MS Exchange

[Bashdur K]

See the MS Exchange bashing going on in the aanouncements section prompts me to wonder.

My company has 3 servers with MS2000 operating system. We have about 30 workstations using MS2000 or XP Pro. We use MS Outlook for our e-mail and we use the meeting/appointment scheduling portion of Outlook extensively. I would like to add MS Exchange to utilize some of the Exchange capabilities of Outlook (like shared calendars, phone books, task lists, etc...) but the cost is prohibitive for us at this time.

Now, time for you pro's to laugh, but this is what works right now for us. For internal e-mail and calendar scheduling, we use the old MS Mail. I keep a Windows 98 machine set up because that was the last operating system that allows me to manage the MS Mail postoffice. We use MS Office XP, except for Outlook, we have to back up to 2000 because that is the last time MS Mail was able to be installed as a service. We are using MS mail because it allows users to view the schedule of others (at least the committed meeting/unavailable times) to arrange meetings with them. We use the file sharing in Outlook to share a few phone directories and some task lists.

Is there any solution to using Outlook XP and the extended features without getting Exchange? Or is there possibly another solution?
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[Shiloch Veneficus]

The only reason I bash Exchange is because its one massive resource hog, and its prone to more security problems than any other e-mail service.

I don't allow users on my network to use Outlook or Outlook Express, either. By the fat chance some virus does get through the e-mail server I have, Outlook would be first in line to run the happy new virus in the preview pane. I use it for my own personal PC, but in a corporate environment, its too big of a security hole for my liking.

In all fairness, a lot of the e-mail services are probably about the same. Exchange is way better than it has been in the past, and implemented with an Active Directory, its tough to be more integrated. With the setup you have, I would probably go 100% Exchange/Outlook (it can be set up with a global address book and all that), which can be handled by Active Directory if you want it to (I think its easier to do it that way).

If you want to know how to configure it, you'd better talk to Dane or someone else with Exchange experience. I don't use it and I'd probably give you bad instructions.

I use a software suite from Alt-N Technologies called MDaemon: http://www.mdaemon.com

It supports all of the popular e-mail goodies, multiple domains, has nifty plugins for running it as a fax server, and is relatively cheap compared to Exchange. So far, on my local network of about 300 heavy e-mail users, it is 100% for stopping viruses since I implemented the Antivirus plugin. The Antivirus thing uses the Kaspersky engine (www.kaspersky.com), which is also my favorite virus scanner.

Alt-N also has a plug-in for MDaemon called Groupware, which will emulate global Exchange services (calendars, task lists, etc) for Outlook clients.

Its been a good investment for me, I've had zilcho for problems with it, and its locked tighter than a snare drum for security.

There's probably 20 good e-mail services, that's just the plug for the Windows one I use. If you truely have a large user base (10,000+ users), I can't see why you wouldn't use sendmail with maybe a webmail CGI app or something, UNIX-based machines are so much better for large-scale implementations.
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Sage Shiloch Venzolmes - Arch Convoker - Walkers
QUALITY, not quantity.

[Daneloire]

The only real reason we use Exchange here is for the Active Directory integration, as Shi mentioned. We have two primary domains, with a third coming soon, and nearly a dozen resource domains. Exchange is moderately foolproof, once you set it up, even morons in Account Management can set up mail accounts and the like, without too much drama.

I completely agree about Outlook being a rediculous security nightmare. I have locked down (by group policy) a lot of the major loopholes, such as the preview pane, so I make the best of what I'm given. Most of my users prefer Outlook, since it's so widely used and 'user friendly' compared to most mail clients.

-Dane