mschwerin
join:2004-06-21
Columbiaville, MI
| Email Server How many people actually host their own email server, and why? Why not use a 3rd party host? There are providers out there that will give you webspace and email hosting along with domain name registration etc, all for 1 very reasonable price, much less then paying someone to maintain the email server.
Just wondering if people have any thoughts on this.
Mike | |
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 joemaloy
join:2004-12-21
Tonopah, AZ | Re: Email Server I dont. | |
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VariableARK
join:2003-03-17
USA | I host my own for the same reason I build my own buildings and put up my own towers, I enjoy doing it, and I don't trust others to do it right. | |
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slipstream1
Premium
join:2005-11-15
Jacksonville, TX | I host my own qmail servers. I enjoy doing it, some days. Just an extra revenue stream. | |
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 | Keithb
join:2003-09-16
US
1 edit | Re: Email Server I manage my own servers for web-hosting and re-selling on the side in a huge datacenter, and I have hosted our coporate e-mail, dns, and e-mail for our Wireless Internet at no charge, thus far.  | |
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Rhaas
Premium
join:2005-12-19
Bernie, MO | I run our own mail server and webserver. Like VariableARK above, I don't trust anyone else to do it. | |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| Re: Email Server said by Rhaas  :I run our own mail server and webserver. Like VariableARK above, I don't trust anyone else to do it. Same for us. 
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dallash
Premium
join:2001-08-17
Little Rock, AR
clubs:
| I have 7 mail servers. They are for different purposes, primarily additional revenue streams. For our ISP side of the house, we run a couple of Qmail servers in a redundant blockade. It's housing about 30K accounts.
If I were just starting out, I would use something like Merak or some other free Windows-based server. If you are comfortable with Linux, there are myriad solutions you can "roll your own" with. It's not for the timid, and I wouldn't recommend it (putting an SMTP host on the Internet) until you are comfortable with how it works.
If you are not comfortable doing anything other than building your wireless network, then, by gosh, do THAT well and let someone else do the DNS/Webspace/Email.
You can learn as you go, but it's usually not a good idea to "get your t-shirt" using live customers as guinea pigs. People tend to get very possessive of their email. Heck, to some customers, that ALL the Internet is....
Regards,
Dallas | |
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PersComp
Premium
join:2005-08-17
Cayce, SC
| OK, I'll be the lone wolf on the opposite side of the fence... 
I use yahoo for my webhosting and email. For $12/mo I have everything I need and that price includes 200 emails. More can be bought at any time very reasonably. I have enough stress and headaches to worry about and Yahoo has been trouble free for me for several years. And there has never been an outage that affected me or any of my customers that I am aware of. The accounts can be used in any POP3 mail client and/or web-based. Yahoo does at least scan attachments, too, so there is a little protection for those customers that refuse to keep the AV software up to date as well.
Also every time I set up another website and reference it through mine, I get a $60 commission.
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Are these instructions or corrections??? | |
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polk5
join:2001-12-29
New Orleans, LA
| Re: Email Server If I had the time I guess I would do it myself. I have a friend of mine that does ours. It gives us more time to concentrate on the rooftops and the rest of the wireless part of the business. Its the part of the business that I enjoy. I would rather be at the top of a 300' tower or rooftop any day working rather in a office banging on a keyboard. | |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
| Re: Email Server said by polk5 :I would rather be at the top of a 300' tower or rooftop any day working rather in a office banging on a keyboard. I agree with this 100%. We are lucky enough to have two Linux/BSD gurus on staff that think setting up a mail server (SquirrelMail version 1.4.8
) is easier than getting out of bed in the morning. I would be lost without them, and if they were not here, you can bet I would outsource it in a minute.
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battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000
| Re: Email Server We run several mail servers for different uses. We are running some Plesk boxes for some domains and offering some advanced email hosting on Surgemail.
