I am currently running SBS 2003 with ISA Server. One of the reasons I wanted to do this was that SBS by default comes with a Windows SharePoint Services site ("Companyweb") and I wanted to explore custom web part development.

Well.. I have not even gotten to that point yet. Playing around with third party web parts, I installed SmilingGoat's FeedReader web part to bring up some RSS feeds on my SharePoint site and I am consistently getting the following error message:

Searching for your RSS feed has timed out.
If you use a proxy server, please make sure the address and port are correct in the Web Part settings.
If you do not use a proxy server, please validate the RSS feed URL is correct.

I have configured the proxy name and the proxy port on the web part settings within the shared view of the web part AND this is a stable feed that I am going against (The KBAlertz SharePoint RSS feed) AND I have no issues accessing the Internet via the browser that is configured with the same proxy settings.

So I put that on hold for a bit and deployed the SmartPart 1.0.0.0 web part which enable you to host ASP.NET user controls within it. After installation of the SmartPart in the GAC via the install routine, I drop the SmartPart List onto the "Companyweb" page and choose the provided "Dropdown Navigation Sample" example. The site at that point dies with the following error:

The "UserControlWebpart" Web Part appears to be causing a problem.

I have to go and disable/delete the web part in order for the "Companyweb" SharePoint site to come up again.

I am wondering at this point if there is anything unique about the SharePoint installation on the SBS 2003 box or if anyone has encountered such an error before. Bit frustrating!

I would very much appreciate any pointers anyone can provide to troubleshooting this issue.