Email services development

[happierlarry]

Hello everyone,

Just looking for some advice about developing our email services. At the moment our email hosted by County (so can only be accessed from school) and it is a pretty lame service anyway.

 

We have few options: install Exchange internally, start using cloud (Live@edu) or use our hosting company. The first problem spring to mind is access! People will want to access email from school, home, cafes (trains, etc.) and phones. So, it would be very interesting to see what are you guys doing and what would you recommend?

 

Thanks in advance.

[PiqueABoo]

At the moment our email hosted by County

 

Judging by another thread, first thing to check is whether "County" are happy for you to implement your options i.e. will let the appropriate traffic in/out.

[happierlarry]

I take it you mean: in case we decide to install Exchange internally? I have not asked them yet but they are happy to open ports for our “Moodle” to be accessed from “outside”, so my guess it should be fine.

[glennda]

I take it you mean: in case we decide to install Exchange internally? I have not asked them yet but they are happy to open ports for our “Moodle” to be accessed from “outside”, so my guess it should be fine.

 

But you also need to check they are happy to act as a smart-host for an exchange server to forward smtp to.

 

For exchange web access and Activesync then you will simply need port 443 and port 80 open pointing towards the exchange server.

[happierlarry]

Good point, thank you. If I get to the point of installing Exchange I will clarify this with County first.

 

I was thinking more of the ideas at the moment, which way is the less intrusive/expensive (taking into account my little knowledge of Exchange - training isn’t cheap). And if it is Exchange do I need to worry about “Forefront” as we are behind two or three Smoothwall servers?

[glennda]

Good point, thank you. If I get to the point of installing Exchange I will clarify this with County first.

 

I was thinking more of the ideas at the moment, which way is the less intrusive/expensive (taking into account my little knowledge of Exchange - training isn’t cheap). And if it is Exchange do I need to worry about “Forefront” as we are behind two or three Smoothwall servers?

 

not nessicarily - i'm not sure where abouts you our but our RBC (WSGFL) provide us with the Smart Host provided by Atomwide and give us with filtering and spam etc which is then relayed onto us via our WAN.

[happierlarry]

We are in Cheshire and I'm not sure about exact setup details. As I just wanted to see different approaches people take, so I don’t bother County with hundreds of questions. But after it’s a bit clearer in my head I can ask them specific questions (and go from there).

[dhicks]

We have few options: install Exchange internally, start using cloud (Live@edu) or use our hosting company.

 

If you don't use Exchange already then there's no need to start, you can install any webmail service you like on a local server (for free) and allow users access the same way as they access your Moodle server - you should even be able to get integration / single sign-on with Moodle working. I use SquirrelMail myself at home, which is a bit on the simple side but perfectly functionable, but you might want to go for something a bit swishier. You might not even have to ask County to do anything, you can install a proxy server on your current open Moodle port to redirect traffic to your webmail server and you might be able to pick up emails from currently existing accounts periodically via a script.

[glennda]

If you don't use Exchange already then there's no need to start, you can install any webmail service you like on a local server (for free) and allow users access the same way as they access your Moodle server - you should even be able to get integration / single sign-on with Moodle working. I use SquirrelMail myself at home, which is a bit on the simple side but perfectly functionable, but you might want to go for something a bit swishier. You might not even have to ask County to do anything, you can install a proxy server on your current open Moodle port to redirect traffic to your webmail server and you might be able to pick up emails from currently existing accounts periodically via a script.

 

yup exchange is good and is around £60/70 a year via a schools agreement i think.

 

But also look at Zimbra - there is a free version which i have looked at previously which is pretty good and also now a more developed version which is paid for and proper support available (now purchased by VMware).

[happierlarry]

David the only reason I'm thinking internally=Exchange is that it's a part of my Volume licensing and it's technically free and as far as I can see one of the best (though some people will probably prove me wrong!).

[glennda]

David the only reason I'm thinking internally=Exchange is that it's a part of my Volume licensing and it's technically free and as far as I can see one of the best (though some people will probably prove me wrong!).

 

Exchange is a paid for addition to the schools agreement (if thats what you have) although as mentioned above 60/70 pound per server.

[Uraken]

Liveatedu/ office365 is the obvious choice I would have thought for your situation! Have you explored this avenue?

[happierlarry]

Liveatedu/ office365 is the obvious choice I would have thought for your situation! Have you explored this avenue?

 

Yes, just registered. But straiget into complications: my hosting provider (which isn't cheap) does not allow to change DNS settings for the domain name and I don't want to move to different provider before I'm sure Live@edu is the right thing for us. So, would you recomend it?

[PiqueABoo]

would you recomend it? (Live@Edu -Ed.)

 

I'd recommend it for MY requirements. Trick here is to figure out which features of your current e-mail system are important to the org, then check whether you get them, equivalents or perhaps better replacements via Live@Edu. Try not to get dazzled by any shiny stuff until you've done that.

[happierlarry]

Trick here is to figure out which features of your current e-mail system are important to the org

 

To be honest with you – everything (except just simple send/receive) is going to be extra!!! Yes, it’s pretty bad at the moment .

[PiqueABoo]

Live@edu has (link) limits - read them, because some might be less than you have now and might hurt. Is anyone sending 1000+ mails to parents now and again? Does anyone ever ask for some deleted mail from a couple of months ago to be restored? Etc.

 

A trend I've seen is local Exchange for staff, Live@Edu for students but that's typically schools that already have an Exchange i.e. they want to retain the full control/flexibility for staff, but are happy to dump the h/w resource requirements for all those student mailboxes in Microsoft's lap where of course you have less control (it's a subset of the local Exchange 'power', but to be fair there's not much that's reasonable that you can't do).

[happierlarry]

Live@edu has (link) limits - read them, because some might be less than you have now and might hurt.

Wow! Thank you, that is very interesting read!

I’m very tempted to register new domain and play with it on Live@edu and see all functionalities before fully committing to them. And if it’s not right, I only lost £20 on hosting.

[sjatkn]

We are in Cheshire and I'm not sure about exact setup details.

I have worked in two schools in Cheshire (and still do), both host their own email servers, one based on Linux and one Exchange. County will happily forward emails to you and act as smarthost or allow you to deliver direct to the recipients.

[happierlarry]

County will happily forward emails to you and act as smarthost or allow you to deliver direct to the recipients.

Thank for the info (they are usually very good).

 

I think I’m going to try Live@edu to start with. Will report back with my opinion.

 

Thank you all, it was very informative! Your help is aprecated!