I guess that would depend on what you need and consider to be bloated. I used ISA server a couple of times and really liked it, but you only see the benefit of it on larger networks (especially with the integrated AD management of many servers at once) whereas the simple RRAS of Win2K server works great on smaller LANs. I haven't messed with the RRAS/ICS functions of .NET server yet as I just don't have the time to load the betas at the moment (nor have I had a need to try either of those functions out for a while now).

right now I am running an OpenBSD box as my gateway so if it turns out that .Net Server has crappy packet filtering then I won't fret because of my OpenBSD box. XP/.Net seems to have great support for PPPoE (which is what Verizon DSL uses unfortunately) and I was hoping that ICF would be improved too. If it is anything like XP's version then I would not consider that to be suitable even for my small LAN at home. But like I said before, if its good then I'd be up for trying it out, at the least.

i use ics on one of my servers running .net and i have to say that i runs great. I my network consists of .NET and win2k servers and xp clients. .net has run like a dream for me very fast and stable, I am even using it on my workstation right now and it provides nice snappy responses

never used the firewall tho
don't really need or want it

Why would anyone want to use MS's built in firewall, when you can get ZoneAlarm for free?

I didn't like ZoneAlarm. I didn't like the way it worked with my Win2k Server box. That's what prompted me to try ISA Server. It isn't bad, but in general I thought it was way to bloated for my use.