wesleyw Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 I'm looking at installing a new email server shortly. Exchange is too highly priced for us so we are looking at alternatives. The problem we have is the email goes to an external server that waits for our to pull it down to our domain. Do you know of any software like this? Wes
ChrisH Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 Most email platforms have a function or there is an addon to collect email as you described. We run exchange here as we got it fairly cheap through our county select agreement. Apart from exchange you really only have some kind of Linux based solution that will will scale well for you. Theres a few people here that have a Linux based solution with Squirelmail for webmail etc that can give you more info.
Alex Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 Exchange is so cheap on Educational pricing they might as well give it away. Quote from a few months ago: Microsoft Exchange Server Licence £95.00 each Exchange Server CAL's £1.25 each
wesleyw Posted December 21, 2005 Author Posted December 21, 2005 We wanted web mail access for this you pay £10,000 for the privilege decided against this for our school!
indie Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 And Exim with Qpopper running on Linux is even cheaper! Linux: £0.00 Exim server licence: £0.00 CALs: £0.00 Horde/IMP Webmail: £0.00 Yes it can be configured to pull email from another server and yes it can be integrated into your domain for authentication! We provide e-mail for 1600 users, saving £2000 on CALs lets us use that money on a good network infrastructure to make sure than essential services like e-mail work 24/7.
Dos_Box Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 Your LEA should be able to send the mail directly to you (once you have your mail server installed. Exchnage 2003 is very cheap for schools y'know. Take a look. As much as I like open source if you have an AD network then Exchange works best if you want complete integration.
ChrisH Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 We wanted web mail access for this you pay £10,000 for the privilege decided against this for our school! Where are you getting that figure from? 8O
russdev Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 on non free there is imail the newer version not to bad.... Russ
wesleyw Posted December 21, 2005 Author Posted December 21, 2005 Got the figure from RAMESYS cost of the system to setup is easy but the webmail access is a killer!
MkII Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 We wanted web mail access for this you pay £10,000 for the privilege decided against this for our school! We were quoted that originally - and it's very wrong. After pushing our supplir to do a 'thorough' job we ended up with about £400 for 1100 users/250 clients WITH web mail access. We postponed this option and plummed for the county supplied squirrell/exim option @ £200 per year maintenance. The squirell interface isn't the friendliest, there are endless support calls for ppl trying to figure out the download options [there are 3 - none of which are obvious/ will necessarily work.]
Alex Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 Your LEA should be able to send the mail directly to you (once you have your mail server installed. Exchnage 2003 is very cheap for schools y'know. Take a look. As much as I like open source if you have an AD network then Exchange works best if you want complete integration. It's a damn site easier to install & manage too. Though you need to AD / Forest Prep for 2k3. (easy anyway)
wesleyw Posted December 21, 2005 Author Posted December 21, 2005 How would exchange pull emails from an external email server? (Just a collection point really) Wes
Alex Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 How would exchange pull emails from and external email server? (Just a collection point really) Wes it's possible using the built in pop3 connector, but if you *really* want to do it that way you're better off with something like : http://www.jam-software.com/smartpop2exchange/ I'd advise you to think about having your mail come in direct via smtp. Very simple to do, all you need is broadband and a router that can handle port forwarding.
john Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 I would say use exchange as well, but if you really really don't want to, you could try Mail Enable. I use it at home for one server, runs on Windows, and is completely free. I like it, and works well, I have a small primary that may start to use it (only 40 kids), but you can pay for more features such as web mail, but its very cheap to get anyway. But I do say exchange is very very good, and exceptionaly priced for Education.
Dos_Box Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 How would exchange pull emails from an external email server? (Just a collection point really) Wes It shouldn't. Your RBC should (and if not whay not) be able to route the SMTP traffic direct to your mail server. If they can't then they are not offering a very good level of service!
tarquel Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 Yep - I setup Exchange 2003 easily - with a few pointers [and msexchange.org is awesome place to help you with guides and tutorials] If you are used to Windows server and all the usual stuff like dns, dhcp, wins, etc etc etc - then you shouldnt have a problem setting it up either btw each user/device cal allows that user/device to use Outlook Web Access [OWA] which is the webmail thing. You definately dont need a £10k thing. I know what that thing is tho - its some sort of site license covering you on the cals front [i remember the company i rang for another quote saying about it] - it most certainly isnt needed or required tho. Regards Nath
webman Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 We were also quoted a figure around £10k for integrating an exchange server with our RM CC3 network. It was at this point I set about setting up a linux solution. At the end of it, everyone had a personalised email account that they could access from anywhere. We could manage it and back it up ourselves, and saved ourselves a fortune in the process. We even used recycled hardware (old MIS server), and it literally cost us nothing. But through specialist status and sponsorship, it looks as if my hard work will be replaced by an exchange server anyway in 2006/2007 if our bid is successful
DMcCoy Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 We were also quoted a figure around £10k for integrating an exchange server with our RM CC3 network. It was at this point I set about setting up a linux solution. At the end of it, everyone had a personalised email account that they could access from anywhere. We could manage it and back it up ourselves, and saved ourselves a fortune in the process. We even used recycled hardware (old MIS server), and it literally cost us nothing. But through specialist status and sponsorship, it looks as if my hard work will be replaced by an exchange server anyway in 2006/2007 if our bid is successful Why so much? Exchange and its CALs aren't that expensive. If its server hardware, then thats going to be similar for any project.
webman Posted December 21, 2005 Posted December 21, 2005 @DMcCoy: I'm not too sure on the figures. The same quote without the hardware would have been around £3k less I think, but in the end we paid nothing and went for a linux solution which is still going strong now. Our users can securely send and receive virus-free email, and I can delve into the code if I need to (user interface customisations in the webmail, for example).
wesleyw Posted December 22, 2005 Author Posted December 22, 2005 It came to 10K for the external access (Via Web) from home etc..
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now