5 tips for setting up Microsoft Small Business Server

April 27, 2011

Microsoft's Small Business Server (SBS) is aimed at small businesses, but it comes with a fully functional copy of Exchange 2010 SP1. However, many SBS customers probably aren't taking advantage of what the SBS-Exchange combo can do or are fearful of the more complex Exchange part. Here are five tips to help.

Microsoft Small Business Server tip 1: Easy mailboxes creation. If you just want to get Exchange up and running and not fuss with the fancy tools offering more granular control, you can do that. The SBS Administration Console lets you create users and mailboxes at the same time -- there's no need to open either Active Directory Users and Computers or the Exchange Management console or shell. Obviously, if you want to do more than create the mailbox and provide for a simple quota on the size, you'll have to jump into the Exchange management tools provided.

[ Read InfoWorld's review of Microsoft Small Business Server 2011. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]

Microsoft Small Business Server tip 2: Get a certificate via the SBS certificate wizard. In order for people outside your organization to send email to your SBS Exchange server, you need to register the name of your organization (the domain name where you want to receive email, not necessarily the one you use internally -- the two don't have to be the same) and obtain a simple certificate for the SBS server. To do so, run the wizard for generating a certificate through the SBS Administration Console. This doesn't provide you with a lot of flexibility, but it lets you obtain a cert that validates your domain.

Microsoft Small Business Server tip 3: Configuring DNS properly. Under DNS settings, you want to configure an @ host record that points to your router's outside IP address. It also enables port forwarding to your SBS server for ports 25, 80, 443, and 997 (for SMTP, HTTP, and SSL), if you plan on using Outlook Web Access and client access methods other than simply sending and receiving mail through the server.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/5-tips-setting-microsoft-small-business-server-126?source=rss_infoworld_blogs

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