ISA Server

[CXGJarrod]

Tedob1: We have business DSL. We need to share internet to about 40 users. I wanted to able to open and close ports, get email and allow everyone to surf the web. We already have Microsoft products, so we were looking for something that would easily integrate with our other MS products. I am not really married to it, and I am looking into other solutions.

I really was trying to get everyones experience with the product so I could make a better decision. I was also trying to pool other people ideas for how they share an internet connection in small / medium sized businesses.

[Wizeman]

It sounds like you don't have a lot of requirement other than NAT capabilities, and port filtering, so off the top of my head, I'd say you should get a Netgear, or Linksys Broadband Router. They are cheap, normally between 100 and 200 dollars depending on the capabilities, they provide NAT capabilites, port filtering, port forwarding, VPN pass thru, some even allow site filtering and other neat toys. Assuming you already have an internal, switched architecture to connect your computers to each other, then all you'd have to do is hook up the router to the switch, and set everyone's gateway to the router.

ISA doesn't really do too much for small businesses like yours. ISA's big draws are its integrated IDS/Proxy/router capabilites, and its ability to load balance across multiple ISA servers within its array, and I'm going to go ahead and assume you won't be having multiple ISA servers, so there is little reason for you to shell out the cash for a so-so solution when a couple hundred bucks will get you what you need.

Regards,
Wizeman

[CXGJarrod]

Wizeman: I think eventually we might be using the routing capabilities of ISA server because management would like to host everything in house (website, email server) and so I was thinking that this might be a step in that direction to use something like ISA server as opposed to a straight Netgear or Linksys Router.

[Wizeman]

With port forwarding, you can forward specified ports (ie 80 for www or 21 for FTP) to those particular servers. I believe this is what you mean. What I meant by routing was connecting different subnets, usually more than 2, and routing traffic between them.

Regards,
Wizeman

[CXGJarrod]

Wizeman: Ok now I understand. I dont have much knowledge in regards to the new broadband sharing devices. I wasnt really sure that the broadband sharing devices allowed you to forward ports to certain computers and that is why I didnt take much stock in buying one. I will have to look into them further.