• Home
  • Consulting
  • Contact Us
    • About this site
    • Contact Wayne
    • Media Room
    • Wayne’s Bio

SBSFAQ.COM

Supporting IT Pro's & MSP's since 2000

  • Blog
  • FAQs
  • Reviews
  • Downloads

What inbound ports do I need to open on my firewall for SBS 2011 Essentials?

February 25, 2011 by Wayne Small 2 Comments

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (SBS 2011 Essentials) is a little different from previous versions of SBS that we’ve all come to know and appreciate.  SBS 2011 Essentials does not have an on premise mail server, or Sharepoint Companyweb.  As a result it requires fewer ports open than SBS 2011 Standard or previous versions of SBS.

If you have a uPnP router then all the hard work is done for you by the Internet Address Management Wizard that you run during configuration of the server.  It will automatically open port 80 and 443 which is all you need.

If however you are like me and want to control the router/firewall directly then you will need to manually configure the following ports to be open and forwarded to your SBS 2011 Essentials server.

Port 80 – does NOT need to be open at all in reality.  It’s there to provide an easy redirect for our users when they go to access the Remote Web Access feature of SBS 2011 Essentials.  Having this port open allows the user to type in remote.mycompany.com into a web browser which will then go direct to our server.  The server will immediately redirect the user to https://remote.mycompany.com/remote so that all traffic is encrypted.  You can safely close this port to reduce your attack profile but you will need to train your users to type in the full URL of https://remote.mycompany.com/remote. My advice is to train your users  – put this URL on the back of a business card for them to make it easy to handle.

Port 443 – this is a mandatory one.  This needs to be open and forwarded to your SBS 2011 Essentials server to allow access to the Remote Web Access website.  All traffic over this connection is encrypted so it’s safe and secure. If this is not open then none of these functions will work outside your office.

That’s it really – SBS 2011 Essentials, due to it’s reduced on premise functionality requires fewer ports to be opened on your firewall and an easier configuration all round.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: FAQs Tagged With: Configuration, Firewall, SBS 2011, SBS 2011 Essentials, Security

About The Author

Wayne has been working with Microsoft Server products in the SMB market for over 20 years. He has a passion for technology and been a Microsoft MVP for over 15 years. Read More…

Comments

  1. Dom says

    May 25, 2012 at 1:37 am

    Thank you. Amazing that this is info isn’t clearly available in either the Remote Access setup wizard, or immediately easy to find on MS’ own help site that you are redirected to.

    Reply
  2. www says

    June 28, 2014 at 3:55 am

    Everyone loves what you guys tend to be up too.
    This type of clever work and coverage! Keep
    up the fantastic works guys I’ve added you guys to blogroll.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search

Connect Online With Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Reviews

Splashtop – Cost Effective Remote Control Software

September 22, 2017 By Wayne Small 2 Comments

Western Digital DL4100 NAS

March 3, 2015 By Wayne Small Leave a Comment

SBS 2011 Configuring Certification Guide (70-169)

August 7, 2012 By Wayne Small 4 Comments

Site News

Exchange Bug Stops Mail Delivery in 2022

January 2, 2022

Huge bug found in Intel CPU that could permit hackers to steal your data

January 4, 2018

Recent Posts

  • MS Exchange Zero Day and RemotePowerShell Disabling on Admin accounts
  • Setup changes for Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019
  • Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard Randomly Stop Responding
  • Exchange Bug Stops Mail Delivery in 2022
  • How to open and search extremely large text log files

Tags

Antivirus Backup Business Focus Cloud Computing Community Conferences Disaster Recovery Exchange 2010 Exchange Server Future Products Hyper-V Installation Microsoft Migration Patches Personal Rants SBS 4.5 SBS 2000 SBS 2000 SP1 SBS 2003 SBS 2003 Premium SBS 2003 R2 SBS 2003 R2 Premium SBS 2003 R2 Standard SBS 2003 SP1 Premium SBS 2003 SP1 Standard SBS 2003 Standard SBS 2008 SBS 2008 R2 SBS 2011 SBS 2011 Essentials SBS 2011 Standard Security Service Packs ShadowProtect SMB Community Software Software I use StorageCraft Training TrendMicro Troubleshooting Virtualisation Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in