We are currently in the middle of migrating our network from a Windows 2000 domain to a new Windows 2003 domain. In the process we have upgraded from Microsoft ISA Server 2000 to Microsoft ISA Server 2004.

Microsoft ISA Server 2004 is quite different in how it operates from ISA Server 2000. It is now very wizard orientated in how you set-up new rules and functions. Moving from ISA 2000 can be challenging, but once we get used to it we are finding it quite easy to use.

Because of the nature of our work (Christian Missions) we have a very mobile workforce. We rely a lot on our IT infrastructure, and especially e-mail and our Microsoft Sharepoint Services Intranet, for our communications. We also need consistent VPN access for our staff to connect to the network when they are away from our main operating centre.

VPN Access in ISA 2004 is quite easy to set-up, once I found the right tutorial for it and set up proper routing on our Internet router.

The Lazy Admin (sounds like it was made for me) has a great tutorial that I used for setting up the VPN. Using ISA 2004 as a PPTP VPN Server Pt.1 – Server Config is a very simple tutorial for setting up the VPN client and Using ISA 2004 as a PPTP VPN Server Pt.2 – Access Rules makes it easy to set-up the proper access for any VPN user (this is the step that I had gotten stuck on).

I have yet to try the VPN access from a Mac or Linux machine, but it is working flawlessly right now for my Windows XP Pro machine.