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Two NIC cards for ISA 2004

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by dedlbug

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Hey all, and thanks for your time. Do I need two NIC cards to configure ISA? I have a domain (with SSL cert) that points to a Windows SBS 2003 server. This is the only server on the lan and is intended for webhosting and Exchange hosting. I installed ISA 2004 and I can connect to my Exchange OWA and even RPC over HTTP through Outlook. I just am not sure how to use the second NIC card or even how it is intended to be configured. Any advice or articles related would be greatly appreciated. Thanks =]

4 replies

by churdoo

In ISA, one NIC is intended to be the public-facing NIC so it would be connected to your internet router, and the other(s) is/are intended to face your protected network(s). Your protected networks would not connect to your internet router, rather to a switch that your ISA inside NIC is also attached to, your ISA server would be the DEFAULT GATEWAY of your internal clients, and therefore, ALL internet traffic to/from the clients goes through your ISA server.

ISA is not for the faint of heart -- and I'm not suggesting that you are, I'm merely saying that ISA is closed by default, so an improperly or hastily configured ISA Server can bring a network to a screeching halt in no time. Read a lot and test a lot before you put it into production. http://isaserver.org is one resource; perhaps you can start with this article: http://isaserver.org/tutorials/Creating-Networks-ISA-2004-Part1.html and go from there, and/or post back of course.

by dedlbug

Yea ISA can be intimidating for sure. But I like to learn by doing and somehow I really enjoy learning this stuff. The link you provided is excellent as well. =]

In my test environment, I have ISA configured now on a second box, beside an Exchange/IIS server. I don't have ISA as a firewall persay, but it turns out to work as a proxy for my LAN with only one NIC card setup. I understand this is not "best Practice", and I am still learning ISA, but it looks like I could setup ISA to just be a proxy. I have the default gateway for the NIC as my router IP, so my LAN computers (including the two servers) connect to the same router. Then I just define the LAN policy to use the ISA server as a proxy.

Obviously I have discovered that I know very little about ISA, but I am excited to learn this tool. I doubt I have a need in my line of work for an ISA server, but...well....I'm a geek.

Thanks

by churdoo

I too am a geek. Nice job.
Enjoy!
:-)

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