The third service pack for Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Standard Edition is available for download. The refresh is designed to deliver the latest set of updates for ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition. Describing the service pack, Microsoft revealed that the updates focused on the integration with ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition will enable the enhancing of the product's security as well as evolve the troubleshooting tools and the log viewer functionality.

ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition SP3 comes with support for Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 - ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition, also with SP1 and SP2. As the download weights in between 37 KB and 12.9 MB, downloading and deploying the service pack should present no problems at all.

Microsoft updated ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition two more times in the past with the delivery of SP1 and SP2. The first refresh was focused on improving the product's stability. The second service pack brought to the table a much wider array of enhancements including more efficient Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) communications.

Currently, the Redmond company is offering Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006, the successor of the 2004 variant. ISA Server is a solution that offers secure remote access, branch office security, and internet access protection, functioning as an integrated edge security gateway. ISA Server 2006 has been transitioned under the Forefront Edge Security and Access umbrella.

Microsoft explained that "ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition SP3 can be installed directly on computers running ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition, and includes:

￭ Improvements to the ISA Server Management console with the addition of a new Troubleshooting node
￭ Enhanced log viewing functionality
￭ Additional log filtering functionality
￭ Diagnostic logging, including over 200 new diagnostic logging events
￭ Integration with the Microsoft ISA Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool
￭ All software updates issued since ISA Server 2004 was released to manufacturing.
￭ Fixes for common issues reported by customers through Microsoft Customer Service and Support.
￭ Improved log viewer functionality, including an enhanced details pane view, text coloring, and new log filtering functionality.
￭ Updated ISA Server Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in functionality that provides access to troubleshooting tools and options available directly from the ISA Server Management console.
￭ New diagnostic logging functionality.
￭ Support for publishing computers running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 both to receive and send Internet e-mail messages."

Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Standard Edition Service Pack 3 can be downloaded from here.