Re: Small business thinking about backing up data, having a server and 2-3 users - is SBS2003 right for them?

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Derick,
I really like SBS but maybe it's more than they need in the case you
describe. Assuming they're not going to grow much at all, here is
another idea.

Buy a Sonicwall TZ 150 (or the TZ 170) Wireless firewall/vpn/router
device and one Sonicwall global vpn client license. Connect the TZ 150
to the existing cable or dsl modem and use it as a router for dhcp to
the three PCs.

Networking/sharing: Config all three PCs to be on a Windows workgroup,
peer-to-peer network.

Wireless guest user: The TZ 150 Wireless has a feature called Wireless
Guest Services that allows you to create user accounts for occasional
guest users that permit wireless connections to the Internet *without
providing access to the corporate network*.

Remote access: The TZ 150 allows you to use it's vpn client software to
connect to the network. Then you'd use something like VNC to connect to
a desktop within the network. Ifd you have one vpn client license tied
to the TZ 150 device, you can have as many vpn users as you want but
only one at a time..

Backups: First document what data can NOT be lost and that's data's
size in MBs or GBs. You may be able to use an online backup service
like Remote Data Backups. Especially if you have less than 10 gb of
data, it's a pretty good deal. For $360 per year their software on
your PC will encrypt and send the data off-site automatically each
night to their site for safe storage. Having data backed up off site
automatically is nice.

One caveat for the plan above is that the Sonicwall wireless and vpn
features are not easy to configure if you've never done them before and
they take some testing to get correct.

Your friend should hire a pro. Whether you decide on a server solution
or a firewall device or both, it can't be done by someone over the
phone..

.

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