Small Business Server 2003 is an excellent choice for your computer consulting business. It is sold as a suite so you get a lot of great features. And Small Business Server 2003 is designed strictly with the needs of small business computer consultants in mind.rnrnServer 2003 loads the same way XP does. Set the bios to boot from the CD/DVD drive, pop the disk in and follow the instructions. Once it is fully installed and loaded you will be taken to the \"Manage Your Server\" screen. On this screen you can enable and configure the following options:rn- File server rnrn- enabled by default. Basically allows folders to be shared from the serverrnrn- Share Point Services rnrn- Creates a web where users can share informationrnrn- Print Server rnrn- A printer installed directly to the server will act as a network printer rnrn- Application Server rnrn- Turn you server into a web server as well as FTP hostrnrn- Mail Server - Kinda useless unless you have exchange installedrnrn- Terminal Server rnrn- Lets users log in directly to the server to run applications rnrn- Remote Access/VPN Server rnrn- Connect to the server remotely via VPNrnrn- Domain Controller (Active Directory) rnrn- Server controls policies for the entire network domainrnrn- DNS Server rnrn- Controls name to IP address resolutionrnrn- DHCP Server rnrn- Assignees IP addresses to DHCP clients rnrn- Streaming Media Server rnrn- Streams video content over the web rnrn- WINS Server rnrn- Older name to IP address resolution method.rnWhatever your needs are will determine which of these options get enabled and configured. In this article we are going to briefly touch on Terminal Server, Remote Access, Domain Controller w/Active Directory and DNS Server. I will get into further details about all of them in future articles.rnrnTerminal Server: As mentioned earlier Terminal Server allows users to log in to the server to run applications installed on the server. Besides enabling Terminal Server you will also need a Terminal License Server. This is where the licenses, to user Terminal Server, are installed. Depending on the amount of licenses you have that will determine how many users can log in. Terminal Server and Terminal License Server can both be on one machine. To enable the licensing server go to control panel -> add/remove programs -> add/remove windows components -> select \"Terminal Server Licensing\" and install.rnrnTo log in to the server from a workstation you can use Remote Desktop which is built directly into Windows XP and Vista. To find remote desktop click start -> all programs -> accessories -> communications -> remote desktop. When remote desktop appears enter in the server name or IP address to connect.rnrnRemote Access/VPN: Virtual Private Networking gives you the ability to remotely connect to your server and share it resources. The server will assign you an IP address either from its DHCP pool or you can manually enter a range of IP addresses the server will hand out to its remote clients. Once connected the next step will be establishing a connection to the server\'s shared resources. To do this click start -> run -> and type in server name or server IP Address (replace with your server\'s name or IP address) if everything is configured correctly your server\'s shares will appear.rnrnDomain Controller: Setting your server as a Domain Controller means you can control network policy through your server. If all the workstations are on the server\'s domain, through group and/or domain policy you can restrict user\'s movements. Control where they are allowed to go and what they are able to change. With the Domain Controller comes the Active Directory. In the Active Directory you can add network/server users, view/configure domain controllers and domain workstations. This is where you assign users their privileges and whether they can log in to the server via Terminal Services.rnrnDNS Server: As stated DNS resolves IP addresses to easier to remember names. Let\'s say your server\'s IP address is 192.168.1.2 and its name is PC Server. DNS allows you to search using PC Server .Out of all the modules this is the one that is most confusing in setting up properly.rnThis was a very basic introduction to some of the modules available in Windows Server 2003. In future articles I will be going into further details about each one.
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