Hello, I am a new member as of today. I am currently a Systems administrator on the Windows platform.

I do NOT really know anything about Sharepoint or what it can do.  Having said that my company wants it and I was put in charge of getting it installed , setup and maintaining it. I work for a pretty large company so I am sure the application will be pretty large at some point, but I don't care about that right now.

What I need from you all is some help getting this off the ground. looking for recomendation on some books you found useful remembeing I am a very green novice at this app, any tools or classes that will help me get this thing installed and maintanined.

I greatly appreciate your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.

Thank You,

Harpoon (Jeff)

Here is the eval:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=16006564-4575-4463-920d-c920b4aeae64&DisplayLang=en

Also: download the Admin Guide.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/sps2003/downloads/admdwnld.mspx

I found if you install on a new Windows 2003 server its pretty easy to get started.  I have however, been trying to get an install side by side to Team Foundation Server without any luck.

Here is the Admin guide:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/sps2003/downloads/admdwnld.mspx

Here is the Eval:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=16006564-4575-4463-920d-c920b4aeae64&DisplayLang=en

I found installing on a new Windows Server 2003 machine the easiest.

Welcome to the world of SharePoint.  I have a pretty large user based population, almost 6,000 users with over 100 departments having their own WSS.  What worked for me was the 3 Day SharePoint Solutions Jump Start SharePoint class.  They take you all the way from initial set up, to customization. 

Anyways if you wanna chat, heres my email bill.julian@us.army.mil

Jeff

As a self-taught SharePoint person who learned by doing, I agree with Bill's recommendation on courses.  If you can get your company to pay for it, go on a course before you implement SharePoint, and another one a few months later once you have had some experience.

Online my lifesavers have been:

• This site--the discussions and tips
• The bloggers--I learned most of what I do from the bloggers
• The Microsoft site (including the technet stuff linked above)

I use Eric Legault's list of links (Eric's big list of SharePoint Links) a lot -- http://blogs.officezealot.com/legault/archive/2004/08/08/2238.aspx.

 Outside of that, the one thing I wish I had understood a lot earlier than I did was the difference between SPS and WSS.  For months I tried to implement on SPS things that would only work on WSS and vice-versa.  It's something you need to keep in mind for every SharePoint article you read.  Is this relevant to SPS, WSS or both, and have I implemented WSS only, or both?

You're welcome to contact me separately if you wish. We implemented SPS and WSS on a single server for around 300 people.  It's been running for 18 months now, but I would say I have really only become comfortable with it in the last six.  I still remember a lot of mistakes we made.

Karen,

I have also just started using WSS and am currently attempting to install Sharepoint Portal Server.  I am currently having trouble doing so because SPS doesn't like the fact that I already installed WSS seperately.  It is complaining about the configuration database.

Anyway, I was wondering if you could shed some light on just what is the purpose of SPS?  It seems redundant to WSS.  Is it really necessary to have?

Thank you for your thoughts.

Tim

Erik, Bill and Karen, thank you all for the information, you have given me soo much to read and pointed me in a great direction and I thank you.

Bill I read about the class you mentioned it is seems perfect BUT come to find out my company has already booked two classes at New Horizons, a two day and a three day. pretty much an administration I and II class.. they don't seen nearly as good on the installation and implementation as the one you mentioned so I am a little bumbed about that.

Well  I have alot of reading to do with all the links you all have sent so I am SURE we will be talking soon...

Thanks again

Jeff

hi Jeff,

 i work as a programmer but i am really a begginer in sharepoint. i have a big confusion for sharepoint. i never understood proparely the structure of sharepoint. i mean how Sharepoint designer, WSS and sharepoint server are related to each other? it always cofuse me how to create something in visual studion and implement it in sharepoint using WSS. please help me understand the basics of the shreapoint so that i can learn other things without confussion.

appreaciate any help and guidance on this.

Thank you