I've just purchased a Windows Server 2008 VPS plan with a hosting provider. With that I have needed to open up several ports - 21 (FTP), 25 & 110 (Mail) on Windows Firewall.
My first question is about security on those ports. So far I've just opened them in Windows Firewall and that's it. Is there anything in particular I should consider to keep those ports secure?
I've also had to install a mail server. So far I've installed the standard version of MailEnable and have it running fine. The problem I see is that the standard version has no spam filtering and no virus checking.
So I did some more looking into all this and found SmarterMail, the free version. The thing that gives this potential comes straight off their site... "SmarterTools understand what it is like to be part of a growing company. Budgets are tight, and often money is not available for software expenses.". This is exatly where I'm at, a small business with no software budget, at least not for now.
After looking into it, it appears as though we would have to pay for spam/virus protection when using MailEnable, because this is for commercial use (Maybe there's some free spam/vrus software for MailEnasble I'm not aware of), but we would have that included with SmarterMail. As an added note, this VPS facility is for a single domain and I realise that SmarterMail only allows for 10 accounts, but we can live with that for now.
Does anyone have real world experince using MailEnable vs. SmarterMail in this kind of scenraio? If so, from experience, what do you think is the best option?
With Windows 2003 server, there are comprehensive lists of what you need to do to secure the server before use. For Windows 2008, I wonder is there such a list? Or is it true as what I heard from Microsoft that it is already secured out of the box?
Anyone has any resources on the hardening or preparation of 2008 for server hosting uses?
I've started to use Plesk 8.4 on Windows Server 2008 at work, and totally love it. The IIS7-native MS rewrite engine works pretty good. It's a dedicated box.
For my own hosting, I use either shared/reseller or VPS. Looking around, it seems every VPS is still on Windows Server 2003 and IIS6.
I took a look at the Parallels site, but came up empty. Is Server 2008 not supported by Virtuozzo yet? Is that what everybody's waiting for? If that's the case, any news/rumors on when it may be supported? IIS7 is a huge leap over IIS6, in terms of PHP and the Rewrite (plus a few other things, though not as important to me).
Windows 2008 has much more functions than the typical Windows 2003, wonder anyone has any guide on how to best secure this server? Any resources available on the Internet?
Also any additional anti virus and firewall recommended for this?
With Windows client OS (e.g. Vista), it's always good practice to hold upgrading till the first service pack comes out. How true is this for Windows Server software? We're going to upgrade some Windows servers and would like to know if we should stick to Win Server 2003 or go ahead and get 2008?
On February 27, 2008, Microsoft will jointly release Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008, kicking off what it calls a "launch wave" with hundreds of events worldwide. Microsoft will pitch the products as a platform for next-generation Web service applications.
Windows Server 2008 is still expected to be released to manufacturing before the end of the year, with November as the rumored timeframe. Microsoft took a similar tack with Windows Vista, making it available to businesses in November before its public launch in late January.
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What do you think this means to hosts offering windows servers? Will they start offering Server2008 in november as the rumor goes, or only in February when it'll be officially launched?
What about swsoft and virtuozzo. What timeframe do you think they'll need to adapt server 2008 for their virtualization.
Do any one have the updates when the Cpanel is going to release its control panel for windows servers 2008, I heard it was supposed to be released in last year but seems yet to come.
Background: I work for a small microsoft based web dev company who is slowly starting to do more PHP based work. To date we've run these sites (mostly WP) through IIS6 on Windows Server 2003 although this presents problems around mod rewrites etc.
We're at a stage where we can make a decision between upgrading our existing server to IIS7 on Windows Server 2008 which seems to have better support for running PHP and all it entails - OR - getting a Linux box.
As a developer my preference is for the Linux server although the finance department ain't too keen on paying for another server.
Question: Have you experienced any significant problems in hosting PHP on IIS7 on WS 2008 alongside .NET apps? Are there any concrete technical reasons why we shouldn't use this set up?
I'm working with a local ISP and we're working on getting some windows hosting going (he's been 100% linux thus far). We're trying to ensure that we can host my e-commerce site on Windows Web Server 2008. It seems like it does exactly what we want - we can run a sql exress instance on it and just host the site on that same box. that's all we want to do.
