Microsoft Exchange?

[SF]

Hi Guys,

I have always used pop3 but if I am away from the office I cant send out emails so with exchange you can send an email from any internet connection.

The thing is - i moved to fasthosts a week or so ago and I was not receiving all my nominet acks so I have moved back with my old provider.

Is anyone using exchange and where - what do you think of it? can you recommend anywhere.

Thanks
DB

 

[Slater]

I do a lot of work with Exchange Server and personally think it's a great product.

One of the big advantages over a traditional POP3 based solution is that you have many different ways of accessing your mailbox, and regardless of which method you use you will see the same inbox/sent items/calendar etc. As your mailbox is held on the server it can be backed up so you don't risk loosing all your email should the harddisk in your PC or laptop go bang.

Current ways of accessing you mailbox are:

- Direct connection on LAN using Outlook.
- Via a web browser using Outlook Web Access
- Sychronizing Outlook over the Internet either via a VPN or using RPC over HTTPS for VPN less sync.
- In built support for push email/calendar/contacts to mobile devices running Windows Mobile OS.

Nice being able to share calendar, contact lists etc.

Big downside is costs as CAL's run at around £50 per seat, if you are a provider of IT solutuions based on Microsoft technology you may be entitled to subscribe to a Microsoft Action Pack which gives you 10 user licences on most of the Microsoft product range for around £200.

Mark.

 

[SF]

Thanks Mark - can you recommed any providers which can look after my email and offer exchange, i was with fasthosts but they seemed to have mass spam filters running so I was loosing acks back from nominet.

 

[Slater]

Haven't had any experience with hosted exchange, all the installs I have dealt with have been with locally installed Exchange servers.

Doing a quick search on Google looks like lots of companies offering hosted Exchange mailboxes, looks like they all vary on how much mailbox space they give you, looks like some offer access just via web access and some through both web access and outlook client.

If you wanted to run your own Exchange Server you could opt for Microsoft Small Business Server which will give you Windows 2003 Server and Exchange 2003 server at a lower price than buying the software and licences seperately, SBS offer 5 user licences as standard and can be licenced up to 75 users, tends to be a favourite for many small businesses.

 

[SF]

Thanks mark I know many others want to use it but are put of by how expensive it is to use/run. I loved being able to update just one mail box and it sync all other pcs I have with my mail.

Like I said, I was with fasthosts but I am sure I will missing quite alot of mail, especialy from nominet - I am sure it had something to do with the massive anti-virus they have running on there servers.

I was told to go with a much smaller company who dont run mass anti virus filters blocking mails.

 

[Admin]

I have a POP3 global roaming internet account, means I can get an SMTP connection virtually anywhere without having to change settings to the ISP at that connection point.

 

[SF]

So you mean you can still send mail out using microsoft outlook with a different service provider, that would be better, although I used to find I had to tick the box in outlook to store all messages on the server, then it would take a day or so every few months to seive through the emails and delete the crap.

With exchange you just delete it out of outlook and it deletes it from the server, you can also download config files from like fasthosts which config your settings in a couple of clicks - they also give you a free copy of outlook.

I have always used pop3 - but since using exchange - I cant go back...

 

[ukdomains]

why don't you jus setup your pop3 to recevie all mail at your home pc and leave your pc on at home and then log onto it using logmein ?

 

[fred]

Like I said, I was with fasthosts but I am sure I will missing quite alot of mail, especialy from nominet - I am sure it had something to do with the massive anti-virus they have running on there servers.

I was told to go with a much smaller company who dont run mass anti virus filters blocking mails.

We use hosted exchange from Fasthosts. I've not seen any problem with missing mail and always seam to get the ACKs etc.

 

[SF]

thanks fred.. interesting... just moved back there and no acks no list requests bit of a bummer ... i will look further into it. cheers fred

 

[SF]

Fred, I think I might of found the problem but might need your help to see if i am right,...

I have just called nominet and explained whats happening and they looked into the errors there getting back with the smtp - he said 451 Temporary local problem - please try later

So i got him to send me the full details, and i have noticed a relay=mxs2.nsnoc.com

I am not with them anymore - just moved away to fasthosts, do you think thats why i am loosing so much mail?

Thanks

 

[fred]

Sounds like it could be that. Presumably you've changed nameservers or set up the MX record. It might be that it hasn't propergated around the net (or as far as nominet) yet.

We've didn't change any nameservers or MX records etc for the domain we use, we just set up forwarders for the particular email addresses to forward to the 'temporary' fasthosts one they give you. That means all mail comes via our servers first, and we can instantly redirect them if Fasthosts go down.

 

[SF]

Hi Fred,

Got it working now! it seemed to be those mx records that was bouncing mail back, I should of deleted the mx records when i moved the name to fasthosts, but I didint think of that

Anyway all sorted and enjoying the acks

Admin you can close thread now if you want?

Sean