Frontpage sharepoint or MSS template?

[tinggg]

Hi

At work we use Microsoft Server 2003. I would like to use Sharepoint to build our intranet.

I understand that if I ask for MSS to be enabled I can run Frontpage Sharepoint Template and build a Sharepoint site from here with no extra licencing cost. However I have been advised that it is better to use the templates provided with MSS.

I would appreciate some info and advice on the following:

- Are Sharepoint tempates provided with MSS?
- If I ask for MSS to be enabled how do I access these templates? How do I get started?
- Where there is no cost associated with developing a Sharepoint intranet using the Frontpage Sharepoint template is there a cost associated with using templates provided with MSS?
- Is the Frontpage (2003) Sharepoint template a good way to go?
- 50% of our staff are located around the country and connect to our network via a vpn, in order for them to view the intranet on thte network do I need to purchase Server 2003 External Connector License, i'm guessing that I shouldn't have to since the intranet is on the network?

Sorry for all the questions, my employer doesn't want to put anymore money into an intranet and i'm trying to use Sharepoint in the most cost effective way as possible - also I don't know a lot about servers and configuring so any advice is much appreciated.

Many thanks

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello,

- When you install Windows SharePoint Services you will get a set of default templates that you can use and you can also modify and customize them after your needs with FP2003

- When you have enabled/installed SharePoint Services you will se a list of templates when you created your first site when installed the templates and themes can be found in directories under %systemdrive%:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60

- Frontpage 2003 is good way to go when doing customization to your SharePoint sites. You can do a lot of customization and create your own templates with it. Easiest way is to copy an existing template and then modify it to meet your needs and requirements. There is no additional cost to customize and modify the templates you get by default with SharePoint Services.

- The Server 2003 external connector should not be needed since you are connecting to the server via VPN clients, the only thing I guess you need is to have enough Client Access Licenses for the server. But this I am not a 100% sure of.

I hope this helped you a little, I am sure there are lot of experts out there that knows more about this than I do.

Regards,
Thomas

 

[tinggg]

Hi

Thanks, that information is really helpful. I've been reading up on Sharepoint and have another concern.

We have 110 staff in our department (our intranet pages will be primarily for these 110 staff) but our departments' intranet will also be viewable by 1000 other staff around the organisation (from past experience we get very little traffic - about 20 visitors a day).

I'm a bit confused about the difference between MSS and Microsoft Sharepoint Portal. I've read that Microsoft Sharepoint Portal is suitable for organisation over 75 people - does that mean MSS is not suitable for organisations over 75? There's no money to purchase the portal option so i'm trying to find out if it is still possible for us to use a WSS template even though over 75 staff will potentially be accessing it. This intranet is primarily for staff in our own dept.

My question is -
- Is WSS a suitable option for us and do you know if our use of WSS will be limited in anyway because of our size?

Many thanks again.

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello,

We are using Windows SharePoint Services for about 200 users that actually log in and work with documents, lists and tasks. And we are having no problems at all. On some of the sites we have anonymous access setup which basically means that anyone with in our organisation which is a very big on have access to the site. But we have the same kind of traffic as you describe, a very few people actually logging into the sites everyday.

In my opinion you could go with just WSS since you also stated earlier that your company does not want to invest more money into the intranet project.

You do get some limited functionality with just running WSS and not the Portal Server. Microsoft has a good document which describes when you should deploy WSS or SPS.
If you have not allready read it you can find it at

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/evaluationoverview.asp

it descibes some of the differences between WSS and SPS

Regards,
Thomas