The ISP talked to some sort of Microsoft software reseller who's trying to convince him that Web Server 2008 requires Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (or some other version anyway) implying taht Web Server 2008 is simply an addon type of thing and has to run on top of another OS. Can anyone clear this up definitively?
Also, are there any MAXimum system reqs for Web Server? I seem to remember reading somewhere you could only run 4 CPUs and like 4 gigs of ram or something with Web Server 2008.
I just ordered an Express Server 6 with Windows server 2008 from leaseweb a 3-4 days ago and they have provided me with login information for the server
I can't really connect to it.. I'm using windows XP pro SP3, would this cause any problems? I also have a static ip and all.
It doesn't work from anywhere, not my house nor other places.
I'm guessing leaseweb screwed up on this one right? I have contacted their support but have had no reply in over 2 days.
I used to use leaseweb but I cancelled my subcribtion so I'm guessing the problem is elsewhere.
I got a Dell PowerEdge 850 a couple of years ago, with a 2.8Ghz P4D processor and 2GB RAM. It's currently on CentOS 4 and running quite well with H-Sphere. I host on it a couple of sites coded in PHP, and sometimes a game server or two.
I'm currently thinking of moving on to Windows Server 2008 as I'm intending to put up a web app using ASP.Net. As you can see, my system isn't really a beefy machine, and I was wondering if I would be able to run the new OS on it and continue to be able to achieve a satisfactory performance?
in the direction of a S.M.A.R.T client for Windows Server 2008 that matches as many of the following as possible:
- Lightweight - Free - Quite good
I'm not looking for one that hooks into explorer or even runs all the time. Something that runs periodically (shceduled task) and polls information, mailing / popping up an alert if it finds a problem.
Basically something like the smartmontools for Linux / unix.
Sharing with everyone yesterday's official announcement of 'Windows Server 2008' being the name of Microsoft's next generation server platform.
The Windows Server 2008 product information Web site is now online here.
And also for IIS7 a Go Live license is now available with Beta 3 of Windows Server 2008 that allows you to put Windows2008/IIS7 into testing/production so that you can begin preparing your hosting services for next year when the product becomes generally available. Become a featured IIS7 Beta Hoster.
I have a daily task scheduled to run a .bat file which basically runs a query and sends some email reports. My coding is in PHP. The bat file and script works fine when run manually however when I set it up to run in the task scheduler it says it runs but it does not.
The result returns this code (0xFF).
Does anyone know how to get this running successfully?
I rent windows dedicated server for just about a month, but I never had problem.
When I copy files on my home computer and then paste them onto server's drive, files begin copying, but after some time they stop copying and I hear double beep sound.
I'm running FileZilla Server on Windows Server 2008 Web Edition SP2. Everything works fine but I need to figure out how to make FileZilla set permissions on a file after its uploaded.
What is happening when I upload a file to the web server using through FileZilla Server the only permissions set on the file are for SYSTEM admin Administrators
So when I try to access the file through a website I get a 401 - Unauthorized error and I have to go through and manually set the permissions every time on the server.
I need to find out how to make FileZilla setup the correct permissions on the file for the IIS user. Any help would be appreciated.
My Sever setup DotNetPanel IIS 7.0 Windows Server 2008 Web Edition FileZilla Server 8GB Ram
I would like to setup a new dedicated server with the following:
- Windows Server Standard 2008 64bit Edition
- Plesk control panel
Questions:
Anyone know of a thorough tutorial on securing/optimizing a Windows 2008 server (even with Plesk) for a shared hosting environment?
Other?'s:
Considering Plesk's rip-off pricing, any free and quality alternatives to their products?
- plesk dr.web antivirus
- acronis trueimage backup
- plesk powerpack (I guess $24.99/mo lease isn't too horrible)
I basically want to replicate a Cpanel shared/reseller hosting environment, but with Plesk since Cpanel for Windows is not yet available and been delayed forever.
I was trying to bring down license fee for a customer who needed SQL Server on Windows Server.
realised that MS has released a fix to install the SQL Server 2005 on a Windows 2008 Web Edition.[url] The license fee for the web edition is lower than the standard version.