I went with Surge Mail because of the ease of migrating customers from their current mail server to ours. I also thought the price was not outrageous and they had a ton of features and you could install it on Linux or NT. (I'm running on linux) It scales very nicely from 100 to 100,000 users and it can easily be spread across a cluster in one datacenter or you can spread it across multiple data centers. I am running ours in a Master/Slave config.
We run our own servers because it gives us 100% control plus there is a certain amount of pride that goes with running your own network. Plus we are a traditional ISP and not a virtual one so this is something we have done for a long time. | |
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| | | | wishcom
Premium
join:2006-06-15
Spring Grove, IL
| Re: Email Server Our mailservers are all OpenBSD based and run qmail.
Why? Because that way I can guarantee their security, and maintain them ourselves - like the other gentleman said, I dont trust anyone else to do it right.
co-ndc-2 {102} uptime
3:47PM up 82 days, 21 mins, 11 users, load averages: 3.50, 3.32, 3.05
(typical uptime > 200 days, this one happened to have an upgrade 82 days ago) | |
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| | | | | Keithb
join:2003-09-16
US
| Re: Email Server There are several freeware mailservers for Windows that work fairly well. I tested a few of these a while back, to consider handling our own mailserver, but that would put more work on me. Thus, the reason I host ours on my servers since I have tech's to manage also.
Just don't forget that if you run your own mailserver, you'll have to manage it also.
Linux is the preferred choice for me for any web-application, but we have a domain controller that acts as our PDC, local mailserver, local Intranet, file server, and a few other things that will run for 100's of days running Server 2003. As mentioned, only reason for reboot is upgrades.
The Windows method would probably be the simplest method as most people know Windows and it's easier to manage from a tech standpoint without Linux knowledge. | |
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| | | | | | peavys
join:2004-03-15
Manor, TX | Re: Email Server I use Abyss mail server, a windows product. I spend about 30 hours/year maintaining it, in spite of the fact I am not deeply into email issues. Considering how much $ it saves me, those are 30 very highly paid hours! | |
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korym
Go Wisp's
ExMod 1999-03
join:1999-12-23
Richmond, VA
clubs:
| said by wishcom :co-ndc-2 {102} uptime 3:47PM up 82 days, 21 mins, 11 users, load averages: 3.50, 3.32, 3.05 Not to go off-topic but that's quite a load. Wow.
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WISP Directory : WISP News : Start a WISP | |
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| peavys
join:2004-03-15
Manor, TX
| OK, now you have me curious. 200 email accounts for $12/mo? I looked at their site and did not see that. I have about 2,000 email accounts, so even at that great price it would cost about $120/mo. but I can't find that offer from Yahoo. It might just be worth letting them do it for that price, assuming it was a stable price, and not something that would go up and throw my whole system into chaos someday. | |
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PersComp
Premium
join:2005-08-17
Cayce, SC
| Re: Email Server Here are the specs on a couple of their basic plans. I spoke with a yahoo rep a couple years ago when I started my webhosting, and additional addresses could be bought in blocks of 100. I don't remember the price, but it was very reasonable....like $2-$3 per 100. And everything is completely scalable. You can jump from one plan to another with a few mouse clicks.
»smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosti···pare.php
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Are these instructions or corrections??? | |
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| mschwerin
join:2004-06-21
Columbiaville, MI
| Re: Email Server That is exactly my point, even 30 hrs at my salary my current emplyer pays which is low, is $750 and that doesn't include any hardware, as opposed to the $144 for yahoo or some other company to provide domain name registration, web hosting, email hosting etc, PLUS being able to resell larger amounts of web space for a monthly fee, with no service costs or hardware costs. THis is the way I am leaning, and of course maybe down the road IF I grow large enough then I would consider in house.
Mike | |
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cowsgonemadd
join:2007-02-24
Ware Shoals, SC
| I am curious.
When providing email why not send them to yahoo or gmail?
Gmail has pop abilities so you can use it with a email program such as outlook. Not sure if yahoo has enabled that feature on there free version or not.
Plus they can check the mail on any computer anywhere.
They also would not have to worry about viruses unless they downloaded attachments but I think both yahoo and google have built in virus scanning.
