Looking for suggestions..
Discussion
Right I want to be able to do a number of things with our e-mail and am looking for products or suggestions.
Currently we have about 25 users who all use seperate external POP3 boxes with our web host company.
They are therfore not backed up on our sever, I've now got a pearl script that backs them up each day but it slows the network due to the traffic increase and isn't fool proof.
I need a solution to the following:
I would like backed up email ie on my internal server or external
A simple interface to set up accounts
Can't cost too much
Must SPAM filter but without the need to manualy build a list of domains etc
Any thoughts....
I have heard about rented boxes you just plug in and they do the maintenance etc
My big limitation is my time...I can't spend much time learning how to use and then maintain, which is why bring in exchange looks both time consuming and expensive.
Is there a program like mail washer which will collect copies from the POP3 boxes prior to them being downloaded by the mail programs an e-mail a copy to a different account on the server???
Any product suggestions and thoughts would be appreciated.
Currently we have about 25 users who all use seperate external POP3 boxes with our web host company.
They are therfore not backed up on our sever, I've now got a pearl script that backs them up each day but it slows the network due to the traffic increase and isn't fool proof.
I need a solution to the following:
I would like backed up email ie on my internal server or external
A simple interface to set up accounts
Can't cost too much
Must SPAM filter but without the need to manualy build a list of domains etc
Any thoughts....
I have heard about rented boxes you just plug in and they do the maintenance etc
My big limitation is my time...I can't spend much time learning how to use and then maintain, which is why bring in exchange looks both time consuming and expensive.
Is there a program like mail washer which will collect copies from the POP3 boxes prior to them being downloaded by the mail programs an e-mail a copy to a different account on the server???
Any product suggestions and thoughts would be appreciated.
Sounds like youre an ideal candidate for Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. You can buy it now in a cheaper, cut down version that still has exchange. Its dead easy to manage with all the comprehensive wizards that are provided. With broad band you could have a direct SMTP stream from your ISP, manage and back up all your mailboxes centrally, block spam etc etc. IN the long term I think this would be an ideal solution.
Mind you, you said time/money is a factor....
What mail clients do your users have? What backup software do you use? You could write a script to copy their mail folders to the server for backup or if you have something like backup exec you can back up remote files. However, to manage spam you'd have to install some kind of spam blocker on each PC....
You also could consider moving to an ISP that provides a certain level of Spam/AV filtering/mail server hosting.
>> Edited by jam1et on Wednesday 4th February 11:30
Mind you, you said time/money is a factor....
What mail clients do your users have? What backup software do you use? You could write a script to copy their mail folders to the server for backup or if you have something like backup exec you can back up remote files. However, to manage spam you'd have to install some kind of spam blocker on each PC....
You also could consider moving to an ISP that provides a certain level of Spam/AV filtering/mail server hosting.
>> Edited by jam1et on Wednesday 4th February 11:30
Everyone uses Outlook Express, they can't understand anything more complicated.
I've seen boxes that deal with your whole internet side of things and are about £2k, hardware software and maintenance.
Small business server would work but is alot more expensive with the CALS etc I did look into that. And I need to maintain and learn it.
I've seen boxes that deal with your whole internet side of things and are about £2k, hardware software and maintenance.
Small business server would work but is alot more expensive with the CALS etc I did look into that. And I need to maintain and learn it.
You dont have to manage your own domain. We have our network configured so that our ISP manages our domain and our domain MX records point to their mail servers. Our exchange server is just set up with our ISP as the smart host and it receives an SMTP stream direct from them. Makes you much smaller target if anyone decides to footprint your domain.
>> Edited by jam1et on Wednesday 4th February 11:36
>> Edited by jam1et on Wednesday 4th February 11:36
The problem is Fish that you cant have it both ways. If you want all the features - like being able to centrally manage,backup and monitor emails - its going to cost you. This cost will either be in time (e.g building a linux solution) or money (buying microsoft software). A hosted exchange solution could work for you but its still going to cost.
Scheduled task on each machine to make a copy of the .mbx folder on each local machine. That shouldnt take any time at all even if we are talking 100mb mailboxes. User can still work away fine. Zip the MBX backup and that will reduce its size massively.
Then a logon script to propogate the server mailbox directory with the .mbx files from the evening before.
Your ISP still manages the mail, you have a lightweight solution that does what you want.
Replace the PC mobo's with ones with WOL compatability and you can do this in the middle of the night no trouble.
