Service mode is a bad design

[salsbst]

Since I consider myself to be fairly savvy when it comes to networks, the fact that it took me so long to get network access running in Sage tells me that it would be nearly impossible for a "normal" user to do it.

It really isn't very complicated. Perhaps a FAQ should be written (heck, perhaps it already has been) on the two major implications of running software as a Windows Service.

a) it needs to run by a user that has access to the resources it needs -- kind of intuitive;
b) it can't use mapped drives (the user isn't given an entire Windows Explorer.exe process -- this is for performance reasons, I believe).

I just don't understand what the big deal is.

[michelkenny]

Same here. I got networking setup under service mode in a couple of minutes. It's not rocket science if you follow those 2 guidelines