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 | I dont. |
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VariableARK
join:2003-03-17
USA | reply to mschwerin
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 | reply to mschwerin
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
El Campo, TX
edit:
March 7th, @06:50PM
| 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
join:2005-12-19
Bernie, MO | reply to mschwerin
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
 ·WaveCrazy.Net
| 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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»www.wavecrazy.net Join WISPA today! »www.wispa.org/ |
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dallash
Premium
join:2001-08-17
Little Rock, AR
clubs:
 ·Vonage
 ·Comcast
| reply to mschwerin
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
| reply to mschwerin
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
| 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
·WaveCrazy.Net
| 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
| 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
| 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
El Campo, TX
| 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 | 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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PersComp
Premium
join:2005-08-17
Cayce, SC
| reply to mschwerin
One thing I meant to add in my post above is that I have exactly $0 outlay for equipment when using yahoo. Couple that with no need for spare parts, redundant servers, or any time on my part (other than setting up individual email accounts), and $144 per year is the deal of the century. I understand having it in house and the pride with DIY (tried all that myself with Linksys APs and cheap amps before I discovered this forum) . But, since I have no prior mail server setup experience, this was a no-brainer from a business standpoint.
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Are these instructions or corrections??? |
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mschwerin
join:2004-06-21
Columbiaville, MI
| 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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korym
Go Wisp's
ExMod 1999-03
join:1999-12-23
Richmond, VA
clubs:
| reply to wishcom
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
| reply to PersComp
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
| 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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