Networking resource recommendations

Hello,

Would someone be able to recommend either some good books or online
resources on networking? I realize that's a pretty broad request, so here
are the details:

We're in the process of setting up a network in our office that requires the
following:

- Windows 2003 Server
- a webserver
- a mailserver
- six to ten client PC's
- some kind of firewall (either a dedicated PC or a hardware firewall)
- a machine that others will be able to Remote Desktop into for
demonstration purposes (this machine should be fairly isolated from the rest
of the network since we don't want people who get on it to then be able to
access the rest of our network)
- a Linux box to run as our Asterisk phone server

I'm pretty comfortable with peer-to-peer networking and have fiddled with
client-server networks over the years so that I can more or less get
administering an existing network. But setting one up from scratch is where
my problem is. So I was looking for some kind of resources that would tell
me:

- how to set up a Windows 2003 Server network without overlooking things
- how a firewall works
- how to link these various machines together (which ones go behind the
firewall, which ones go in front, what is a DMZ and which computers should
go in it, etc.)
- how to make the various PC's accessible internally and externally with
Remote Desktop, etc.
- how to set up FTP servers on the different machines for both internal and
external access
- how to secure this kind of network

I know that's a lot and I don't expect to learn it all overnight. But I
wanted to get started and figured there must be some good books and online
resources. But it's hard to know which ones out of the million available
ones are good.

So if anyone could make some recommendations I'd be very grateful.

Thanks in advance! (And thanks to anyone who persisted and read to the end
of this.)

James

From your description I assume you are going to be configuring a Windows
2003 domain. If that is the case I recommend Mark Minasi's book Mastering
Windows 2003 Server which goes into detail on setting up the network and
Active Directory. For day to day operations the Windows 2003 Pocket
Consultant is a great book. Windows 2003 comes with a built in web server -
IIS6.0 [which includs FTP] and a basic mail server. This is all covered in
Mastering Windows 2003 Server. If you need a more sophisticated mail server,
Windows Exchange would fit the bill and you would need separate
documentation on that. Small Business Server - SBS 2003 has a version with
Exchange built in which you might want to look at before buying Windows 2003
Server. I personally am not very familiar with SBS but there are separate
newsgroups for it. Additionally Microsoft has excellent free downloadable
documentation for using Windows 2003 Server and securing it - the Windows
2003 Server Deployment Kit and the Windows 2003 Server Security Guide. The
links below will take you to these items.

http://www.bookpool.com/.x/ra6rmdeoor/sm/0782141307 -- Mastering Windows
2003 Server
http://www.bookpool.com/.x/ra6rmdmsz8/sm/0735613540 -- Windows 2003 Pocket
Consultant.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...deploykit.mspx --
Windows 2003 Server Deployment kit.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
-- Windows 2003 Server Security Guide.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec.../avdind_0.mspx -- Anti
Virus in Depth Guide.
http://support.microsoft.com/default...en-us%3B291382 --
Active Directory DNS FAQ. A must read before setting up a domain.

As far as firewalls. They basically work by controlling traffic in and out
of your network by using firewall rules that use IP addresses, protocols,
and ports. You can get capable firewalls for a small network for as little
as $100 such as the Netgear ProSafe Line. If budget allows though I think
you would be better served with a more capable firewall such as the SOHO
line from Sonicwall that can do more extensive logging and handle many more
firewall rules including for outbound access, and integrate services such as
internet content filtering and virus protection. Such firewalls are going to
run you around $500 to start for a 25 user model. Before you buy a firewall
make sure it can do what you want after you plan out your network. Many
vendors have their firewall manuals available to download from their
websites. The premium version of SBS 2003 comes with Microsoft's ISA
firewall built in. Microsoft has some pretty good documentation online to
learn about firewalls and how to use them in your network with exmples of
various configurations. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default...en-us%3B291382 -- an
example of a Sonicwall SOHO firewall.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/Sec.../firewall.mspx --
Microsoft firewall reference guide.
http://labmice.techtarget.com/windows2003/default.htm -- Great website for
Windows information in general.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/default.mspx -- TechNet security
main page.


"James Martin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello,
>
> Would someone be able to recommend either some good books or online
> resources on networking? I realize that's a pretty broad request, so here
> are the details:
>
> We're in the process of setting up a network in our office that requires
> the
> following:
>
> - Windows 2003 Server
> - a webserver
> - a mailserver
> - six to ten client PC's
> - some kind of firewall (either a dedicated PC or a hardware firewall)
> - a machine that others will be able to Remote Desktop into for
> demonstration purposes (this machine should be fairly isolated from the
> rest of the network since we don't want people who get on it to then be
> able to access the rest of our network)
> - a Linux box to run as our Asterisk phone server
>
> I'm pretty comfortable with peer-to-peer networking and have fiddled with
> client-server networks over the years so that I can more or less get
> administering an existing network. But setting one up from scratch is
> where my problem is. So I was looking for some kind of resources that
> would tell me:
>
> - how to set up a Windows 2003 Server network without overlooking things
> - how a firewall works
> - how to link these various machines together (which ones go behind the
> firewall, which ones go in front, what is a DMZ and which computers should
> go in it, etc.)
> - how to make the various PC's accessible internally and externally with
> Remote Desktop, etc.
> - how to set up FTP servers on the different machines for both internal
> and external access
> - how to secure this kind of network
>
> I know that's a lot and I don't expect to learn it all overnight. But I
> wanted to get started and figured there must be some good books and online
> resources. But it's hard to know which ones out of the million available
> ones are good.
>
> So if anyone could make some recommendations I'd be very grateful.
>
> Thanks in advance! (And thanks to anyone who persisted and read to the end
> of this.)
>
> James
>
>
>

Hi Steve,

Thanks for taking the time to provide all the help!

