mail server

[kagawad]

hi..!! i was just told to have an email server in our system. and i dont know what email program would i use for our server. can anyone help me or can suggest me what mail server will i use? am just using windows XP. sorry .

[Spyrus]

what does your network look like right now? Do you have any other servers running? If so what kind, what OS? What does your budget look like? Do you already have a server you can use for the email program or do you need to purchase that too?

These are all things that have to be considered before anything can be suggested or considered.

[kagawad]

thank you for the reply. my network does have a 50 workstations and its kind of ok. no other servers running. we dont have any mail server and i think if we can, if, the office can, we have to purchase a server. what other minimanl things u'd suggest having a mail server?

[kagawad]

what do i need inorder to setup a mail server? what things (software/hardware) to consider setting up mail server?

[Spyrus]

depending on your budget i would look at microsoft exchange server
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.mspx

Very popular and very good server. There are some linux solutions out there too but I am not familiar with them. Exchange would be a great solution since it sounds like you have a windows environment. Setting up this server is going to require work and security too.

[zencoder]

spyrus makes a good recomendation. exchange might be the easiest large scale server for the not-so-trchnically inclined to use.

/me shudders at the security implications of his last statement

[jonathans_daddy]

Checkout MDaemon (http://www.altn.com). IMHO, the very best out there for Windows. And the support is awesome as well.

[EDIT]
Also, if I understand M$ licensing scheme, Exchange would cost $699 + $67 per user. 50 users = $4049
MDaemon Pro 50 users = $660
[/EDIT]

[morganlefay]

I would suggest looking at the MS Small Business Server.2003..which has the exchange sever, IIS, Share point...

Lots of wizards for newbies...although I would also suggest get a pro to set it up and good hardware (Dell PE) lots of ram and hardware raid.

Also depending on your needs...you can get the Premium edition and add ISA and MS SQL to it.

I have 2 sites with this set up..and I can manage them remotely.

Has lots of wizards for the non techie for basic management...

the SBS 2003 it a great improvement from the previous versions.

IMHO...of course

MLF

[Falcis]

I am currently running Merak mail server by Icewarp on a windows server. It handles pop3 and smtp simply and the manual is very good.

We started out using outlook on each machine. When our ISP went out of business we found out that we were unable to communicate with each other internally. We installed Merak to solve that problem. What we found over time was that our IP was being blacklisted because we fit the profile of a spammer due to our setup. We were using a web collection server at the domain and collecting from one address but allowing our mail server to e-mail out directly. We have since changed this setup to send and receive through our ISP. We now only use the mail server to help filter spam. Having since moved away from outlook for *many* good reasons.

I don't why your company is installing a mail server but there may be better solutions depending on what you are wanting to accomplish.

Falcis

[RoadClosed]

No offense here, but this guy doesn't know a whole lot about 1. His network 2. mail technologies and 3. even if he has a firewall and probably doesn't know what kind of internet connection is there. At present I would guess your mail server would just become another spam zombie within a few hours.

You need to map that out first my friend. I am guessing you are tossed in here because you want to learn. Do your self a favor. Outsource first, learn your network and then gradually move it in house. If you don't have a server how are those 50 machines connected to the internet? Is the internet router doing DHCP, that is giving out IP addresses or are they static? How do you share files, peer to peer? You will have to open a port on your firewall and ensure ANY server is locked down. You will need static IP addresses. Do you have critical files on those 50 PCs if so then you will have to provide some kind of DMZ or safety zone to protect them.

I ask all this because you can get gobs of mail accounts for pennies and not host a thing. And thus take on no risk of internal penetration Hell I'll sell you some. But that depends on how sensitive your mail is. If it is highly sensitive, you will want some internal server to handle internal mail and only direct outgoing mail to the internet. What do you use now for messaging? I gather nothing or yahoo accounts etc?