[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] I just got the "Networking Infrastructure Solutions" for SBS 2003 from the Action Pack - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Mon, Jan 24 2005 23:48 bradley

I just got the "Networking Infrastructure Solutions" for SBS 2003 from the Action Pack

I just got the “Networking Infrastructure Solutions“ from the Action pack and the diagram for networking on the back is a single nic setup.  I just don't get it why every single time I see an official Microsoft “small biz” setup it's a single nic.  You would have to pry my cold dead fingers off my two nic ISA server setup at the office and my two nic RRAS server at home.  I don't want to rely on a hardware router firewall as my only protection and I'll tell you an excellent reason why.

My router at home DIED tonight and was causing such excess packets that it was slowing down my network connectivity.  Now why do I want to rely on a firewall that I haven't patches or bios flashed since the day I bought the dang thing?

I want a stupid cheap firewall on the outside and then my big beefy ISA server firewall on the inside.  [and not to mention in a few short months ISA 2004 as part of SBS 2003 sp1 which we will get as premium customers for a nominal handling and shipping fee]

I do agree with one push in the document.  The push to migrate OFF of Windows NT.  It seems like everywhere I go people are interested in migration.  And yes for the record you can even migrate from Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003 to SBS 2003.  Now why you'd want to buy the normal stuff in the first place I have no idea.  ;-)

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# re: <sigh> I just got the "Networking Infrastructure Solutions" for SBS 2003 from the Action Pack

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 12:19 AM by bradley

While I understand the underlying message here (defense in depth), people need to STOP making distinctions between "software" and "hardware" firewalls. ALL firewalls are software AND hardware firewalls. They ALL run on an OS, and they ALL use hardware. Heck, you can even get ISA on a standalone firewall appliance.

I can't see any difference between your "hardware" firewall failing, and your CPU cache or Memory failing on your SBS server. Both take down your network.

# re: <sigh> I just got the "Networking Infrastructure Solutions" for SBS 2003 from the Action Pack

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 12:37 AM by bradley

http://www.isaserver.org/hardware/ISA-Appliances/ http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/howtobuy/hardwaresolutions.asp
$3,000 makes me twitch though.

# re: <sigh> I just got the "Networking Infrastructure Solutions" for SBS 2003 from the Action Pack

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 5:49 AM by bradley

I've been placed on the committee to help the Microsoft Business Solutions folks improve these offerings. At our first meeting we had lots of comments to give them. I agree completely with the 2 nic scenario. They also need to start pushing SBS into the 5 user market and not wait until 10 users in the official pubs.

# re: <sigh> I just got the "Networking Infrastructure Solutions" for SBS 2003 from the Action Pack

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 4:36 PM by bradley

Aw, there's only room for 2 NICs in your world?
:)

As for software vs. hardware, there <are> still fairly clear differences although technically all solutions have a hardware and a software component.

"Hardware" usually means that the software instructions are burned into silicon, or similar steps have been taken to optimize and harden for specific purpose. Not only can performance gains be expected, the "software" is usually considered secure because the instructions can't be over-written, they're "read only."

IIRC, I had a discussion on this in the Public ISA newsgroups where Tom Shinder made a good arguement for "installable software" whereas I touted the benefits of software burned into silicon.

In the end, we agreed to disagree, but truthfully most software starts as installable, then can eventually make its way to being burned into silicon and in that respect functionaility will be similar either way.

So even today, you can find Windows/ISA embedded in appliances and sometimes it's not even obvious. And $3000 is about the going price for that kind of thing although <maybe> a tad high since prices have come down a bit.

Tony