I'm ready to "rent" a W2K3 server here from Rackshack. Now I just have to figure out if I need Ensim or not.

I'm familiar with all the Windows products, so I have no problem managing the server. But I'm not sure whether I need Ensim. Basically I would have a few websites of my own on the machine (about 5 domains), and I would let up to 5 friends on the server as well (so another 5 domains).

In order to give my 5 friends access to upload files, view stats, etc., do I need to get the Ensim server?

Oh yeah, one other question. I assume I can still use Remote Desktop to administer the Ensim server, right? I think Ensim is just a control panel type add-on that runs on W2K3.....

If you are comfortable enough with windows 2003 then you won't need ensim. It just makes things a little easier. You can still give your friends ftp access to their sites and access to their log files. In your case its just a matter of convienence I guess.

If you're ok with setting up sites / ftp etc. then there's no need for Ensim on a box only used for a few friends - in fact it's just on more thing to go wrong and I'd recommend against it.

That said I'm currently working on my first Ensim w2k3 (all others I manage manually) and it is a sweet product, everything I've set up has worked perfectly with it first time (mailenable, urchin etc) - I've put off using a control panel for ages, tried Helm and didn't like it, but Ensim seems really solid.

Just curious, what didnt you like about helm or what did you like better about ensim. I have ensim right now and I was thinking bout getting another helm box to try it out.

Helm was tried in a different situation - I have a number of servers an theplanet with one for iMail, one for SQL Server, one for livestats and some web servers. It was this network that I tried Helm with.

It did work ok but was very limited in the settings it could make, for instance it can create an MS SQL database but not set the size of the database, it can set up a Livestats account but gives full admin permissions by default.

By the time I'd gone in and fixed these things it was as quick to set up the accounts manually :-/

Also I didn't want to use their included billing but if you turn it off you lose the ability to offer 'extra services' to your clients as they don't have to pay for them :-o

It's a good package and I'll look again later on when it's a bit more mature. On a stand alone server I think it'd be major overkill and I think Ensim is a much better choice.