[turtle]

I know, why am I asking on this board rather than some PC loving board out there. Simple, I know most of you.

Here's the deal. I'm likely to get a new job come budget time at the end of this year and I've only been asked to do three things. Fix the webcams so the parents can actually watch their kids in our child care facility. Learn the child management software Confident. Learn Windows Server 2003 with ISA 2004.

I haven't really looked into Confident yet, but it doesn't look too hard either. I've used it and understand most of it already so I'm not too concerned about that one. I'm not sure of the webcam issue because I don't even know what equipment they are using. In fact, I'm not even sure of the problem other than the parents are calling in upset 'cause they can't see their kiddies. I've messed with network webcams before though and honestly don't think it'll take me more than 30 minutes to figure it out.

Windows Server 2003 with ISA 2004 on the other hand is/are a bit more daunting. I've messed with servers and in fact have two in my house right now. But I've never messed with a MS server. To complicate the matters even more, I'm not sure what they are using the server for other than file management, Exchange, and roaming profile support. I looked online to see what's out there only to find that there are a handful of versions of 2003 also!

To make this even more fun, I've been told that I need to know the servers (there are 4) by the time the budget comes up so we can get my name thrown out there to be the IT manager for this organization. I would love the job since it's a mix of Macs and PCs. Most are on PCs, but there are quite a few Macs too. So obviously I want to do everything I can to ensure I get the position.

So what is the best way for me to learn Windows Server 2003 and ISA 2004? Any tips out there and good books to read? Websites loaded with great info? I'm really good with most technical things and have confidence that I can make this happen with good direction. The problem is I don't even know what the desktop looks like on WS 2003!

Thanks for any help and guidance.

[Gargoyle]

Go here (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...linstruct.mspx) and grab the ISOs for the version you want. Might be best to start with just the Standard Edition and then move onto Enterprise once you have got your feet wet.

The product key is: BGGVK-Y4849-6BYYG-TGQ23-GP33B

This is a 180 day trial version so I don't see the harm in sharing.

MS seemed to have made it really hard to get to the 2003 trial versions. All the links on the website seem to be steering you towards the 2008 trials. I had to go through the entire MS online shop registration and checkout process for $0.00 just to get to the download page and get a trial serial number.

Then obviously just use a spare machine at the company if you have one, or run a virtual machine on your Mac. My preference is VMWare, but Parallels should be just as good. If you have 2GB or less RAM, you will probably want to close all other programs and just work within the virtual machine - if you start hopping between the virtual machine and other apps then 10-15 second delays while memory gets swapped to disk is not unusual.

[turtle]

How vast is the difference between Enterprise and Standard?

And thanks for the link and key. I don't see any issues with posting a trial key either. 6 months should be more than enough. I'll likely install it using Parallels (I don't have VMWare) so I can play with it too.

[chucker]

ISA is a fairly straightforward firewall/proxy combination. It's all administrated by GUI, and I don't think you'll run into a lot of problems understanding how to use it.

WS2k3 Standard and Enterprise don't really differ that much. They're typical Microsoft "edition" nonsense.

What's there to learn about Windows Server? Well, it's a massive system, and I don't think it can be explained in a meaningful way in a forum post… things you'll want to play around with, given that you've mentioned them, is everything surrounding file management (e.g. permissions; sharing; DFS) Exchange (e.g. how to automatically set up Exchange accounts when creating Windows accounts; how to work with group calendars; etc.) and roaming profiles (e.g. software deployment through IntelliMirror).

Playing around with it in a VM is generally a good idea, of course, but it won't give you a good "sense of scale"; that is, you're always a single user, which (hopefully?) isn't a realistic scenario at your future workplace.

[turtle]

Well, this organization has about 100 employees and I just found out only uses Standard edition. I haven't had the opportunity to install it in the VM yet, but at least I know what software it's running. Thanks for the tips chucker, I'll be sure to study up on those areas. I'm sure I'll be allowed into the network as the time gets closer.