but the Microsoft modifications seem to be for shite.

Organzations use it because it works so well with other Microsoft products, and they would rather have all their support calls go to Microsoft than several different companies. Of course they deserve all the headaches that they get with Microsoft products then. :)

Was it SQL Server, or was it the usual shitty SBC service that dropped the connection? I get dropped connections with MySQL, Postgres, and Oracle servers when I fill out web forms. I blame the ISP not completing the connection from the HTML Forum in the browser to the database via the HTTP protocol.