I know someone that works for a very small business that is looking at replacing their server. They currently have an NT 4.0 server. The hardware is so old that the server itself needs replacing. Looking at servers you also have to look at operating systems. I'm wondering if it makes any sense at all to go with Windows 2000 server or Windows Server 2003 instead of Windows SBS 2003 in this situation. They have around 10-12 PC's that connect to their current NT server. That number will not be growing much over time. Four years ago they had about 8-10 PC's connected to it, so you can see that growth is not big for these guys. They are a small shop and will likely stay that way. It seems like SBS would work well for them. I don't know anything about SBS except what I have ready (which isn't much), but what I have read states that it is pretty simple to install and setup and the operating system is similar in appearance to Windows 2000 and 2003. What do you guys think? My understanding is that SBS can support up to 75 user's. These guys won't likely hit that mark... ever. One more question - does anyone know how many licenses come with SBS standard edition right off the top? Is it 5 or 10 or ? I was looking at a server or two from Dell and although the Windows 2000 and 2003 server OS's tell you how many licenses you get up front, the SBS doesn't say, although you can purchase additional licenses in packs of 5. Let me know what you know. Thanks.

in my opion i would go with win2k03 standard. skip the lic question by using a per seat mode. they don't need sbs and 03 is very stable and secure.

SBS2003 is very easy to install, just follow the instructions, & wizards. All the services on one machine, Exchange SQL, & if it is Premium version, ISA2000 as well. This works well, have used it in many situations like yours. Think the CAL question is 5 out the box.

Hi, If you don't know Exchange please don't leap in thinking it is 'easy to set up' Exchange is never easy or simple until you have some good experience with it. (IMO!) The big advantage of SBS is it is much cheaper than buying Server 2003 and Exchange separately. There are some issues though. One I don't like is that if you have a second server (which I think you should for backup), and the SBS machine gives you problems, you can't switch the FSMO roles to the backup server, and without the FSMO role holder your domain will not be up for long. Peter

we have a SBS2003 with 5 CALS and ifound out that if u already have a server on the network then you run into problems. SBS has the features of Trusting other domains Stripped from SBS so if you have another server, which is your main domain then expect problems and delays, we did. PDS