Mail server for Windows 2008

[ViperGTI]

We've recently acquired an additional Win2008 server to host some of our applications and we're looking to move our website and emails to this server as well (currently being hosted with a 3rd party on a shared linux server).

We basically have less than 30 mailboxes and one of our main requirements is to be able to share calendars between about 5 - 10 people.

SmarterMail (as discussed in a previous thread) would have been my first choice, but that requires me to purchase a 250 mailbox enterprise license with an Exchange ActiveSync add-on for $700 which is a bit of an overkill.
mailEnable also seems very nice with unlimited mailboxes, but at a similar starting price.

So now I'm basically looking at the best of what's left. After some searching, I've come across two packages that seems to be able to work at a reasonable price.
- Axigen ($290 for 100 users: 10 premium, 90 standard)
- Mailtraq ($275 for 100 users)

Has anybody worked with any of these (or other Windows compatible mail packages) and can give some recommendations?

[BigChop]

Give Kerio Connect a try

[lifehacker]

I make use of mail enable quite like it

[shogun]

I don't think it does Calenders... but hMailServer was really quick to set up for our server. Been working flawlessly since day one, and really easy to install / manage.

I'd be interested to see what you end up with. Calenders would be nice to support.

[Rocket-Boy]

We've recently acquired an additional Win2008 server to host some of our applications and we're looking to move our website and emails to this server as well (currently being hosted with a 3rd party on a shared linux server).

We basically have less than 30 mailboxes and one of our main requirements is to be able to share calendars between about 5 - 10 people.

SmarterMail (as discussed in a previous thread) would have been my first choice, but that requires me to purchase a 250 mailbox enterprise license with an Exchange ActiveSync add-on for $700 which is a bit of an overkill.
mailEnable also seems very nice with unlimited mailboxes, but at a similar starting price.

So now I'm basically looking at the best of what's left. After some searching, I've come across two packages that seems to be able to work at a reasonable price.
- Axigen ($290 for 100 users: 10 premium, 90 standard)
- Mailtraq ($275 for 100 users)

Has anybody worked with any of these (or other Windows compatible mail packages) and can give some recommendations?

Are you sites that were hosted on the linux server going to work on an IIS server? pathing etc can be a pain if they are complex sites.

Exchange would be the best option but im sure you dont want to spend that kind of money. It might have been a better bet to get hold of an SBS release rather than having purchased 2008/R2 standard (assuming this is what you have)

[server-admins.net]

Hi ViperGTI

Is there any particular reason for wanting to host your own mail server?

We offer SmarterMail 10 ENT Edition at decent rates and the active sync licenses are available to purchase as an add on. May be worth looking into hosting the mail externally from a cost and management perspective.

[ViperGTI]

Give Kerio Connect a try

Thanks, looks good, but expensive.

I make use of mail enable quite like it

mailEnable is pretty cool, especially since it provides a free option with unlimited mailboxes, but as soon as you add the Shared Calendar portion that integrates with Outlook, it gets very expensive.

I don't think it does Calenders... but hMailServer was really quick to set up for our server. Been working flawlessly since day one, and really easy to install / manage.

I'd be interested to see what you end up with. Calenders would be nice to support.

Was considering this, but no calendars. We need the calendars part to better manage our resources. We're busy putting some "structure" / management in our company.

Are you sites that were hosted on the linux server going to work on an IIS server? pathing etc can be a pain if they are complex sites.

Exchange would be the best option but im sure you dont want to spend that kind of money. It might have been a better bet to get hold of an SBS release rather than having purchased 2008/R2 standard (assuming this is what you have)

The site is a Joomla site. I've already installed Joomla on our server and since the new version supports MS SQL, I've already chosen that as the backend. I'm just waiting for our web admin to convert our existing site to the new Joomla version, then I'll migrate it to MS SQL.

Hi ViperGTI

Is there any particular reason for wanting to host your own mail server?

We offer SmarterMail 10 ENT Edition at decent rates and the active sync licenses are available to purchase as an add on. May be worth looking into hosting the mail externally from a cost and management perspective.

Well, we have the server and we're moving our website to it, but our main requirement with the emails are the shared calendars / outlook integration so I suppose if you're hosting, we'll take a look.
I don't see anything about this on your website. PM me your email address and I'll interrogate your further for information.

[The_Librarian]

You can, of course, look at Exchange 2008. But then you will need to do all the things yourself : antivirus, antispam, backups, maintenance, etc.

If one of the requirements be that your people need to access their calendars/emails anyplace, anytime, then I would suggest going with a hosted option as this will save you the headaches and hassles of configuring and maintaining the server itself.

And you can make spam somebody else's problem

[server-admins.net]

I don't see anything about this on your website. PM me your email address and I'll interrogate your further for information.

Take a squizz at our Business hosting packages as these have more detail regarding the SM ENT Solutions.

PM Sent