Two big announcements to share with everyone:
1) ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition has RTM'd!! Order a trial version today and check out both the Microsoft ISA Web site and ISAServer.org for exciting new articles in the coming weeks.
2) The ISA Server Management pack for MOM 2005 is available for download. Click here to get it!
Enjoy,
Jason
My article on the Malicious Software Removal Tool made Microsoft's February Security newsletter.
Check it out here.
Jason
Then you have some great options out there to get up-to-speed!
1) Check out the recently launched ISA Server 2004 Interactive training site at http://www.isa2004training.com/. This is a great way to walk-through some of the biggest benefits of using ISA server. You can also go free style at the end to just play around with the ISA Management interface. It only takes about an hour to get through.
2) Check out Tom Shinder's ISA Server 2004 book as it's a must read.
3) Stay tuned to ISAServer.org and the public ISA Server newsgroups.
Three valuable resources for anyone looking to work more closely with the product and become an ISA guru :)
Jason
Just got the January 2005 edition of Redmond magazine today and was very happy to see that ISA Server 2004 was voted the best software-based firewall solution on the market ahead of Checkpoint Firewall-1 and Symantec's Enterprise firewall!
Just wait for the Enterprise Edition to release!
Jason
So I've initialized the Malicious Software Removal Tool to MSRT, sorry had to do it because I'm not good at spelling malicious :)
Who has used it out there and what are your thoughts? I think the tool is a good start and I really appreciate it being deployable in an enterprise with either SMS or group policy scripts. I don't prefer the requirement to be a local Admin to run the tool, but if you have SMS you can work around that.
I'm interested to see how and if the tool changes in the coming months. If it does, I'll have some feedback to post.
Jason
I am happy to say that Bud Ratliff (fellow ISA MVP) and I are working on the new ISA Server 2004 Administrator's Pocket Consultant book for MS Press. We want this to be a very high quality book with relevant procedures for all you ISA Admins out there. We've got great support from the other ISA MVPs and and ISA team at Microsoft, but if you have good knowledge of ISA Server and would like to be a tech edit on the book, please send me an e-mail (jason@lexmug.com).
Jason
If you haven’t been tuning in to the ISA Server 2004 Webcast week yet, go check it out before it’s all over.
http://www.microsoft.com/seminar/events/series/isaserversecurity.mspx
I caught a couple of the webcasts on Monday that were very insightful and the slidedecks would be very useful if you need some ammo for a business case to management to let you get ISA 2004 in the door!
Jason
I hope everyone out there has a safe and Merry Christmas!
Jason
With ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition out on the market, look for some great book resources to help you learn all about ISA!
New titles:
> Dr. Tom Shinder's Configuring ISA Server 2004 is available!
> Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Unleashed by Michael Noel - not yet shipping.
> ISA 2004 Administrator's Pocket Consultant by Bud Ratliff and yours truly - not yet shipping.
I'll make sure to make note of other ISA 2004 books once I hear of them.
Jason
Starting my blog from scratch today with the great information Security MVPs are getting at the 2004 Security Summit. The content and presenters are top notch!
I will be posting on ISA Server Standard Edition, SMS 2003, and MOM 2005 in my blog, so stay tuned.
Jason