Host your own mail or outside?

[AntiThesis]

I have something of a conundrum. And it's got to do with cost and static IPs.

 

I currently have two campuses that I have to manage. One has a 512k Uncapped connection shared between about 40 people and two labs and the other has a 384k capped (3GB transfer allowed per month) line shared between about 30 people and one lab.

 

With the 512k uncapped account I get 5 static IP addresses of which I use two - one for my mail server breakout and one for my proxy server breakout.

 

As things stand, the internet is (as you'd imagine) helluva slow when people are using it. I can upgrade both sites to a 4Mb uncapped connection for the same price as what I'm paying now. BUT I lose the static IPs.

 

Now, I have a dedicated server that I could host our mail server on and I could easily run the proxy (squid) through a normal 4Mb connection.

 

What would your advice be? Do I:

 

a) Host my own mail server and stick with 512k

b) Host an internal mail server, forward it to my Dedicated server and move to 4Mb

c) Try to find some ISP that provides a static IP and mix both solutions

 

tl/dr: Choose A, B or C.

[TwoZeroAlpha]

I would... use a googlemail backend with the upgrade to 4Mb

Google Apps for Education - Free hosted email (Gmail) for EDU

 

If that's not workable then probably option c

[RabbieBurns]

Have you considered Microsoft Live@edu free mail system? Weve just set it up for all our students mailboxes.

[AntiThesis]

Hmm - that's not a bad idea. My only issue there is that I'm a little antsy to lose control of my mail server.

 

Damnit, my options are being limited again - no ISP will give me a static IP as an addon. The only way they'll do it is if I pay a massive premium. Cursed monopoly on the internets!

[TwoZeroAlpha]

You still get a huge amount of control on the google system (sure MS is similar). The only difference is backup/restore, but seeing as our email in not "mission critical" I'm not too worried. If we lose it, it happens.

[dhicks]

My only issue there is that I'm a little antsy to lose control of my mail server.

 

Cheat. Google's gMail service lets you set a "catch-all" email account that recieves all email sent to any un-recognised address at your domain. Simply have a script that imports that email from gMail to your own email system every few minutes. You get gMail to filter out the spam for you and you don't need a fixed IP address.

 

--

David Hicks

[_Adam_]

Another line in? Keep the email on the static 512k and put web browsing over a separate 4M link. Going to a web based (hosted) solution means more traffic overall over an already saturated link.

[elsiegee40]

I would... use a googlemail backend with the upgrade to 4Mb

Google Apps for Education - Free hosted email (Gmail) for EDU

 

If that's not workable then probably option c

 

Have you considered Microsoft Live@edu free mail system? Weve just set it up for all our students mailboxes.

 

Is anyone using either of these? Any pros/cons?

[EduTech]

You could get a firewall (ISA2006 / TMG) put that on a box, only need 1 public IP Address and you can do everything you need from that. You would need a Wildcard SSL Cert though if you wanted to publish more than 1 secure service due to you only being allowed 1 SSL Cert Per IP Address.

 

James.

[AntiThesis]

Some excellent ideas - thanks folks, you're helping me get my head around it.

 

An issue with running one 4mb and keeping the 512 for mail is that the two campuses are only linked using wireless at the moment. Once we buy the intervening land we can lay fibre etc but for now the wireless link is all we have. It runs quite well but I'd have to do some speedtests to see what browsing is like from the other end. I have a hunch it might suck.

 

@EduTech: Problem is, I can't seem to get a static IP for love or money. Nobody seems to offer what I figure shouldn't be too terribly hard.

[joe90bass]

Have you looked at Plusnet?

13. Can I get multiple IP addresses?

Yes. Accounts come with a Static IP as standard, however you can ask for a block of IP addresses by raising a Ticket using the Help Assistant.

 

I used them as my home ISP for years and had no issues. Only moved to Sky as part of the phone/BB/TV deal

[AntiThesis]

Have you looked at Plusnet?

 

I used them as my home ISP for years and had no issues. Only moved to Sky as part of the phone/BB/TV deal

 

^^^ South Africa

 

Our ISPs don't seem to get this whole "internet" thing

 

Though, with the landing of two new undersea cables it's getting pretty awesome

[CyberNerd]

Is anyone using either of these? Any pros/cons?

 

We use the google apps educational, I can't compare to the MS version but google apps is proving very successful over our previous zimbra/exchange mix.

 

You can sign up for a standard google apps account to test (50 users) for free with a domain name. The educational is the same as the premiere edition - but free.

 

Google Apps Standard Edition helps groups build communities - Google Apps Standard Edition

[CyberNerd]

You still get a huge amount of control on the google system (sure MS is similar). The only difference is backup/restore, but seeing as our email in not "mission critical" I'm not too worried. If we lose it, it happens.

 

We get a free postini content filter with google apps - there is an option to pay for backup/restore

[joe90bass]

^^^ South Africa

 

Our ISPs don't seem to get this whole "internet" thing

 

Though, with the landing of two new undersea cables it's getting pretty awesome

 

Sorry! On my screen your location shows as East London, South with "Africa" on the next line. I missed the last bit........... Wondered why nobody else had posted an ISP who did a static IP

[dhicks]

I can't seem to get a static IP for love or money.

