Licensing Questions

My client has SBS2000 installed at their main office, 30
employees. The client also has several remote offices,
with 3-5 employees at each location.

We have installed Firewall to Firewall VPN with one
remote office to the main office for file transfer. The
remote offices all use either POP3 or OWA to access email.

My questions are:
1. How is a VPN connection "counted" regarding to
licensing? The Firewall-to-Firewall connection is one
connection with 2 users behind the remote firewall (peer-
to-peer networked). Does the IPSec VPN connection affect
licensing different than the PPTP VPN connection?

2. Given a fast VPN connection, we are considering
switching from retrieving email through the POP3 server
and using the Exchange server for the remote users. Does
this change the licensing/VPN connection as well?

Thanks,
Brenda

Javier
Mon Aug 11 16:19:14 CDT 2003

I really don't undestand very well your scenario. But AFAIK you need CALs
for *all* of those devices since:

-You are accessing files on SBS tru VPN
-(Apparently) The users mainly work from those remote workstations (are not
secondary computers, such as a home).

The VPN link itself will not consume a CAL.

If your remote computers access the SBS to download *only* their email (via
VPN, OWA, POP3 or whatever) it could be covered under secondary user rights
of Exchange (but it is a thin line here... since these are not a secondary
computers, but the primary ones where people work).

My $0.02,

Javier

"Brenda" <Brenda.johnson@citechsolutions.net> wrote in message
news:028601c36049$dcc234e0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
> My client has SBS2000 installed at their main office, 30
> employees. The client also has several remote offices,
> with 3-5 employees at each location.
>
> We have installed Firewall to Firewall VPN with one
> remote office to the main office for file transfer. The
> remote offices all use either POP3 or OWA to access email.
>
> My questions are:
> 1. How is a VPN connection "counted" regarding to
> licensing? The Firewall-to-Firewall connection is one
> connection with 2 users behind the remote firewall (peer-
> to-peer networked). Does the IPSec VPN connection affect
> licensing different than the PPTP VPN connection?
>
> 2. Given a fast VPN connection, we are considering
> switching from retrieving email through the POP3 server
> and using the Exchange server for the remote users. Does
> this change the licensing/VPN connection as well?
>
> Thanks,
> Brenda

Buddy
Mon Aug 11 17:17:09 CDT 2003

If the peer to peer systems in the remote office are not joined to the
domain or accessing any server features of the SBS domain, such as an
exchange mailbox, then they are not consuming any licenses. You said they
are using OWA. That's a grey area but when you think about it, they are
benifitting from the SBS and therefore are probably consuming a CAL.

When you change over to using exchange for email on the remote side, will
you add those computers to the domain as you would a computer in the main
office? Will they connect to Exchange using Outlook? If this is the case,
they will be consuming CALs. This is the best route to take since you're
probably already using a CAL. Until all the remote offices cause you to go
beyond 50 users you're fine... although when SBS 2003 ships, the max number
is supposed to go up to 75 users.

Buddy G.

"Brenda" <Brenda.johnson@citechsolutions.net> wrote in message
news:028601c36049$dcc234e0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
> My client has SBS2000 installed at their main office, 30
> employees. The client also has several remote offices,
> with 3-5 employees at each location.
>
> We have installed Firewall to Firewall VPN with one
> remote office to the main office for file transfer. The
> remote offices all use either POP3 or OWA to access email.
>
> My questions are:
> 1. How is a VPN connection "counted" regarding to
> licensing? The Firewall-to-Firewall connection is one
> connection with 2 users behind the remote firewall (peer-
> to-peer networked). Does the IPSec VPN connection affect
> licensing different than the PPTP VPN connection?
>
> 2. Given a fast VPN connection, we are considering
> switching from retrieving email through the POP3 server
> and using the Exchange server for the remote users. Does
> this change the licensing/VPN connection as well?
>
> Thanks,
> Brenda

Eugene
Wed Aug 13 10:45:45 CDT 2003

hi Brenda,

I guess the best people to answer licensing questions wd be
MS Sales people themselves.

However, a similar question had been asked, and the answer
is tech restrictions (such as VPN consuming rights/CALs)
are separate issues from the licensing requirements/rights.

How your client/business implements a LAN (over VPN etc) is
not the issue, and technically it doesn't consume any CALs.
A CAL is required when a machine/device authenticates or
logs in to use SBS services, specifically a SBS CAL. If a
device visits a website hosted at a SBS box and doesn't
authenticate, then a CAL is not required.

Now, if your client is one business entity though located
at several places, and the staff are direct hires, then
from a licensing standpt it doesn't matter whether all are
under one roof on a LAN or a virtual LAN hooked over the
Internet with FWs.

It does matter if some of the offices are another business
entity or 'staff' from another firm accessing SBS services
for better work integration - in this scenario, then an
"Internet Connector" license would be required; this prdt
is now renamed an external connector license (which made
more sense to me) in win/sbs2003.

Hope this helps,
Eugene Tan

>-----Original Message-----
>My client has SBS2000 installed at their main office, 30
>employees. The client also has several remote offices,
>with 3-5 employees at each location.
>
>We have installed Firewall to Firewall VPN with one
>remote office to the main office for file transfer. The
>remote offices all use either POP3 or OWA to access email.
>
>My questions are:
>1. How is a VPN connection "counted" regarding to
>licensing? The Firewall-to-Firewall connection is one
>connection with 2 users behind the remote firewall (peer-
>to-peer networked). Does the IPSec VPN connection affect
>licensing different than the PPTP VPN connection?
>
>2. Given a fast VPN connection, we are considering
>switching from retrieving email through the POP3 server
>and using the Exchange server for the remote users. Does
>this change the licensing/VPN connection as well?
>
>Thanks,
>Brenda