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"AFAIK, KDE and GNOME has both easy ways to create shares for now, but there is no way to configure SAMBA for just several default scenarios which could be - anonymous read-only, anonymous read-write, user-based read-only, user-based read-write, custom. Default could be user-based read-only."

SME Server does exactly that, through a very simple web interface. If you need corporate support, Mitel Networks provides a hardware/software package that's easily deployed into IT-less situations, like franchise offices or into teleworker setups.

Full disclosure: I worked on this software for a number of years, but in fairness, I like it enough that I continue to deploy it in places where people need robust but simple small network servers.

"When taking into consideration TCO for the company just big enough to want to do their server stuffs in-house, but not big enough to hire a full fledged IT department ... Microsoft wins. Hands down it wins."

Bullshit.

Just because you only know one way of integrating IT into small and medium sized businesses doesn't mean that's the only way to do it.

I worked for three years with Mitel, and have about 7 and a half years' experience with Windows systems small, medium and large business. The server software Mitel sells can be safely administered remotely for everything except hardware failure. And when I say everything, I mean everything.

We worked with one company that had sold its services into automotive dealerships nationwide. They administered hundreds of these servers with full-time staff of three, and about a dozen hardware monkeys to swap drives etc.

And yes, there's a Free version, too. I'm currently using it to support servers on islands stretched across a thousand miles of ocean. 8^)

I would suggest checking out the "SME Server" distribution available at http://www.contribs.org/ as it is the new and improved version of what was formerly known as the "e-smith server and gateway". A couple of years after Mitel acquired e-smith, they helped transition support for their "developer release" over to the developer community centered around that web site. That group has had some ups and downs, but seems to now be doing some good stuff and on a solid track. It's well worth a look. I use it at home for my small business and it's rock solid.

A "MAS 6000" is a Mitel Networks 6000 Managed Applications Server, which is a prepackaged Red Hat Linux server, usually in a 1U rackmount unit. "The 6000 MAS is simple to use and requires little or no IT expertise to install and manage," says the vendor. It provides a "firewall", E-mail, and other standard server functions. It's a "network appliance". The installation instructions actually say to put it in a closet and disconnect the keyboard. It's supposed to be secure out of the box.

There is at least one known FTP buffer overflow vulnerability for this system, but FTP must be enabled for it to work. Similarly, there's an SSH vulnerability, but SSH must be enabled for it to work.

A "MAS 6000" is a Mitel Networks 6000 Managed Applications Server, which is a prepackaged Red Hat Linux server, usually in a 1U rackmount unit. "The 6000 MAS is simple to use and requires little or no IT expertise to install and manage," says the vendor. It provides a "firewall", E-mail, and other standard server functions. It's a "network appliance". The installation instructions actually say to put it in a closet and disconnect the keyboard. It's supposed to be secure out of the box.

There is at least one known FTP buffer overflow vulnerability for this system, but FTP must be enabled for it to work. Similarly, there's an SSH vulnerability, but SSH must be enabled for it to work.

I'm afraid that this is going to be the course of all good free/open source software projects. I work in an envioronment that uses Free software for our servers because the schools can't afford others. We've been using Mitel's SME Server (E-Smith for you old-schoolers) for quite a while. Recently Mitel is dropping support for this. This announcement came right after Redhat's shakeup a while back. Free/swan is an excellent tool that we've been using to connect schools and homes. Anyway, I'm afraid that education will suffer, which in turn will lead to everyone's suffering.

Think about what you said and use what you know about the common user.

[scenareo]
Joe gets his voucher for $49.95 (or whatever his share of 200 million is) and reads the voucher fine print that says he may buy computer software. Joe goes out to Best-Buy/Walmart/Circut City, etc and decides to buy a program.
[/scenareo]

Now what is Joe going to buy? How many copies of Mitel's Server software have you seen at Walmart?

The problem with this is exacly as the original poster in this thread stated: They should have been given cash.

OLD??? I am a total Linux Newbie and my first project was to install an e-smith server at home as a gateway server. It is still under active development by Mitel's as it is used for their Mitel Networks 6000 Managed Application Server .

I use it to:

• Act as a Domain COntroller for my home network (Windows PC's)
• Host web application I am testing. Comes with PHP, MySQL, APACHE, other stuff
• Web filtering (ala DansGuardian)
• IMAP Mail available for each local user account
• External Access to IMAP with IMP from HORDE that comes preinstalled
• Web administration panel

  • Absolutely awesome product that I really recommend. It has worked for me better than I imagined.

OLD??? I am a total Linux Newbie and my first project was to install an e-smith server at home as a gateway server. It is still under active development by Mitel's as it is used for their Mitel Networks 6000 Managed Application Server .

