THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

When I build a box.... a server or a workstation ...it's always 'behind' a router.  Just ..well...just because.  Building a system behind a firewall means that I can be a bit sloppy...that said you do realize that when the other day I talked about putting a system on the Internet after I 'built' it to Standard to make sure everything works and 'then' going onto premium that while behind a router at all times, I also was not exposing the system.

Remember I'm a two NIC gal.  So with a SBS box [unlike a normal Windows 2003 standard machine] we have even in the “Standard” configuation a RRAS firewall.  Nothing too fancy...but it works and protects us. Run the Connect to Internet Wizard and the RRAS firewall is there.  Ensure that everything is working [yes, including Sharepoint], a friend learned a hard lesson at my expense because he had RTM media [the original GOLD with the Sharepoint bug in it] and I stupidly thought that the mere application of the SBS 2003 sp1 right after the system was built would fix Sharepoint right up...I mean...after all it has that patch inside the Service pack..but obviously not.  The application of the SP service pack did not fix the broken Sharepoint.  He had to manually reinstall it with the original GOLD media, patch it, and then reappy SBS 2003 sp1 [the last patch] to get it to work.

I didn't realize that you couldn't go from a 'broken' Companyweb using RTM media to a “fixed” Companyweb using SBS 2003 sp1 media.  Lesson learned...unfortunately by him.

The rule of thumb we should remember...that I thought would work in this rare case...is that applying 'anything' over the top of 'something' not working generally doesn't help.  Oh sure there are hotfixes that are for a specific case, but in general, if something isn't working and you don't have a specific hotfix for it, don't assume that in general a service pack will make it go away.  Fix the underlying problem first... and then continue on your way.

P.S.  When building an SBS box... I never ever stop at installing the Windows part and attach it THEN to the Internet... I would ONLY stop after the installation of Windows to ensure the RAID array is set to go.  You finish the entire install of SBS and let the wizards do their thing and then and only then do you run the Connect to Internet Wizard to attach it to the Internet.  There's an article out there on an Exchange web site that recommends that you stop at the Windows part and get it to Windows Update and patch it and I strongly disagree.