sbs 2011 and 3g dongle

You can it will be slow as hell, but doable. Also, make sure you have unlimited data otherwise this will be extremely expensive.

Connect to the internet using the SBS server and 3G dongle. Once internet is established go to your Network Connections (ncpa.cpl from start menu)

Right click the Local Area Connection and Bridge the Connection with the 3G Connection. This will give you internet access as long as your clients are all pointed at the SBS Server.

Thanks for the reply homergfunk but failing at first hurdle getting the sbs to use the dongle as it's Internet connection.
The dongle is connected and receiving data cannot get the server to use it.
If I use the connect to the Internet wizard it looks for a router and proceeds to disable all other network connections.
Cheers

I don't think this is gonna work, because SBS 2011 (and 2008) are designed for just 1 network adapter and certainly no bridging etc. So the SBS server should be connected using the single nic to the network and use your router as a gateway.

See this document for more information: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2008/09/16/sbs-2008-supported-networking-topology.aspx

I'm not doubting it can be done. But you'll have to do the network configuration manually if you insist in connecting the 3G device directly into the server. This WILL break all of SBS wizards that involves network setup or checking, as Ronnypot said, since they are not designed to support multi-NIC configurations. This one of the reasons I mentioned the SonicWALL TZ product line as it should let you use a 3GB USB device and then switch to your BT connection when you finally get it. Plus you can keep your 3G device as a backup for the BT in the future. And since it's a router device you will be able to use it with all the SBS wizards.

-Matt-

I agree with ronnypot. Enabling any sort of secondary network connection on SBS 2008/2011 will break DHCP services, and the network related wizards will fail. SBS supports ONLY single NIC configurations.

It is possible to hack the system, but everytime you run a wizard it will break the SBS networking again.

From the responses here and the whitepaper ronnypot linked you shouldn't bridge the connections. I've personally done what your attempting on SBS 2003 with 2 NICs, but haven't attempted it since.

I'd get a small gateway device with the capabilities of using a USB 3g Dongle. I highly recommend the sonicwall devices, as I've used many of them in the past. My personal favorite is the Sonicwall NSA 240 UTM which you can buy for around $500 dollars on amazon.

For the record: SBS 2003 did support 2 NIC's and worked well as a gateway for the network using almost any type of Internet connection. Not so with SBS 2008/2011

Thanks for the replies.

Accepted as the only solution.
Ignored the comment initially as I was hoping the 3g dongle straight in the server should be do-able. Looks like this is the only way though, will also be investing in satellite broadband as backup.