Disabling the Firewall on a 2008 member server

Today I had to install a LOB application that uses SQL Server 2005. Despite setting all possible exceptions in the firewall, I could not get client connectivity setup.

I then decided that I would need to disable the firewall temporarily. However, this is controlled by the SBS Group Policy. I looked at all the GPOs but it was not immediatly obvious where I would find this object.....

Eventually I found the right one: The 'Windows SBS Client Policy' defines the firewall setting. By changing this entry to 'not configured', I can still enable or disable it, but I have control over the setting from the client.

Resolving Common SBS Event Log Entries

This message used to appear on most of my clients weekly "Network Reports":

Windows SharePoint Services 3 Search
Event ID: 2424
Event Details:
The update cannot be started because the content sources cannot be accessed. Fix the errors and try the update again. Context: Application "Search", Catalog "index file on the search server Search"

There are quite a few references out there on how to resolve this issue, but equally enough reports that the presented solution did not work. First up I checked this MS KB article to see if it fixed the issue. The problem persisted and eventually I found this SBS blog post, which looks credible and explains what happens. I implemented the suggestion they refer to - yet another blog posting which resolved the issue.

Another message frequently encountered is:

DCOM
Event ID: 10016
Event Details:
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1} to the user NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE SID (S-1-5-20) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

This one is easier to fix, using this blog post as a guide.