I have been searching everywhere trying to find a tutorial but It is not going anywhere. Basically I need to create 2 nameservers for Godaddy and pretty much so when i type http://mysite.com it goes to my site. I can access everything from http://myip and everything works. Now is there a step by step on how to actually do it in the DNS Manager? I need help like what IP address do I use is it the router ip? The external IP?
How do I run a virtual instance of Windows server 2008 on my Linux dedi? Do I need to partition the server and create a VPS for this or can I run it on something like VMware? (Please look at my other thread here [url]t=857377 to learn more about my server, its resources and current config.)
Why would I want to do this? Because my primary desktop OS is still Vista Ultimate 64 and I've invested a lot in Windows-based software and hardware--too much to make a total switch to Linux. But, I don't want to invest more than I have to in order to run a Windows server that allows my business partner to access documents remotely or for us to share various files securely and privately and still serve my mostly Windows-based clients and colleagues. I'm one of, well, two people I know who even use Linux (at least at the OS level and know it).
Since my research shows I **can** do this on Centos 5, the responses that would be most useful to me would be those that focus on how I can do this successfully (even if it seems complicate; I can figure it out with help and/or direction) and what to consider or avoid when creating this virtual guest OS on my Linux dedi.
Unlike earlier versions of Microsoft Windows Server, the 2008 version gives you a default logon screen that is very similar to Vista. Instead of the the interactive dialog box that prompts you for a username, password, and sometimes domain, users will find a “push button” screen displaying all users with login permissions. To log into an account all the users will now need to know is the password. This makes things much easier for hackers as the only thing they will now need to guess is the password.
There are a couple of ways to resolve this problem. First, the server administrator can set the local security policy to not display the last username and disable fast user switching. Second, in the System Remote Settings dialog, the remote desktop options can be set to allow computers with Remote Desktop that support Network Level Authentication.
Since the first method is covered in a few blogs, I’ll limit myself to discussing the second method. In the latest versions of Remote Desktop Connection client (version 2.0 for Mac and the version shipped with Windows Vista), Network Level Authentication is supported. This means users must send the username and password before Windows 2008 accepts the connection. Earlier versions of RDC (like the one found in many installations of Windows XP) don’t support NLA. So technically, users will only need to supply the IP or domain name of the remote Windows server, leave the username and password blank, and interact with the logon process that is provided at connection time. Windows 2008 servers that do not have the NLA option set for remote desktop connections are vulnerable since the interactive logon screen (post-connection) is displayed to users using earlier versions of RDC.
This last point may be of significance to service providers offering Windows 2008 dedicated servers. If the server is set up with default settings, the NLA option is disabled and new users will by default be made to change passwords on first logon. Users using new versions of RDC will not be able to logon because the initial password change sequence on first logon is not compatible with NLA. The server will return an incorrect password message to the RDC client even though the user has provided the correct username and password. The only way to establish first connection is thus to use a non-NLA supporting version of RDC so that the user can establish connections without supplying credentials and then going through the password change wizard during the initial login. But as mentioned, having NLA disabled on server side is not an ideal practice at this point.
So there are a couple ways to do this. The service provider should disable the “change password on next logon” option during the user creation process and get user to manually change the password after logon. Or alternatively, assist the client/user in changing passwords through the console internally.
I was trying to get Active Sync running on my Windows Server 2008 R2 to be able to sync calenders, adress-books etc. with my mobile without success. With a Linux Server ot seems to be "easy" changeable like posted here: [URL]...
Need getting Active Sync running on my Windows machine? According to the steps in the mentioned post, I failed very early
1. check
2. I changed the following files: => "C:inetpubvhostswebmailhordeconfigconf.php" "C:ParallelsPleskWebmailhordehordeconfigconf.php" "C:ParallelsPleskWebmailhordehordeconfigconf.php.plesk"
with the values: => $conf['auth']['admins'] = array(my mail account); $conf['activesync']['enabled'] = true; $conf['activesync']['version'] = '14.1';
3. Rewrite: here the "problems" start, as of course I don't have the nginx option the question is, where to place the rewrite-rules best?
4. check
5. don't know what to do here, if it even is a problem with the max connections to the imap server?
6. I can restart the mailenable service ?
7. as I have admin rights in horde now, I could do step 7!
That's it? I can't use the active sync features ...
