Have you ever had one of your sites get hacked?
DanielBMarkham: Yes. Many years ago I ran my own Windows Server network out of my home office -- Exchange, SQL Server, SMS, etc. It was all part of learning how to use the tools and staying on top of the technology. At the time I had a T-1 leased to the office, which gave me tremendous speed (relative to everybody else in town, that is)The problem with this plan was that Microsoft is a place full of really smart people making really complicated software. Each of these server programs was it's own world of consultants and gotchas -- it was too much to manage while doing other "real" work. Patching and tweaking alone could have took all of my time.I guess it took about a month for me to figure out that my Exchange Server had be pwned and was sending out spam email for somebody with a Russian IP address. I figured it out when I went to the box for something else and realized the CPU was pinging out at 100%. A little digging around and wham! Guess what? You've been punked.I played around with cleaning it up for a couple of days but it just wasn't worth the hassle. I learned a lot about Exchange Server databases in the process, but I have no desire to be an email technician. And with Microsoft, everything is tied into everything else: it's never just one complex product, it's fifty.So I shut the entire thing down. Swore that if I needed server or storage stuff I'd let somebody else worry about the details. It was one of the smartest things I've done as far as network administration -- understanding my own constraints. Now if I want Microsoft Server programs, I just rent them off the web. But I've found that, with the exception of SQL Server and IIS, most of the MS Server products are simply too overblown to make it worthwhile for an advanced hobbiest to play around with.As a humorous side note, the next New Year's Day I got an email from some Russian guy who wished me the best for the coming year. We exchanged email pleasantries on New Year's for a few years after that. I always wondered what happened to him. I was hoping for jail, but he's probably got a villa and big ship in the Med somewhere.Punk. (grin)