Dedicated Dial-In Best Practices?

We have staff who travel frequently; often to parts of Asia where broadband
is unknown (like some hotels in NY/LA :). BigBoss has gotten us an 800# for
dedicated dial-in because he can't figure out how to work MSN, AOL, WTnet,
etc. Travelers currently VPN in -- if they can get on the Internet -- no
problem there. I do have a few questions on direct dial-in to the server
though:

1. Hardware: internal or external modem? Any recommendation for
compatibility with SBS?

2. Shared Fax: will sharing the 800# with direct dial-in conflict with us
implementing shared fax (of course, other than busy signals)? This will be
the first modem we attach to the server and might as well use shared fax.

3. Any special security issues for hackers randomly dialing 800#'s looking
for open modems?

4. Any recommended articles? I've read the MSFT technet stuff, but it is
more "dollars" without the "sense".

Thanks group, John
BTW..this group was the only way this newbie was able to get SBS up
ontime/onbudget; we're now going on month six and have had 100% uptime
(except for planned patch reboots of course :).

Les
Mon Sep 22 18:09:26 CDT 2003

Hi John,

Sorry you haven't got an answer yet. I'll try, but this is not my area :-(.

External modems are always preferred, as there's often no way to reset a
stuck internal without a server reboot. Any modems on the HCL for W2k should
be OK.

I'd recommend separate modems for fax and ras.

I voice answer 800's all the time, and don't recall listening to modems
squeal. I'd say hacking is not an issue, I think hackers' prefer a faster
connection ;-).

There's about all the documentation you'd need on this within SBS help on
the start menu. Many people don't know the value of this resource. Give it a
try.

--
Les Connor [SBS MVP]
-------------------------------------
SBS Rocks !



"John B" <john.baccellieri@texstyleco.com> wrote in message
news:Oqkt6JgfDHA.2984@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> We have staff who travel frequently; often to parts of Asia where
broadband
> is unknown (like some hotels in NY/LA :). BigBoss has gotten us an 800#
for
> dedicated dial-in because he can't figure out how to work MSN, AOL, WTnet,
> etc. Travelers currently VPN in -- if they can get on the Internet -- no
> problem there. I do have a few questions on direct dial-in to the server
> though:
>
> 1. Hardware: internal or external modem? Any recommendation for
> compatibility with SBS?
>
> 2. Shared Fax: will sharing the 800# with direct dial-in conflict with us
> implementing shared fax (of course, other than busy signals)? This will
be
> the first modem we attach to the server and might as well use shared fax.
>
> 3. Any special security issues for hackers randomly dialing 800#'s looking
> for open modems?
>
> 4. Any recommended articles? I've read the MSFT technet stuff, but it is
> more "dollars" without the "sense".
>
> Thanks group, John
> BTW..this group was the only way this newbie was able to get SBS up
> ontime/onbudget; we're now going on month six and have had 100% uptime
> (except for planned patch reboots of course :).
>
>