Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Steel, notfred
bthylafh wrote:You're in over your head. Run away screaming and get your boss to host with Google Apps instead.
shun81 wrote:I am installing an email server for my office for the first time and need assistance on good server installation and tech support professionals. could anyone help me out.
shun81 wrote:I am installing an email server for my office for the first time and need assistance on good server installation and tech support professionals. could anyone help me out.
[SDG]Mantis wrote:It becomes an even bigger pain in the ass when something goes wrong: virus, massive spam hit, etc.
For reference, how many users are you talking about?
From a thread over at HardOCP:
Pros to a hosted e-mail solution:
1. no need to buy additional servers to run the mail server(s).
2. no expensive maintenance contracts for IT support for said server(s).
3. should not have to worry about maintaining data backups (on and offsite).
4. security of the mail servers is the contracted hosting company's issue/problem to deal with.
5. internet bandwidth savings
cons to hosted solution:
1. Internet goes down, you don't have access to your e-mail (unless using an Exchange solution w/ offline support).
2. Relying on some other company to do the correct job, maintaining backups, providing good service, etc.
3. Can be expensive when scaling upwards (in my opinion).
pros to running your own server:
1. data is yours, it's in house and you know where it is, who is handling the servers, etc.
2. faster access to e-mail since it is local (I guess this wouldn't apply to 3 of the locations unless you spread out the mail servers somehow between the 4 locations).
3. configure the server the way you want.
4. easy access to diagnostic logging, like when employee A says "well I e-mailed that important document yesterday. did you not get it?!?!?"
cons to running your own server:
1. having to deal with spam & viruses.
2. having to deal with maintaining security of the server.
3. having to deal with data backups of server.
4. can be expensive to purchase new servers & software licenses.
5. requires a good solid reliable internet connection (or multiple if email is critical Line of Business app to your company).
PenGun wrote:I like qmail but you will need a *nixy system.
http://www.lifewithqmail.org/lwq.html
A bit of a bear to set up but runs really well.
DLHM wrote:Everyone is saying that mail servers are a huge pain. I don't understand this.. I ran Exchange 5.5 upgraded to 2000 and then to 2003. At most I've had about 100 users, right now down to about 50. I had a major problem once, when 2 drives failed on my raid 5 and I had to restore from tape, but other than that I don't see it as a big deal. I run public calendars, GFI mail Essentials for spam, SMTP , 2 Pop Connectors. It does require weekly maintenance and a good backup plan, but you should have the same for every server, it's no big deal.
EV42TMAN wrote:I like how he shun81 asks for help but when we're trying to help he doesn't check back and answer our questions. Because there is a difference between a server admin that hasn't touched e-mail, and an end user whose geeky that gets the "privilege" of installing the email server.
just brew it! wrote:shun81 appears to be a spammer / sock puppet account; don't expect him/her to reply, because it isn't going to happen.
thegleek wrote:just brew it! wrote:shun81 appears to be a spammer / sock puppet account; don't expect him/her to reply, because it isn't going to happen.
Good call! Kinda surprising how much a simple "google" search on a user's name will reveal (link 1, link 2, and link 3), probably 100's more like that from shun81.