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Tomek
Premium Member
join:2002-01-30
Valley Stream, NY

Tomek

Premium Member

Deploying email server in SMB

Since company has a domain name, there should be no reason why they should run aol email for business. So I recommended local mail server or hosted mail server, like the one offered by google. They use some kind of archaic mediabiz solution which is a total PITA to operate.
Anyway, SMB has a decent file, commerce server running windows. I only played with ms exchange some time ago, but the price tag is way too high. Does anybody know good alternatives? Or maybe should I promote google hosted services?

Sir Meowmix III
@205.255.240.x

Sir Meowmix III

Anon

I'd consider going with something like Postfix and Dovecot if you're familiar with Linux. Do you need to also have collaborative calendaring?

Tomek
Premium Member
join:2002-01-30
Valley Stream, NY

Tomek

Premium Member

There is no need for collaboration, only emails, and one of the requirements was that server must run on windows (right now it is regular xp pro)

Sir Meowmix III
@205.255.240.x

Sir Meowmix III to Tomek

Anon

to Tomek
With the requirement to run on a closed-source proprietary operating system you're choices are going to be severely limited with regard to licensing costs.

If you're going to run the SMB's mail on in-house I'd strongly consider going to Linux Postfix/Dovecot route.

If you have the budget constraints nothing really beats FOSS. You could also look at Kerio Mailserver.

The documentation for Postfix and Dovecot is quite outstanding and Dovecot is a very robust IMAP/POP3 daemon. Using Postfix you can take advantage of things like greylisting as well. Even SpamAssassin and Amavisd.

It's your party, you'll get to likely support whatever you implement. Choose wisely.
JoelC707
Premium Member
join:2002-07-09
Lanett, AL

JoelC707 to Tomek

Premium Member

to Tomek
A "decent" file and commerce server that runs on xp pro? You need a server OS at the very least. In fact if they really are a small company and don't need collaboration features then a Server OS is all you will need. Windows 2003 and 2008 both have IIS which has built in SMTP and POP3 server support. Essentially that's all you would need. You'd need something else if you want to do IMAP but chances are POP3 is sufficient. And yes AOL or any other similar domain name for business email just looks tacky and unprofessional IMO.

jester121
Premium Member
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL

jester121 to Tomek

Premium Member

to Tomek
Why not check out a hosted exchange provider, then you don't have all the outlay for hardware & software, just monthly fees per user.

IMAP is okay for awhile but as message stores start to pile up it slows down, and there aren't many good Windows clients for it. Thunderbird is fair, and actually Vista's Windows Mail does a decent job with IMAP.

Tomek
Premium Member
join:2002-01-30
Valley Stream, NY

Tomek

Premium Member

Good points, thank you.
Another alternative was to install windows 2003 server (or the newer version) which I think comes with exchange server.
The only thing that confuses me is licensing. Does it mean how many simultaneous connections can be made to the server, how many computers can be connected to utilize resources, or how many can be on domain.
I think I will push windows server OS (only so they won't bother me with too many issues) and won't worry about incompatibilities. At the same time I would push for some RAID hardware solution.
barkode15
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
usa

barkode15

Premium Member

Exchange doesn't come with the standard versions of Windows Server, but it is included in Small Business Server. You get 5 licenses for SBS, letting you connect 5 users or 5 computers to the server. Because SBS runs as a domain controller, file server, and exchange server, it's usually recommended that it doesn't serve websites for security.

Mailenable is a free windows email server. I've set it up in the past and it worked for several years, but recently moved the email over to google apps. Less software to worry about and no problems with having a dynamic IP.
JoelC707
Premium Member
join:2002-07-09
Lanett, AL

JoelC707 to Tomek

Premium Member

to Tomek
Only Small Business Server (SBS) comes with Exchange. The plain jane Server 2003 (or 2008) comes with just POP3/SMTP support. The SBS licenses are more expensive but they are for the OS as well as Exchange so that's to be expected.

Sadly yes licensing is a full time job with MS it seems. In the case of the CAL count for the OS that is either the number of simultaneous users you can have connected or the number of devices you can have connected. I'm not even going to try and explain the differences as there is a lot of info about it out there but most use user mode. In the case of Exchange I think that goes on simultaneous user count only.

How small is this organization? The standard version of both the OS and Exchange have 5 users. If they don't even have a true server OS yet I'd venture a guess they aren't that big. Chances are you won't need to get extra licenses. Active directory goes based on the OS licenses essentially. It is based on simultaneous user count. If you get big, a standalone domain controller is a good idea to separate licensing (among other reasons).
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

OZO to Tomek

Premium Member

to Tomek
You should check hMailServer - free email server for Microsoft Windows. Personally I am completely satisfied with the way it handles all mail communications. It's stable, reliable, quite flexible, has good anti-spam protection mechanisms and can take a load for any small business company.