I use it to:

• Act as a Domain COntroller for my home network (Windows PC's)
• Host web application I am testing. Comes with PHP, MySQL, APACHE, other stuff
• Web filtering (ala DansGuardian)
• IMAP Mail available for each local user account
• External Access to IMAP with IMP from HORDE that comes preinstalled
• Web administration panel

  • Absolutely awesome product that I really recommend. It has worked for me better than I imagined.

Currently version 6 is in beta, probably to be released real-soon-now, and it includes the dovecot IMAP server. This is proving to be a champ of an IMAP server, particularly when integrated with the e-smith automation. It runs great on even low-end hardware, is proving robust yet easy to manage; a real winner.

My suggestion is to download a copy and take a look. Also check out the add-ons that take advantage of the e-smith templating & web management systems. There's even a marvelous set of Lazy Administrators command line tools for making bulk changes to accounts and settings. For a nearly turn-key solution it is quite impressive.

For those looking for support Mitel has a commercial version of e-smith called the Mitel Networks 6000 Managed Application Server which offers more groupware features and other nice things.

Unfortunately, most of it is commercial ... although the SME server software is open source and available from the E-Smith developer site. Still, their voip stuff looks standards-based, so hopefully it interoperates with other stuff.

A stripped down Redhat-based distrib entirely managed by a well-scripted web-interface they really can be locally administered by the Office Administrator. The install is short and sweet and with a few questions it sets up a well organized server offering 'bout anything a modern office would want all automagically.

Ok, actually it's all done off an impressive system of scripts and templates but as far as J. Random "Administrator" is concerned it just works, and all from the clean browser-interface. Groups and accounts, POP & IMAP, LDAP and Webmail, all come built-in. A hardy user community contributes their own extensive set of ports and script templates including user self-management web interfaces, MySQL administration, mp3 jukeboxes, log and queue management, etc.

I set this up on a donated Compaq box a year ago for a local youth services organization (read: Human Services-type folks who don't know anything about computers, aren't inclined to learn much, and really just want this stuff to work with a minimum of muss and fuss so they can get on with their real work) and they've loved it. Ok, actually they don't care: It just does what they need it to do, is easy to get to do those things, offers the services they needed and they're not interested beyond that, which is a Good Thing.

Oh yeah, services they use their E-Smith box for are:

• Firewall protecting their office network
• Caching speeding their web-browsing
• A filter blocking many of the web-ads
• A local email-server for their inter-office confidential email
• A NAT allowing them to save money on the ISP plan they use
• Shared File-Space
• Shared Address Book
• Shared Printers
• Personal Directories so everything isn't only stored on their individual aging PCs
• IMAP folders so all of their email records aren't only stored on their individual aging PCs

Personally I've got E-Smith servers in both of my residences (different countries) where I use a Unison implementation for E-Smith to keep both boxes synchronized. It also provides a handy VPN between both houses as well as offering all of the other services listed above. Next up it'll be hosting photo galleries and some web sites for the family as well as a Twiki server for friends to share.

Oh, and best thing about all of this? It runs on low end PIII's, 200MHZ w/ 128MB RAM, not speed demons but stable, reliable, secure, and very effective. Did I mention trivial to administer too?

Check out www.mitel.com. Their 3050 is apparently a Linux based key switch/firewall package.

Uh, of course, I blinked and missed that residential VoiP is already here. Yeee ha!

The TWIF-IP adaptor bundled with this service supports two analog 'phones. Whee. Now picture one that'll talk to any DSL or cable uplink, has a 10/100 switched hub supporting 8 IP devices ('phones, PC's, NAS) with a DHCP server built in, that supports 6 analog devices ('phone, fax, trunks), any number of PC screenphones, that has a fully featured call control that provides any service you could imagine (and quite a few that you've never dreamed of), stores 10Gb of voicemail, and supports full RAS services (i.e. you can dial in to your home, then hop out from there, like a mini-ISP), all with a multi-lingual web based front end that you can access locally or remotely over IP or diallup. You want one? You know you do. ;-) You can't get one yet at retail, but give us another 18 months for the telco's to saturate their SME's with these, and you might see a version hitting retail.

I really doubt if any hotel has a DMS-x, to call a switch of that class overkill for a hotel would be an understatement. Mitel dominates the hospitality industry anyways, with over 80% of installed hotel PBXs being Mitel. Hotels typically do not do any configuration or maintenance on their PBX in-house. With this in mind, perhaps a look at the companies doing the service on some of the hotel's PBXs would be in order.

maru

The company I work for has recently sold its Systems business along with the company name (Mitel) to a company owned by one of Mitel's original co-founders.

Those of us who work in the semiconductor side of the business await our renaming with trepidation.

If you owned a semiconductor company what would you call it?