The Best Mail Server ?

[syskplim]

i am using WinMail. Any suggestion that better than this? What's the different?

Thankx for the info.

[Blam-O!]

I don't have any use for a mail server, but my buddy has been using SurgeMail for a while now. He really likes it!

"SurgeMail is an advanced secure easy to manage and install high performance email server. It supports any number of users or domains, virus scanning, spam filtering, integrated webmail access, integrated WAP support, and fast browser based administration tools. And all relevant RFC protocols POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, LDAP, HTTP, TLS/SSL. SurgeMail also includes optional calendar, file sharing, instant messaging, forum, and chat room modules."

More info: SurgeMail

[un4given1]

Using Exchange Server here. If you have the resources I recommend it.

[prathapml]

If you have the resources......

"Resources" financially speaking, and in terms of hardware as well.

Yes, that indeed is the best on the windows platform.

[syskplim]

If you have the resources I recommend it.

what kind of special resources?

[prathapml]

No "special" resources. Its just heavy, that's all.

So if you were to have Exchange 2000 on a machine that was previously running fine with 256 MB of memory, you will find you need to double the memory to prevent it going down to its knees. Also, its common practice to not use a machine running Exchange server for anything else.

[Lost Soul]

@prathapml

Also, its common practice to not use a machine running Exchange server for anything else.

just curious but why cant you use a pc thats running that for anything else,, is it really that bad ?

and no im not trying to be rude or sarcastic im just very curious,, im thinking of toying with the ideal of my own mail server for perrsonal use.. and this thread caught my attention.

so what would one have to do to set up there own mail server for personal use ?

and how difficult is it ? to set up and maintain ?

thanks

[prathapml]

Its not really about being "that bad" or something...

The main reason is running Exchange ends up hammering your fixed-device storage (HDD) and network bandwidth (because of the optional graphical web access interface). Above that, its nature of being GUI managed makes it less suitable for remote management over a shell.

And then of course, comes business realities. You wouldn't invest in Exchange unless you had a minimum number of users to service (the base minimum is like 25 users, and could go all the way up to many thousands of users). So you can easily imagine the load so many users put it through (email between themselves, mails sent out, received, etc.).

Of course, if as an individual you "got hold" of it somewhere and just want to check out what its all about on your home network, it would be quite fast without needing to dedicate a server to it (and also do your normal work on the same machine!).

Exchange is one of the easier mail servers to setup and maintain. Of course, here it is assumed that you are familiar with relevant concepts - a beginner might find it incredibly complex. What would one have to do to set up there own mail server for personal use, is something outside the scope of this topic (it can be easy, or you might run into several issues along the way). The best way is either read up about it (E-books!) or get an instructor/trainer to bring you up-to-speed with it.

Though microsoft's products are notoriously easy to use, there DOES exist a difference between desktop and server products. As in, you can wander around the desktop environment and learn things. It doesn't work that way with servers, most of all if you need to experiment on production machines.