Hi,

I'm getting a new Win2k dedicated server, but dont have any experience. Is it easy to setup virtual sites? Can anyone point me to a website for newbies to set these things up?

Thanks!

Yes, it is quite straightforward, although you'll need a working knowledge of things like:

- adding IP addresses to your NIC card
- or, using Host Headers if you don't have an IP address for every site
- Directory permissions
- General Security issues especially Application Mappings on a Windows platform - very important

Some places provide a kind of control panel that automates some or all of this. If you have to do it manually then I'd hunt around the MS site for info. I got most of my experience from various different ASP and MCSE books.

You need to make sure the box is up to date with all the latest security hotfixes. There have been quite a few lately as a couple of huge holes have been uncovered in W2K/IIS5 that need plugging.

Make sure to get all of the updates for the Win2K box. Windows boxes are more likely to be exploited than linux boxes -- web insurance companies are now starting to charge more if you use a windows machine versus linux. I am not trying to fan the microsoft v. linux flames, but windows boxes have numerous well known, easy-to-do exploits.

There is (was) a tool to automatically check for hotfixes.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000platform/Patch/IIS5_HFC_1.0/NT5/EN-US/HFCINST.EXE

This is the link I have. You run this on the command line and it will check your servers hotfixes vs. the online database. You still have to manually patch everything though...

Thanks!
I'll make sure it's kept updated. Now on to how I should setup sites, ftp, mail servers et. Is there a particular site for all this? Also, any good Control Panel Software for Win2k?

Thanks!
-Abbas

For Ftp services we are using G6 ftp server / bulletproof ftp server on our windows Nt machine

Costs 20$ , works like a dream , too good

For email there are options like imail, mailmax . merak

We are using Merak and find it to be good for web hosting, very simple to install and configurable remotely by web browser, possible to have end user control for emails

And best is , it costs 240 $ only, consider this against others that cost a bom.

Works very well when all users are going to be using same ip for emails

Regards
Manish Kapadia

Personally, I'd go with the resources Microsoft provides on it's site. You can find the Windows 2000 Technical Resource page here (http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/default.asp).