Internet connection methods

[slinky]

Morning all,

I'm doing a project in the office to investigate a solution that we can supply to our customers.

We currently supply router based internet solutions and MS Small Business Servers, our router solutions are sold for use with upto 10 clients, but an SBS is overkill for a customer that doesn't require all of the functionality that an SBS provides..

So, I'm looking for a solution that can bridge the gap.

There are a number of possible avenues that this can take, using a Win2k3 server with ISA, running a Linux based solution (ClarkConnect for example), running a bespoke piece of hardware (intY or others)...

What have you got? What works for you... any other ideas or recommendations?

Many thanks all,

slinky

[BliarOut]

We're intY resellers and have been for a number of years... It's an excellent alternative to SBS, especially if you want to offload all the "I can't connect to the internet" phone calls.

Monthly service charge can be a bit of a killer for some customers, but when you add the MailDefender package in they usually go for it.

Like you say, it's all about matching the right solution to the customers needs.

[aldi]

I thing one of the stingers about moving away from Exchange is loosing the lovely outlook-integrated shared calendars, address books etc. I've had a look at some of the third party plugins but they all seem either too clunky or too pricey.

Linux based solutions are starting to look good to me - There's basically nothing you can't do but technicaly it's a bit of a learning curve, unless you go with something ready-made like ClarkConnect. I've got a few proxies out there, generating reports etc. (bosses love those reports A friend of mine who's technically a bit ahead of me allready has quite a few home-brwewed Linux boxes out there doing the whole works - they've been very good, and with a webmin front-end they're just fridges.

[slinky]

The sites that we're looking at installing these solutions either have very basic connections set up (shared modem or router) or none at all, therefore will not miss the additional functionality of Exchange, therefore we can afford to look into other solutions.

The main issue with a windows based solution is the fact that a server class O/S is required, and thus so are CAL's which begins to drive the price up rather quickly, hence we are considering products such as clarkconnect or intY, I'm just interested to see if anyone has any other suggestions as to solutions that already exist that would stop us having to re-invent the wheel as it where...

slinky

[aldi]

I could be wrong but from a quick glance at IntY's site it looks like they've got a product a lot like ClarkeConnect's -i.e. a linux box with email, proxy, AV, anti-spam etc. and webmin. There's nothing in that list of features that can't be done with common linux packages e.g. Squid, Samba, Sendmail/Postfix. They talk about keeping the PC's virus defs up to date as well, which probably means they're using one of the commercial AV packages that has a linux-based managment console, like I think Sophos does. The main difference being that IntY are selling their managment of said box via the monthly fee rather than you doing the setup and managment. Ready-made stuff like ClarkeConnect removes a lot of the need for real linux skills to manage it but, if it goes tits-up it might be nice to have IntY standing by to take the blame Its horses for Courses really...

[Mrs Fish]

James here:

I've been using Workgroupmail for some time now very affordable compared to exchange, good functionality and it will do the contacts sharing, IMAP, SMTP pipe, POP3 or a mix.

Absolutly brilliant software and easy to use.

[slinky]

Cheers for the input James, some questions if you don't mind...

What OS is the server machine running on?
How many users have you got connecting to the server?

The reason behind this questioning is that we have to be aware of the constrictions placed by MS on the desktop OS's, the EULA specifically states that no more than 10 devices should connect, unfortunately we have fallen foul of this in the past with one of our products so are not intending to attempt to breach the licensing agreement.

With this in mind, if we were to consider a Windows based solution we would need to move to a server class OS, of course then we need to add CAL's and the price of our solution rockets up rather rapidly...

Price wise at the moment, I can see a linux based solution (including services time for installation and configuration) coming in at circa £3k, but a Windows based solution is pushing towards £5/6k ...

hmmmmmm

slinky