Windows Small Business Server 2.Essentials. Where Windows Home Server 2.Windows Small Business Server 2.Essentials, is currently more of a mixed bag.Thats not because theres anything wrong with the product per se.How To Install Windows Home Server Connector Software' title='How To Install Windows Home Server Connector Software' />Its just that the necessary add ins that will make this server truly useful have yet to materialize.But even on its own, SBSE, as Ill call it from here on out, is an undeniable achievement, with the cute caveat that Ive been asking for a product like this for years, and a complete rethinking of Microsofts Small Business Server product line for the cloud computing age Where previous versions of SBS simply grafted a host of Microsoft productivity servers into a single, lengthy, and complex install process and integrated management console, SBSE goes in a different direction.Instead, it drops the complexity and provides just basic on premise services user and PC management, data storage, and so on and expects that the productivity services email, contacts, and calendar, document collaboration, and communications will occur online via services like Office 3.There is a separate SBS 2.Windows Small Business Server 2.Standard, which is designed as an upgrade for the classic SBS product line this version includes on premise versions of Exchange, Share.Point Foundation Services, Windows Server Update Services, and other tools.I do not recommend this product for new installs, and will not be reviewing it.Basically, SBSE is a stripped down version of Windows Server, or a small business version of Windows Home Server 2.And at a high level, the big differences between SBSE and WHS 2.Where WHS is essentially unmanaged, offering the workgroup model of networking organization, SBSE provides a full featured, Active Directory based, domain services organizational scheme.And it does so in the simplest package Ive ever seen I honestly didnt think this was even possible.And where WHS 2. PC management SBSE is aimed at the very smallest small businesses, those with the most limited budgets that are the least likely to pay for expensive and complex infrastructure.You know, the type of place where people use their own PCs for work.Ive been using SBSE alongside WHS 2.I dont currently rely on this product as much as I do WHS for the lack of add ins reason I alluded to above and will expand on later in the review I do use it regularly and have come to understand what it does, and does not, offer the budding small business.And while the functionality is fairly basic right now, I suspect that the value equation for this cutest of Windows Servers will jump exponentially when those add ins do start appearing.Heres whats going on with Windows Small Business Server 2.Essentials. Automatic, centralized PC backup.As with WHS 2. 01.SBSE provides automatic, centralized backup of all the PCs on the local network however, unlike with WHS, which works with only 1.PCs, you can use SBSE with up to 2.PCs. This feature alone is a decent reason to stock up on some cheap local storage, though of course the PCs need to be on the local network and not out and about in the world, as would be the case with many of todays new small businesses to be backed up.Automatic server backup.Again in tandem with WHS 2.SBSE also offers twice a day backups of whatever server based data you want backed up, by default.You can customize the schedule to your own needs. How To Install Quake In Dosbox Download . Unique to SBSE, however, Im told this service works with whatever other servers you may install in your environment as well, though Ive not tested this.As youll discover in a bit, SBSE can be co installed alongside an optional second server called the SBS 2.Premium Add on. Network health monitoring.Identically to WHS 2.SBSE also lets you monitor the health of any PCs and servers on the network.This works when PCs are used remotely as well, and gives you the same types of alerts for such things as configuring Server Backup, out of date malware definitions, and so on, as does WHS 2.I am curious to see whether a future Windows Intune add in will let you farm out this service to the cloud at a per PC cost, though I find the current Intune version to be a bit expensive, as will most very small businesses.Perhaps a SBSE specific pricing scheme could be established to make that more viable.Content storage and sharing.Where WHS 2. 01. 1 provides pre configured shared server folders for both documents and digital media files, SBSE is all business, and comes with a different set of stock shared server folders.Client Computer Backups, as its name suggests, stores your PC backups.Server Backup is configured separately and uses a different drive for its needs.A Company share appears to be SBSEs stab at providing access to company wide shared files, though of course most small businesses will want to create their own specific folder shares.The cable in this forum posting the Gen2 cable has been deprecated and is no longer being offered.The contents of this post are here strictly for historical purposes.Should I remove Windows Home Server Connector by Microsoft Windows Home Server Connector enables you to configure and remotely administer Windows Home Server from.The Win32 OpenSSL Installation Project is dedicated to providing a simple installation of OpenSSL.It is easy to set up and easy to use through the simple, effective.Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials Anywhere Access.Anywhere Access is the mother of all VPN configurations.After completing a rather simple installation, you have a.And Users is analogous to the Documents shared folder in WHS 2.Whats missing in SBSE, of course, is any form of digital media sharing.Sure, you could store digital media files music, photos, videos, and the like on the server and access them over the network normally.But SBSE doesnt provide a DLNA based sharing mechanism like WHS 2.I suppose a future add in could correct this easily enough.Likewise, as a managed environment described below, SBSE does not integrate with Windows 7s simpler Homegroup sharing scheme.Remote access. SBSE provides nearly identical remote access features as does WHS 2.You can access server based documents and files remotely via the web based Remote Web Access interface and a unique domainURL.How To Install Windows Home Server Connector Software' title='How To Install Windows Home Server Connector Software' />It has the same UPn.P dependencies as WHS 2.I overcome this even if my silly router worked correctly with UPn.P, Id stick with the solution Ive found, and it works equally well with SBSE as it does with WHS 2.Full Active Directory functionality.Where WHS 2. 01. 1 goes a bit beyond a truly unmanaged environment by offering centralized network health monitoring and PC and server backup, at its heart is the unmanaged workgroup style networking organization.SBSE, however, offers full fledged, Active Directory based domain services like a real Windows Server.And yet it exceeds Microsofts supposedly more full featured Windows Server versions in two key areas.First, the AD based domain is created for you automatically during Setup, so you dont have to go in afterwards and manually set that up, along with all its prerequisites.Secondly, the complexity of AD is completely hidden from both users and administrators.This is the first time Ive ever seen an AD based server that could actually be used and managed by non technical people.Its quite an accomplishment.For those of us who are used AD, however, its also somewhat disarming.In fact, in early pre release versions of SBSE, I had to really muck around in the system to be sure it did what it said it did.It just didnt seem possible.But its real, and in the theme of best of both worlds that will be repeated in the Add ins section below, Id note that you get simplicity here as well as the full power of Active Directory if you want it.Heres a simple example.When you create a new user account in the SBSE Dashboard, youre prompted for first and last name, password, and the level of access, which can be either Standard user the default or Administrator.You then configure the type of access the user has for each shared server folder and whether they can use remote access.On a normal Windows Server, new users are added via the far more complex Active Directory Users and Computers interface.Here, in addition to the fields mentioned above, youre prompted for the user logon name and domain, a pre Windows 2.Later and separately, you determine what that users access level is via the incredibly complex Member of tab of the busy looking Properties dialog.Yikes Whats interesting is that these options are of course still available in SBSE, and if you want to dig down into the Active Directory Users and Computers interface for some reason, you can.And thats true of virtually anything in SBSE All the advanced controls are still there.And while I bet most customers will never need them, its nice to know you can do it all with SBSE if you need to.Extensibility through add ins.SBSE is part of a new family of Colorado servers at Microsoft, each of which of utilize the same Windows Server 2.
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