I apologize for not getting back to you in the PM. I had promised to go over the virtues and advantages of the media capabilities of SBS which will make your office more secure and save you money in the short run, not the long run. This is so frustrating. I guess I will give it one last shot. Not to convince you to do it my way, but at least to educate you as to the advantages.
I cannot aspire to dealing with my own website or email server.
I do not have time to do my own website. I do not have a website. I may one day and embarrassed to admit I don't, but many will tell you it does not take that much time. But, Sharepoint is NOT a website. It is a intranet site. It is called Companyweb. It is difficult to understand how helpful it is unless you use it. Basically, it allows you to have a home page (if you want it as a home page, but that is the best place to put it), so that the first thing your staff does is open Internet Explorer or Firefox and their it is. It makes everything centrally located, secure and extremely easy for users to add files and folders. For instance, the average Companyweb would contain pages for Documents, Forms, Contacts and Calendar. You can add as many as you want. So, by adding a file or a folder it is now accessible for everyone. Sure, you can share out folders from your server, but then every computer has to browse to that file and ultimately the connection will be broken and you will have to show them how to browse to it again. What used to be used instead of Sharepoint was Public Folders in Exchange. Sharepoint has become so popular, Public Folders are being phased out.
Let's say, your MA decided she wants every VIS in one folder that is accessible to every MA or whomever. She clicks on the Documents which has a list of folders, she makes a folder and names if VIS, and copies and pastes them into the folder. Done. Now, within two minutes it is done. What would she/he have to do if she wanted to do that without Sharepoint? She would have to go to the system administrator (maybe you or your IT guy -- I would hope you wouldn't have to pay $25.00 for your IT guy to set up a shared folder on the server) and ask that they add a folder called VIS to the server, share it out, set up the correct permissions and then make sure everyone knows it is there. Don't get me wrong. There will be many data folders on the server and a few you will need to share out. But for this type of situation, it is awesome to have it there (in alphabetical order). Now, you decide to have forms you want to pass out to your patients or your receptionist wants all the demographics forms in one place. She opens the forms page and puts all the files in a folder called Demographics. Done. Or, maybe your want an Excel spread sheet of your Medicaid formularies. You set that up as a separate page. Would take all of one minute. It would automatically make two versions or 200 versions in case you screw it up.
We have over 450 contacts on one page. You can sort by category or any other way. It is completely searchable. When I ask for a new doctor, they always add it in. Sure, you can have other places for contacts, but this way EVERYTHING is in once place.
You can put announcements on the home page. As soon as you add an annoucement, it is automatically emailed to everyone so when they open their email, they know their is a new annoucement.
You can many other things with it. If you ever used it, you would not be able to live without it. I forgot, if you put a website link to the CDC on it, now EVERYONE has the link. You don't have to put it on every web browser.
I think that I would prefer a third party (hopefully updox or similar)
UpDox is NOT an email server. It is a program that can interface between your ISP and AC. An email server is like Roadrunner or Yahoo or Gmail or your local ISP, which you then access via POP3. You don't have to use Exchange. But, for you all that would happen is that instead of Outlook on each individual computer going up to your mail server to check for mail, Exchange goes up and checks for mail. So, the only difference is that the mail is downloaded to one site on your server. It is seamless. Exchange then automatically distributes the mail to your users. You wouldn't even know it is there. There are many, many advantages down the road, but you don't have to use them. You don't use notepad because you don't want to manage Word. I click on Word and type a letter. I don't use the other 5,000 features. Exchange also allows all internal email to be private. And, when, HIPAA or the new healthcare package decides to make doctors' offices do the same thing banks and other businesses do, e.g. maintain all email, you can do that with Exchange. You can't do that with your ISP.
That said, It looks like most of the abilities of the sbs are wasted on me. All of my employees have the same access to the computer with the same limitations.
I am not sure I completely understand this, but I can guarantee you that Sharepoint and RWW will not be wasted. I am not sure what you mean that they all have the same access. But, you are not going to be even close to have the same security with WIN7 that you would have with either Windows Server 2008 or SBS. Without a domain, you have a lot less security.
Remote Web Workplace is incredible. It is the safest way to remote into your computer there is. Safer than LogMeIn or GoToMyPC or RDP. Plus, it comes with SBS. With Remote Web Workplace, you are at home and you enter either your domain name or you IP address in your web browser. You are taken to your login page. You log in to RWW. You now have access to your server and all seven or all 75 clients. You do not have to log in separately. You also have access to your email online. You can administer things on the computer. You can also in five minutes allow Staff member 1 access to her computer, 2 to three other computers she needs access to, 3 to no computers and no one to your computer or the sever. RWW is great, and you don't have to worry about all the questions on here about how to remotely log in. And, obviously, it can be done from anywhere you have Internet access.
he actually suggested just putting windows 7 on the server for now. If I later wanted to upgrade to a higher level, I could. We are thinking about RAID10 so that I would have mirrored hard drives. (If I understand that correctly.) Also, agree with the 8 gb memory.
I completely do not understand putting WIN7 on your server. First, upgrading later, will be a nightmare. They have whole books on server migration. You can't just upgrade and install over. You would have to completely redo the server.
I have not researched all of this but depending on whether you use software RAID or hardware RAID (better), you may or may not be able to do RAID10 or find the right drivers. You do understand that you must have a minimum of four hard drives to do a RAID10 as it is two mirrors that are striped. Great RAID, just need to know what you are getting into. With two drives, you are limited to RAID0 (no redundancy -- I nor would any IT person recommend that) or RAID1. You could do RAID5 with three drives or more.
If you use WIN7, you can never have more than 10 connections, where as with the others there are practically no limitations for an office your size. You can also not run a domain (why get a $3500 server and not have a domain. Once you install SBS, you have a domain -- once your attach the clients. After that you won't even know you are using it except you will get all the benefits. Drivers will be limited. And, there are many other limitations. With all due respect to your IT person, and you ultimately probably need someone local, but the ONLY thing you gain by using WIN7 is it costs less. And, given SBS is only $500 more, after configuring your server ask Dell for a discount, which they may very well give you.
I simply don't understand putting WIN7 on a server, which now means you are running P2P essentially. The server is just another computer (albeit more expensive and more powerful) in your network that has all your data. Not to mention that SBS2008 and I believe Windows Server 2008 as well comes with a fairly robust backup, although it could be better.
You certainly have to make your own decision, and there is a lot to be said about having those who will help you make those decisions. But, I am more than happy and willing to spend as much time as you want going over this on the telephone.
Anyway, I will bow out now. Sorry, if I am being overbearing, I just don't want to see you start off on the wrong foot. Being able to set up a network from scratch, get the right hardware and software and start with AC fresh is something a lot of users can't do.