I guess you would not make any money doing it this way but it would be super simple. All problems are between them and google. | |
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| openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Re: Email Server Additional revenue stream. Branding e-mail accounts with your own domain instead of user@gmail.com. More control. Satisfaction of saying, "hey, look what I did". Yahoo and gmail are so large that getting a "john.smith" type address is next to impossible. And I'm sure there are a lot of other reasons as to why people stand up their own mail servers, or contract with 3rd-party providers, but this should give you a good idea. | |
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| | charlesa920
Premium
join:2007-01-20
Sikeston, MO
| Re: Email Server What about godaddy.com where you can get 100 addresses for $30 a year. can use POP3 or web based.
to sign into web based it is... email.secureserver.net or can be found with email.yourdomain.com or dot whatever extension you use.
seems like this would be a good option. we could still charge for the email, offer our brand, and not have any of the server maintenance requirements. | |
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| | | MZR
join:2006-08-12
TX
| Re: Email Server said by charlesa920 :What about godaddy.com where you can get 100 addresses for $30 a year. can use POP3 or web based. to sign into web based it is... email.secureserver.net or can be found with email.yourdomain.com or dot whatever extension you use. seems like this would be a good option. we could still charge for the email, offer our brand, and not have any of the server maintenance requirements. We just built a website for my wife's business and decided to go with godaddy's economy hosting package which includes up to 500 email accounts @ yourdomain.com. | |
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| | | gunther_01
Premium
join:2004-03-29
Saybrook, IL
| Re: Email Server Yea, but did you see the cost of the premier edition... Oh no, not for me. And I liked the premier features.
Maybe the Yahoo route. I use bluehost.com for my hosting and my email. They do a real good job, but I like the thought of some of the other features that have been brought up to me by these other providers. | |
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| | | | mschwerin
join:2004-06-21
Columbiaville, MI
| Re: Email Server Currently I have been using Netfirms.com for my web site, that doesn't exist, lol. BUt with the business plan you get unlimited email addresses with @yourdomain.com plus webspace available, all for 9.95 per month paid annually. That is what I plan on using to begin with.
Mike | |
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| | | | | Keithb
join:2003-09-16
US
| Re: Email Server Keep in mind that if you go to some hosts, and use their hosting for a lot of email, it may be against their TOS. I've seen one do this for months off a reseller account only to have the host change their TOS because of it. I'm unsure why it would matter, it's unfair and it does happen so just beware. | |
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| | | | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
·AT&T Southeast
3 edits | Re: Email Server If people have their own domains and are looking for domain and/or e-mail hosting, PM me. I've got access to a good server hosted at ThePlanet (see uptime reports, downtimes were scheduled maintenance for server relocation). Currently, I've got more resources than I know what to do with (needed server for a different project of mine). As long as the requirements don't kill me or the server, I'm not currently looking to charge anything. This offer is aimed at your WISPers only. | |
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PersComp
Premium
join:2005-08-17
Cayce, SC
| said by cowsgonemadd :Not sure if yahoo has enabled that feature on there free version or not. No, but when you subscribe to their webhosting it becomes a business account. And you can set it up with Outlook.
said by cowsgonemadd :I guess you would not make any money doing it this way but it would be super simple. Every website you refer or setup is $60 in your pocket and who says you can't still charge a couple $ per email....or give them 7 for another $5 per month. Same as the big boys do it....
Charge them $45 standard or $40 if no emails....give them a feeling of value if they don't need the email
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Are these instructions or corrections??? | |
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cowsgonemadd
join:2007-02-24
Ware Shoals, SC
1 edit | I thought about go daddy too.I used it as a web host when I had my website and they had good uptime on the hosting.
Only problem is they dont offer near the amount of space as gmail. I guess thats just for the storing of online data not the amount you can download. | |
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| charlesa920
Premium
join:2007-01-20
Sikeston, MO | Re: Email Server You get 2000 MB to share between the 100 boxes. Seems like it should be a sweet deal. | |
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