium with it's ISA Server 2004 and securely publish those web sites. We host about ten sites on our main SBS Server. You can either host from IIS on your SBS Server or can re-direct web traffic to other internal web servers, Linux or Windows.

When using ISA, your internal web servers will be completely hidden from the Internet and all of their inbound traffic can be scanned for suspicious web requests, even if the traffic is encrypted.

 

[boggsie]

OK, thanks for the follow-up.

I agree - it worked well before and there is no reason to think that it won't continue to work well for some time.

It just seemed like a good opportunity to make a change, if it was a reasonable path to consider.

Thank you and best regards!