[Liverpool] E-mail servers, anyone?

[Sebastian]

Hi Ben,

Please see below:

On 01/29/2011 08:04 PM, Ben Arnold wrote:
> Hi Stu&  Sebastian --
>
>
> Thanks for the info, much appreciated. Stu; Zimbra does seem to be
> flavour of the few months, seen it in passing touted as a corporate
> solution. Sebastian; I like the idea of the more traditional, component
> approach, with each config. doing exactly what it should. With time a
> factor however I think a bundle would be more appealing, especially
> with the extras. If it were my experimentation I'd definitely look at
> that lot and see how it goes! The web interface isn't that important
> actually, since we're on internal access only anyway.
>
> With the amount of work on over the next few months (there's a lot of
> it), we're probably going to get someone in to set one up for us; we
> could research it and do it ourselves but it would take a fair bit
> longer than the... good point: couple of days for from a blank disk to
> job done would be enough surely?

It really depends on how many clients you have and how many esoteric 
features you are implementing on the server side. For my kind of setup 
(which I try to keep as simple as possible), with about 10 Windows 
clients on Thunderbird+Ligtning+SyncKolab, about 10 hours for the server 
(from blank hdd) and about 1-2 hours (including ironing out kinks) per 
client.

Then again, depends if you will also have Samba (in domain or workgroup 
mode), openvpn, local dns, cups printers and anything else running on 
the server that needs configuring. Also there will be the question of 
deciding if you are going to run your server with ports open on the 
Internet (directly as an MX record SMTP server), or cheat, use POP3 
connectors, and run your SMTP as a smart relay to the hosting provider's 
SMTP server. The second one is the 'less travelled' path, but I always 
implement it as I don't end up with an SMTP server exposed to the 
Internet which can be the target of various attempts - and thus it ends 
up needing less monitoring and maintenance.

However, don't forget to add on top of those time estimates extra hours 
for transferring old email, contacts and calendaring data from your 
current system (Exchange?). If your current data is on a server on the 
local network, at least the network speed is less of a problem. However, 
importing calendar items and contacts can be trying at times in terms of 
troubleshooting import/conversion errors.

If your data is currently at a hosting provider on the Internet - you 
are limited by your Internet bandwidth. I've even had clients where it 
took several weeks of on-and-off work in the evenings to get several 
large email accounts squished down a slow ADSL line.

The devil, as they say, is in the details :-)

Good luck,

Sebastian

>
> I'll probs send something over to ManLUG this week to see if they've
> any more experience&  info. As long as something is sorted by the time
> the Windows licenses expire (remember them?) we're happy.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Ben
>
>
> On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:06:46 +0000, you Stuart wrote:
> |  Hi,
> |
> |  As far as I am aware Zimbra is probably your best bet. It does all
> | those groupware features you mention out the box. As for the others I
> | have no idea.
> |
> |  Stuart
>
>
> On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:28:48 +0000, Sebastian wrote:
> |  Probably not exactly what you are after - but I mainly use Exim for
> |  smtp, Dovecot for imap/pop3 and Thunderbird+Lightning on the client
> |  side. I also sync calendars and address books with a plugin for
> |  Thunderbird called SyncKolab - which saves the stuff in imap folders
> | on the server and syncs them from there. I wouldn't say thought that
> |  SyncKolab is the most reliable thing out-there - so I highly
> | recommend thorough testing before deployment. Otherwise Exim and
> | Dovecot are really thorough, industrial pieces of software in my
> | opinion - and from what research I've done.
> |
> |  I haven't implemented yet any sort of webmail interface - as I don't
> |  like open ports towards the Internet and constant monitoring. All
> | remote access is done from laptops equipped with openvpn, through
> | Thunderbird installed on them. I believe though that you can bolt one
> | of the popular webmail interfaces on top of Exim and Dovecot.
> |
> |  I have one client where I had to allow email access for iPhones -
> | and they work fine talking to Dovecot from the Internet (I had to
> | open a port here though towards the Internet - after reading all the
> | security docs and tightening things as much as I could).
> |
> |  You might notice that I didn't go the integrated route - with one of
> | the collaboration suites. Many of them integrate Exim and/or Dovecot
> | anyway
> |  - however, I liked the idea of being able to choose and pick every
> |  single component to suit my needs - but I accept there are plenty of
> |  advantages choosing one of the ready made collaboration suites.
> |
> |  Hope the above helps,
> |
> |  Sebastian
>
>
>
>
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