Millions of small business owners across the country have peer to peer networks installed in their companies. Of these small networks, many are running various operating systems such as Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, and XP Professional. Because these ad hock networks require little more than setting up a small network hub, or switch and running a few wizards, they are cheap to build. Some companies may dedicate a PC as a "quasi Server" but in reality, it is none the less a PC. After working with many small business owners troubleshoot these small networks, many have realized that the savings over a real network, and dedicated file server, simply vaporized. Instead of saving money, they were losing money on them big time. Why? In a nutshell a properly constructed networking environment can provide so much more. Another misconception is that a properly file server running Windows Server is expensive, difficult to install, and requires a computer guru to figure it out. Not long ago some of the above was true. And Microsoft listened!. Microsoft introduced Windows 2003 Small Business Server 2003, especially for the needs of a small company. Inexpensive to purchase, and armed with everything a small organization needs to grow their business in one integrated Server package. With Microsoft Small Business Server, you can define security policies based on the role of your users, even control when and where data can be accessed. Users "My Documents" folders can be synchronized to the SBS 2003 Server. Another great feature is "roaming profiles". Simply log in the network from any workstation and blam, your desktop and documents are available right there. SBS 2003 comes with Remote Web Workplace, this is too cool. RWW as it is called enables an approved user to access their PC (via the web)back at the office just like they were there. Outlook on the web is included, so you can check e-mail too. Another great feature of SBS 2003, is SharePoint. Essentially a company intranet, that you can build an online document library, host discussions, schedules and collaborate as team. Many of SBS 2003's features are easy to configure with a plethora of wizards. Setting up a VPN is straight forward. SBS 2003 also includes Exchange Server, a powerful group e-mail, contact and calendering system. Your company can have a professional e-mail system just like the big guys. Lastly, I might mention data backup. By storing your data on the SBS 2003 Server, a built in backup wizard makes disaster recovery a breeze. It provides a full backup, that even backs up "open files" so you can be up and running quickly in the event of a system failure. I have a power point demo of SBS Server 2003 available on my web site =>http://www.frugalbrothers.com/presentations/SBScustomerpresentation.ppt if you would like to learn more, Moving from a Peer to Peer network to Small Business Server 2003, generally results in a Return On Investment of 900% on average. Now that is FRUGAL! www.FrugalBrothers.Com
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