SBS 2003 Guest Column and End of Chapter 3

hi - my name is harry brelsford and I am the author of the purple book (Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best PRactices). I am posting up a few pages of this SBS book per day unitl SBS 2008 ships. My laptop battery islow as I am working at the Denver airport about to board my flight to Houston for the Microsoft Worldwide PArtner Conference (WPC).

Today we complete Chapter 3 with a guest column from my main man Frank Ohlhorst!

cheers....harrybbbb

Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation www.smbnation.com

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Guest Column

Another Take On Internet Connectivity

By Frank J. Ohlhorst

With broadband connectivity becoming commonplace for most any small business, consultants will need to carefully consider the implications of high speed internet access for their customers. SBS2003 does a great deal to leverage those broadband connections ranging from the ability to share the connection with client PCs to hosting web based services to incorporating remote access. But consultants will find that there are some limiting factors when it comes to today’s broadband connections.

The first problem encountered often revolves around the lack of a static IP address assigned from the broadband purveyor. Most cable companies and a good portion of DSL providers supply a dynamic IP address for the broadband connection device (DSL Modem or Cable Modem), that prevents a friendly URL from being assigned to the SBS2003 network in question. In other words, consultants can not offer their customers the ease of using “mysbs2003network.com” as a solution for connecting to the customer’s network. Simply put, dynamically assigned external IP addresses have the net effect of eliminating many of the advantages offered by SBS2003 for remote users. Luckily, consultants can turn to a Dynamic DNS service to solve that connectivity problem.

Dynamic DNS services are available from several vendors, with key players being Tzolkien’s TZO service (www.tzo.com), Dynamic DNS Network Services’ DynDNS (www.dyndns.org), No-IP.com’s No-IP service (www.no-ip.com), and Deerfield’s DNS2go service (www.dns2go.com). All of those vendors share a common concept and functionality, the service works by running a small client application on the SBS2003 server, which is then used to inform the Dynamic DNS provider with the public IP address of the network. That information is then used to associated a URL with the public IP address and is updated

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whenever the IP address is dynamically changed and viola, the site now has a valid URL.

Simplicity is the key for keeping Dynamic DNS working, most of the services on the market rely on a small client application that can be quickly installed and configured, that client application should also be configured to run as a service and auto launch on startup. Some further configuration is often needed, for sites running a firewall or ISA server, it may be necessary to open some ports to allow the Dynamic DNS service to work.

Another option is to not use a Dynamic DNS client at all, how is that possible? Many of the broadband routers coming onto the market are now building Dynamic DNS clients in. Key players there include Linksys, D-link, SMC, Buffalo, Zyxel and several others. That offers the advantage of moving the client software off of any servers or PCs and eliminates the need for opening additional ports, also it brings the advantage of being able to remotely administer the router if desired.

Once the URL dilemma is solved, there may be some other issues to contend with, namely blocked ports. Many ISPs are now blocking incoming and outgoing TCP/IP ports, effectively eliminating the ability for broadband users to host websites, host email servers and the like. That becomes a significant problem for those looking to leverage those very features found in SBS2003.

The solution to that problem can also be found with the Dynamic DNS service providers, some of which support port redirection or forwarding. Simply put, if an ISP blocks port 80 (HTTP web traffic), simply redirect that traffic to another port, say port 81. That feat is accomplished by the dynamic DNS service provider capturing port 80 traffic at their site and redirecting it to a port of your choice.

Port redirection does require some integration work, namely modifying applications to listen for traffic on different ports than normal, for example you would have to “instruct” IIS to look for traffic on port 81, instead of the default of port 80. For those using broadband routers, that whole process can be simplified if the router supports port redirection, then the router can be instructed to listen for traffic on port 81 and then redirect that traffic to port 80 on the server’s internal IP address. The same goes for Email, FTP and other services.

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The moral of the story here is not to let an ISP’s restrictions or lack of features prevent consultants from providing customers with all of the features SBS2003 has to offer. By using a Dynamic DNS service, the two major problems associated with broadband are easily overcome, blocked ports and dynamic IP addresses are no longer a brick wall for leveraging key features of SBS2003, such as remote access, email and hosting.

Summary

Whew! You’ve made it through four demanding chapters and your reward is a functional and operational SBS 2003 network. In this chapter, you greeted the Server Management console and completed much of the To Do List. This included important wizards to connect to the Internet, configure remote connectivity and adding users and computers. This “stuff” was foundation and allows you to confidentially continue forward with the SPRINGERS methodology. And most important of all, you started to completed the To Do List in order, something that is very important in the SBS world. I started earlier by offering you congratulations and I end on the same note. The next chapter is the all-important security topic!

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