Good afternoon. My current host is absolutely horrible in terms of support. It's indifference that I can't stand, so I need to move.

In any case a few questions here:
1) What do you install by default with Win2k3? (i.e., IIS, DNS, etc.).
2) Do you have the contents of /i386 on the box upon install?
3) You use admin terminal services as the default means of getting in?
4) You don't do anything like turn on the MS firewall do you?
5) What's your current turn around time for a new box?

Thanks folks... so far I think ServerMatrix will be the winner.

I am not from Servermatrix but got a W2K3 system here.

1) IIS, DNS , FTP and so on are pretty much out of the box installation for Windows 2003 Standard. However, under the Windows 2003 new policy on security, all those services are initially Stop. You will need to enable them. I believe it comes with SMTP and POP3 too but never used it since I am using Ensim and it does not support the internal ones as far as I know. However, you could use the internal smtp and pop3 or download a free copy of Mailenable from mailenable.com

2) Don't see a /i386 on the harddisk but probably if you need something from the installation disk you could drop tech a support ticket and have them place the CD into the drive and you could install from there. I believe it was mentioned somewhere on this forum.

3) Yes, you do have Administrative Access into the Server. I use Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) which comes as part of my Windows XP Home installation. Basically you get GUI access. If you are not using Windows XP or 2000/2003, you could download a copy of RDC from Microsoft website. I believe they even have a Mac version of it.

4) MS Firewall was turned on initially. It is not a great option and after sometime playing with it, I decided to turn it off because it was preventing HTTPS access and is slow at times. It might just be me. I opted for the Snapgear PCI630 Hardware firewall and it is humming nicely now. This does cost but worth it.

5) I got my server in under 6 hours. I guess it depends on when you order (weekends and holidays might be slow) and if the unit is available. Typically, it is anywhere between 1 to 8 hours. But give them 24 just in case.

1) IIS, DNS, Media services, etc are all installed by default. Like JeffyJones said they're stopped by default, but you can enable them from your Services Control Panel.

2) Yes we do. We should be putting the supporttools directory there as well now. If you need anything else off the CD let us know and we can put a CD in your drive and you can copy over whatever you like.

3) Remote Desktop is enabled by default, but if you want to use the telnet server or VNC or whatever be my guest.

4) The firewall is disabled by default. If you're going to enable it make sure you're allowing terminal services through!

5) Plan on an anverage 24 hour turn around time. It's uaually much faster than that, but it's nearing the weekend and we have much less staff around then.

Actually, IIS isn't even installed by default, and I knew this. I was just curious to see what they liked to have up by default.

The question about the firewall came up because, while I think it's nearly useless (I just use the port filtering), I've seen quite a few people who have had it enabled.

Thanks! I think I'll order today!