 

Could you use DynDNS or a similar service?

 

--

David Hicks

[EduTech]

 

@EduTech: Problem is, I can't seem to get a static IP for love or money. Nobody seems to offer what I figure shouldn't be too terribly hard.

 

Oh! Do you not have broadband provided by your LEA then?

 

Have you had a look at "Opal" Business Broadband, Network & Telecoms Solutions | Opal i know they give out static IP's i believe you get 6 per connection although not 100% sure on cost of the service i could find this out for you though if you wanted to find out further information.

 

James.

[RabbieBurns]

Is anyone using either of these? Any pros/cons?

 

We have just rolled out live@edu for about 1800 students. (still using exchange for staff) Still in the first week of use, but it seems good. It has a moodle plugin as well to intergrate seamlessly (next on my list)

 

Its fairly simple to deploy if you want to manually create accounts with a csv or a script or such, but we decided to use Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager which provisions accounts from AD and syncs passwords. This was a PITA to set up due to the documentation not being that great, but Ive got it all working perfectly now.

 

Feel free to PM if you have any Q's

[CyberNerd]

We have just rolled out live@edu for about 1800 students. (still using exchange for staff) Still in the first week of use, but it seems good. It has a moodle plugin as well to intergrate seamlessly (next on my list)

 

Just for comparison: Google apps also does Active Directory Sync, and Single Sign on through AD, Moodle integration. We setup 2100 users with only some learning curve issues.

 

I would be interested in seeing a further comparion of live@edu vs Google apps if anyone has some links.

Does edu have things like Apps Marketplacef ro example

[AntiThesis]

Oh! Do you not have broadband provided by your LEA then?

 

Have you had a look at "Opal" Business Broadband, Network & Telecoms Solutions | Opal i know they give out static IP's i believe you get 6 per connection although not 100% sure on cost of the service i could find this out for you though if you wanted to find out further information.

 

James.

 

LEA? Although again - South Africa

[creese]

LEA? Although again - South Africa

 

It took me nearly 2 weeks to get my dongle working on a recent trip, starting with persuading someone to buy it for me as I'm not able to by law. It's really difficult to work over there when you are so used to accessing the internet 24/7.

[RabbieBurns]

Just for comparison: Google apps also does Active Directory Sync, and Single Sign on through AD, Moodle integration. We setup 2100 users with only some learning curve issues.

 

I would be interested in seeing a further comparion of live@edu vs Google apps if anyone has some links.

Does edu have things like Apps Marketplacef ro example

 

It is based on Exchange 2010 and has access to the full windows live docs, which I believe will be based on office 2010 web. Its not a part of it I have looked at yet.

 

We just chose the MS option as we are a full MS house, on the full schools +SA, and it seemed an obvious choice

[Nick_Parker]

AntiThesis, I'm based up in JHB so I feel your pain.

What we've done is register for Google Apps Educational Edition.

We have 3x 4MB Lines (1 Uncapped, which is horrifically shaped, and the other 2 with 50GB Accounts).

We get these from SAI who are resellers for IS.

We have 120+ Staff and 700+ Kids using it and it all works very nicely, only issues we had was when IS had connectivity problems for a few days (I think it was during the maintenance on the SAT3 Cables) but that wasn't Google Mail's fault obviously.

The Spam and Virus filtering is excellent, it links with Google Docs, Sites & Calendars. Best of all, staff & students can check their mail anywhere on just about any device.

We've done away with our Exchange server and we only use one static IP which goes into an ISA box which then forwards it to the relevant services (which really is only Terminal Services at the moment).

 

If you have any questions or would like any details or people to contact, please feel free to message me

[powdarrmonkey]

Could you use DynDNS or a similar service?

 

IME (and I used to work for a very large web host) almost all serious providers class mail from dynamic IPs as spam, valid DNS or no valid DNS. You can go through a relay with mixed success though.

[AntiThesis]

AntiThesis, I'm based up in JHB so I feel your pain.

What we've done is register for Google Apps Educational Edition.

We have 3x 4MB Lines (1 Uncapped, which is horrifically shaped, and the other 2 with 50GB Accounts).

We get these from SAI who are resellers for IS.

We have 120+ Staff and 700+ Kids using it and it all works very nicely, only issues we had was when IS had connectivity problems for a few days (I think it was during the maintenance on the SAT3 Cables) but that wasn't Google Mail's fault obviously.

The Spam and Virus filtering is excellent, it links with Google Docs, Sites & Calendars. Best of all, staff & students can check their mail anywhere on just about any device.

We've done away with our Exchange server and we only use one static IP which goes into an ISA box which then forwards it to the relevant services (which really is only Terminal Services at the moment).

 

If you have any questions or would like any details or people to contact, please feel free to message me

 

Aha! So it can be done in sunny SA Glad to see another SAffer here Nick

 

We're leaning more and more towards the Google Apps way - I've been asked to put down a proposal for this and our school website. A message is on the way to you Nick.

 

By the way, overseas counterparts, what's an/a LEA?