>> Edited by Plotloss on Wednesday 4th February 11:54
Then a logon script to propogate the server mailbox directory with the .mbx files from the evening before.
Your ISP still manages the mail, you have a lightweight solution that does what you want.
Replace the PC mobo's with ones with WOL compatability and you can do this in the middle of the night no trouble.
>> Edited by Plotloss on Wednesday 4th February 11:54
If you want to move to a more server based system then consider using IMAP folders instead of POP3. That way the messages always stay on the server and you can archive them from the server.
IMAP is supported by Outlook/Outlook Express and you should be able to get a server for whatever OS you are using.
IMAP is supported by Outlook/Outlook Express and you should be able to get a server for whatever OS you are using.
Right,
Most of you lost me then, but I think I have a solution... a product called Spambolt can be loaded onto a seperate PC between the firwall and network which will do all my anti spam, monitoring of web use and can have a rule added to copy all pop3 to another e-mail account which could then be downloaded each night to my server...which would be backed up.
Anyone come accross this product before. cost including a new PC about £1000. Which I wouldn't have a problem with unless anyone knows of other products.
Most of you lost me then, but I think I have a solution... a product called Spambolt can be loaded onto a seperate PC between the firwall and network which will do all my anti spam, monitoring of web use and can have a rule added to copy all pop3 to another e-mail account which could then be downloaded each night to my server...which would be backed up.
Anyone come accross this product before. cost including a new PC about £1000. Which I wouldn't have a problem with unless anyone knows of other products.
Mdaemon by ALT-N (very reliable)
Its a full smtp/pop3/imap mail server with spam and content filtering plus you can add on Antivirus if you like. Nice easy GUI setup runs on Windows2000 pro/server. It can be setup to pop mail directly from an isp box on a per user basis and/or if you have a domain based pop box (*.yourdomain.com ends up in one box) then it will do that also. Very flexable scheduling for pickup and sending of mail. You can send mail via your ISP (smarthost) or directly or via smarthost on failure. You have various mail fowarding options one of which is to copy all incoming and outgoing mail to another mailbox (mail backup)
Has a built in webmail server too.
Groupware available for it to extend it later if you like.
Software costs about £200 for the standard edition
Its a full smtp/pop3/imap mail server with spam and content filtering plus you can add on Antivirus if you like. Nice easy GUI setup runs on Windows2000 pro/server. It can be setup to pop mail directly from an isp box on a per user basis and/or if you have a domain based pop box (*.yourdomain.com ends up in one box) then it will do that also. Very flexable scheduling for pickup and sending of mail. You can send mail via your ISP (smarthost) or directly or via smarthost on failure. You have various mail fowarding options one of which is to copy all incoming and outgoing mail to another mailbox (mail backup)
Has a built in webmail server too.
Groupware available for it to extend it later if you like.
Software costs about £200 for the standard edition
Sounds like you need a program called VPOP3. You can read all about it and buy it here:
www.pscs.co.uk
This is basically an email server and gateway for small businesses. A 25 user version costs £150.
I have just installed it for one of my clients and it is working really well. They just use one dial up account with their ISP and yet because they are allowed unlimited aliases, each member of the company can have their own individual email address.
One PC is set up as the email server with VPOP3 on it and it (and it alone) checks the mail at the ISP at intervals you define. It then stores the email locally (therefore easy to backup!!) and the user connects to this local email server, not the ISP, to get their mail. Users can continue to use Outlook Express and should not really notice any difference.
Should just say i am not connected with this company in any way - I am just really pleased with this product and it's much cheaper than the M$ equivalent!!
www.pscs.co.uk
This is basically an email server and gateway for small businesses. A 25 user version costs £150.
I have just installed it for one of my clients and it is working really well. They just use one dial up account with their ISP and yet because they are allowed unlimited aliases, each member of the company can have their own individual email address.
One PC is set up as the email server with VPOP3 on it and it (and it alone) checks the mail at the ISP at intervals you define. It then stores the email locally (therefore easy to backup!!) and the user connects to this local email server, not the ISP, to get their mail. Users can continue to use Outlook Express and should not really notice any difference.
Should just say i am not connected with this company in any way - I am just really pleased with this product and it's much cheaper than the M$ equivalent!!
Have a look at WorkgroupMail. Easy to set up, a really good mail server. A 25 user pack runs about £320, plus virus protection at £49.
I'm a reseller but that link has no referral codes.
I'm a reseller but that link has no referral codes.
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