One little question ... can you give me the link again for "an example of a
Sonicwall SOHO firewall". The one in your message was accidentally a copy of
a previous link on Active Directory.

Thanks again. It's such a help to me to be pointed to good resources. It
eliminates a lot of the not-so-good resources I'd likely have found on my
own.

James

Oops. Sorry for that. Here is the correct link below. I also want to add
that the built in help with Windows 2003 and XP is very good and they do a
very good job of linking related topics. --- Steve

http://www.sonicwall.com/products/tz170.html

"James Martin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi Steve,
>
> Thanks for taking the time to provide all the help!
>
> One little question ... can you give me the link again for "an example of
> a Sonicwall SOHO firewall". The one in your message was accidentally a
> copy of a previous link on Active Directory.
>
> Thanks again. It's such a help to me to be pointed to good resources. It
> eliminates a lot of the not-so-good resources I'd likely have found on my
> own.
>
> James
>
>

James Martin wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Would someone be able to recommend either some good books or online
> resources on networking? I realize that's a pretty broad request, so
> here are the details:
>
> We're in the process of setting up a network in our office that
> requires the following:
>
> - Windows 2003 Server
> - a webserver
> - a mailserver
> - six to ten client PC's
> - some kind of firewall (either a dedicated PC or a hardware firewall)
> - a machine that others will be able to Remote Desktop into for
> demonstration purposes (this machine should be fairly isolated from
> the rest of the network since we don't want people who get on it to
> then be able to access the rest of our network)
> - a Linux box to run as our Asterisk phone server
>
> I'm pretty comfortable with peer-to-peer networking and have fiddled
> with client-server networks over the years so that I can more or less
> get administering an existing network. But setting one up from
> scratch is where my problem is. So I was looking for some kind of
> resources that would tell me:
>
> - how to set up a Windows 2003 Server network without overlooking
> things
> - how a firewall works
> - how to link these various machines together (which ones go behind
> the firewall, which ones go in front, what is a DMZ and which
> computers should go in it, etc.)
> - how to make the various PC's accessible internally and externally
> with Remote Desktop, etc.
> - how to set up FTP servers on the different machines for both
> internal and external access
> - how to secure this kind of network
>
> I know that's a lot and I don't expect to learn it all overnight. But
> I wanted to get started and figured there must be some good books and
> online resources. But it's hard to know which ones out of the million
> available ones are good.
>
> So if anyone could make some recommendations I'd be very grateful.
>
> Thanks in advance! (And thanks to anyone who persisted and read to
> the end of this.)
>
> James

I agree with Stephen's recommendation of SBS2003. It's affordable, comes
with W2003 Standard and Exchange 2003 Standard - if you need SQL and ISA,
buy Premium, not SBS Standard (I usually go with SBS Standard & a Sonicwall
similar to the one Stephen mentioned). The SBS2003 newsgroup is
microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs and you'll get a lot of help in there,
but also see www.microsoft.com/sbs

If you have XP Pro workstations, you can use Remote Web Workplace (part of
SBS) to allow remote users to connect using Remote Desktop to the desktops
in the office, through a simple web interface. You can of course also put a
WinXP Pro box in your DMZ for the nontrusted access to it.

Re webserver - if you're going to host a public webserver in-house, stick it
on a dedicated webserver in your DMZ, not on your LAN, not on your domain
controller, etc.

"James Martin" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> I'm pretty comfortable with peer-to-peer networking and have fiddled with
> client-server networks over the years so that I can more or less get
> administering an existing network. But setting one up from scratch is
where
> my problem is. So I was looking for some kind of resources that would tell
> me:
>
> - how to set up a Windows 2003 Server network without overlooking things

Make sure you always try the built-in help for each service
and include perhaps searching on the word "checklist", e.g.,

Active Directory checklist
DNS checklist
Even just: checklist (will get you a LIST of checklists)

> - how a firewall works

"Firewall" is a nebulous term, software, hardware, group of
machines and services.

The best grounding in the Basics is likely:
"Building Internet Firewalls (2nd Edition)"
by Elizabeth D. Zwicky, Simon Cooper, D. Brent Chapman

> - how to link these various machines together (which ones go behind the
> firewall, which ones go in front, what is a DMZ and which computers should
> go in it, etc.)

Thinking about such design issues is well covered in the
book above, "Building Internet Firewalls."

> - how to make the various PC's accessible internally and externally with
> Remote Desktop, etc.

The Help again is the first place to look.

Making internal machines accessible from the outside
is non-trivial if you wish lots of these to be shared and
you only have limited public IP addresses.

Easiest is to VPN into the network and then the remote
users are now "local" users. It simplifies the connection
issues.

So add VPN to you list -- and see the built-in help again.

> - how to set up FTP servers on the different machines for both internal
and
> external access

Generally you should split these services. It's not
impossible to use one machine but probably better
not even to try.

See the help for the details on how to perform setup;
there easy.

> - how to secure this kind of network

"Windows Server 2003 (Hacking Exposed)"
by Joel Scambray, Stuart McClure

This is a fantastic book, and even more the "Hacking Exposed"
is a serious of great books so consider any of them which fit
into your plans, (Web servers, Linux, Windows, etc.)

> I know that's a lot and I don't expect to learn it all overnight. But I
> wanted to get started and figured there must be some good books and online
> resources. But it's hard to know which ones out of the million available
> ones are good.