Windows Small Business Server 2011 : Working with Websites - Accessing the Windows SBS Websites

1. Accessing the Client Deployment Site

The first site that each workstation accesses on the Windows SBS server is the client deployment site, which joins the computer to the domain and configures it to access the network’s resources. To connect to this site, a user or administrator simply has to type the word connect in the browser’s address box. This works for two reasons:

• The Windows SBS 2011 setup program creates an Alias (CNAME) resource record in the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain that equates the name connect with the name of the server. When the workstation performs a DNS name resolution on the name connect, it receives the IP address of the server in return.

• The client deployment website has a host header binding that associates the name connect with the site. As a result, IIS forwards HTTP requests containing connect in the Host field to the client deployment site.

2. Using Shortcuts and Links

In addition to joining the workstation to the network, the Connect Computer Wizard configures the workstation so that users have various ways to access the websites on the Windows SBS 2011 server, including the following:

• On the Start menu, the wizard creates a Windows SBS program group that contains an Internal Web Site shortcut pointing to the SharePoint site: companyweb.

• In the Internet Explorer Favorites list, the wizard creates links to the Internal Web Site and to the RWA site.

3. Using Remote Web Access

As mentioned earlier, RWA is a portal site that contains no content of its own, but provides users with access to the other Windows SBS 2011 websites, as well as other internal network resources. RWA is unique among the default Windows SBS websites in that it is available both to internal network users and to Internet users at remote locations. For internal users, RWA provides a convenient central access point for the Windows SBS network resources. For users at remote locations, however, RWA also provides the unique ability to log on to the AD DS domain from outside the physical network.

Once connected to the RWA site, a user with the correct permissions can perform several tasks:

• Connect to the OWA site

• Connect to the Internal companyweb website

• Establish a Remote Desktop Services connection to a workstation on the internal network

• Access shared folders on the network

• Change the user’s password

• View the Windows Small Business Server 2008 Client Computer Help pages

Users with administrative credentials can perform these additional tasks:

• Establish a Remote Desktop Services connection to a the network server

• Access the Windows Small Business Server (SBS) Community and Official SBS Blog pages on the Internet

To provide this remote access, your Windows SBS 2011 server, your Internet access router, and your Internet domain must be configured properly. This configuration consists of the following elements:

• The Windows SBS 2011 setup program creates the RWA site in IIS and configures it with a host header binding that associates the site with the host name remote.

• The Internet Address Management Wizard creates a DNS resource record in your Internet domain, pointing the host name remote to your router’s external (Internet) address.

• The Internet Address Management Wizard configures your router to admit Internet traffic through ports 25, 80, 443, 987, and 3389 and forward the traffic to your server.

• The Windows SBS 2011 setup program creates a certificate installation package that enables you to distribute your server’s self-signed certificate to remote computers.

3.1. Connecting to the RWA Site

The RWA website is accessible to users, both on the internal Windows SBS network and on the Internet, through the URL http://remote.domain_name.com, where domain_name.com is the name of the Internet domain name you registered using the Internet Address Management Wizard. The server name in this URL resolves to the external address of your router, and the router forwards the traffic to your Windows SBS server. Internal users on the Windows SBS network can connect to the RWA site more easily by using the Favorite that the Connect Computer Wizard creates in Internet Explorer.

Tip:

If computers on the Internet are unable to connect to your server using RWA, the most likely causes of the problem are a missing or incorrect DNS resource record for the host name remote in your domain, or an improperly configured router that is not forwarding all the required port traffic to the server.

When a user on the internal network connects to the RWA site, a sign-in page appears, as shown in Figure 1. The user must log on using his or her AD DS domain account to enter the site.

For Internet users, the process might be slightly more complicated in some cases. The RWA site uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, which uses digital certificates to confirm the identity of the server. If, during your initial Windows SBS 2011 server configuration, you used the Add A Trusted Certificate Wizard to purchase a certificate from a third-party provider and install it on your server, clients on the Internet trust the server’s certificate and allow the browser to access the RWA site.

If you did not purchase a certificate from a trusted third-party provider, your server is using a self-signed certificate. Computers on the local network trust the server’s self-signed certificate because they are members of the same AD DS domain. However, computers on the Internet are not members of the domain and have no reason to trust the server’s certificate. As a result, when Internet computers attempt to connect to the RWA site, a Certificate Error page appears, as shown in Figure 2.

3.2. Installing a Server Certificate

The appearance of the Certificate Error page does not prevent the computer from accessing the site. Users can click the Continue to this website link to proceed to the RWA logon page, but unless they are aware of the reason for the error, they might be reluctant to do so. To prevent the Error page from appearing, you can either obtain a certificate from a commercial provider or install your server’s self-signed certificate on each Internet computer that will access the RWA site.

Windows SBS 2011 provides a certificate installation package that simplifies the process of deploying the server certificate to remote clients. To deploy the server certificate, use the following procedure:

Once the certificate is installed, the user can access the RWA site without displaying a Certificate Error page.

4. Accessing the WSUS Website