Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2003 R2 Administrator's Companion

I maintain a small business server for a local company. When we recently upgraded to MS SBS I found I needed some help, so I purchased this book. In just the first use it saved me many hours of time and enabled me to set up the Exchange Server to automatically download mail from POP3 Website accounts and store it in the local mailbox. Users are happy, I'm happy (no storage used on the Web server and I don't have to configure Outlook on every computer in the building for the user's POP3 email), and life is good. After that, I read the rest of the book. (OK, I only skimmed parts of it.) I found several other tips that I have since used, like redirecting the user's "My Documents" to a folder on the server. The book also comes with a CD that contains a PDF copy of the book along with numerous Knowledge Base articles, white papers, and other such support documents. I left the hard copy of the book at my home but put the CD onsite so I would have it there in case I need it. All-in-all, this was a great investment and I recommend it to others using MS SBS.

This book has everything you need. I've installed SBS 2003 R2 for 3 different companies so far, this book came in handy each time. If I have time I will come back and share some specific examples, but for now I just wanted to say this book does not deserve a 1 star rating, its 5 stars all the way!

The first half of chapter 22, Disaster Planning, was so verbose, repetitive, and bureaucratic that even the federal government would be overwhelmed by its recommendations. The authors temporarily forgot the target audience for this book, but regained focus in the second half of the chapter. Now, on to the other 22 chapters and appendices... Superb! From the table of contents to the index, the layout of this book is simply superb. It is clear the editors worked as hard as the authors, and the result is a book in proper English that is a joy to read. This is rare for IT books, but not for Microsoft Press. On substance, this is the most lucid book on Small Business Server (SBS) and it covers all features of SBS03 R2. Each chapter explains the features and their concepts, then offers clear step-by-step procedures to implement those features. Screen-shots complement the procedures without reducing the book to a photo album. This book imparts the solid foundation necessary to delve deeper into the various features, but above all, you will be ready to deploy SBS by the last page. This is the most current (based on R2) SBS book on the market today and is ideal for beginners. Those already familiar with server administration should consider Small Business Server 2003 Unleashed.

I found this book to be an excellent one volume resource on the variety of features and functionality offered in SBS. This administrator's reference could be very deep, twice (if not three times) the number of pages and take a good part of a year to decipher. I felt the authors did an excellent job of condensing the information, selecting content that was focused and concise, and expanding (where needed) with some very practical "real world" and "under the hood" advice. The authors are experienced enough to editorialize their own content and say it like it is. SBS offers functionality galore. Given the full list of included features, that functionality comes with some serious security liabilities. This book breaks it down by delineating the practical versus possible uses for SBS features and suggests to the reader in plain terms... "do this and don't do that!". If you are looking for a single volume reference on the subject matter of Small Business Server 2003... this is the one. It reads like having an in depth tech talk with someone who's in the know while chatting at your breakfast table. Thanks to Charlie Russel, Sharon Crawford and all MVP's who may have contributed. Five stars!

While this book is called the SBS 2003 R2 companion book, and is indeed a companion to the R2 product, even if you don't have R2, but merely SBS 2003 SP1, this is an excellent resource and should actually be purchased instead of the original SBS companion book. The "must have" features for non R2 owners include the chapters on setting up secure wireless and the ISA content. The "must have" stuff for R2 era owners obviously include the WSUS information. If you are a SBSCer.. there are three must have books: This one, the SBS unleashed and the SBS Advanced Best practices. All three are the "holy trinty" of SBS technical books. Don't install a SBS box without 'em. Each of them are also unique enough to give fresh insight, so don't think just because you have one, you don't need another. Bottom line, another great book from Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford, another fantastic resource for the SBS community. (Full disclosure I was a community reviewer on this book and Charlie Russel was extremely gracious in his accepting and incorporation of my feedback. Thank you Charlie for a great resource for the SBS Community)