Can anyone recommend any windows based Mail Server Software that isn't Exchange Server, preferably free but pay software won't be an issue either as long as it's reasonably priced. I'm wanting to be able to download mail on multiple accounts off an ISP via POP3 then store them on a local mail server and allow any PC on a LAN to be able to access an account on the local mail server using IMAP so a user can have their mail sync'd with what ever machine they're on. There seems to be quite a lot of solutions out there so I'm looking for recommendations atm.

theres plenty of little linux distros that do that sort of thing and will run on anything from a p100 with 32mb ram or better

windows is never good for mail

theres plenty of little linux distros that do that sort of thing and will run on anything from a p100 with 32mb ram or better

Tell me more - just installed ubuntu Feisty and am eager to subscribe to your service and/or product.

linux + postfix + Amavisd-new + spamassasin = WIN!

I've run this up on machines from old workstations, modchipped Xbox, a ps2 running linux, all the way to clustered environments and it scales really well all the way through the spectrum.


last edited by stinky at 15:51:54 23/Apr/07

I'd recommend a linux solution any day...

however some windowz ppl i know have recommended mdaemon

Ok, I might look into the linux side then. I haven't played around to much to mail on linux in the past which is why I was trying to avoid it. Scaling wouldn't be a problem on this one as we're talking about 4 users.

/edit: Been about 7 years since I last used Mdaemon, didn't know it was still around.

Oh, forgot to mention, this mail server would only really need to be for incoming mail, was gong to use the ISP as outgoing from the client machines. Essentially the people that want me to set this up just want it to be a network store directory for their mail so they can access it from any machine.

last edited by Nailbomb at 16:06:47 23/Apr/07

Zimbra is an open source Exchange alternative that is f***ing ace, even has a snazzy web interface that closely resembles OWA. Comes with scheduling, calendering, etc.

You can get a free/community license and if you need more users/features then you pay for it.

Just out of curiosity how would checking mail from outside the network work?

via some dynamic dns type system and port forwarding i would guess...

Just out of curiosity how would checking mail from outside the network work?

OpenVPN. Very easy to set up and works really well. They actually need the VPN set up anyway as they share myob files internally and want to access those from the outside as well.

Yeah that was what i was getting at. You'd have to connect to your imap server @ home or wherever you've set it up.

smartmail, its what i use, its free for 1 domain and up to 10 accounts, works realy well.

http://www.smartertools.com/Products/SmarterMail/Free.aspx

Essentially the people that want me to set this up just want it to be a network store directory for their mail so they can access it from any machine.

Tell them to check the box that says "leave mail on the server" and you can check your mail from any machine. Just make sure to delete messages every so often if you go this way.

http://www.hmailserver.com/

Hmailserver will do everything you need, including:

External accounts

Using the external account functionality, you can configure hMailServer to download email from other e-mail servers, using the POP3 protocol. After the messages have been downloaded, global rules, virus scanning and etc are applied on the messages. After that, they are delivered to one or several local accounts.

Plus it's open source and runs on Windows and yes it can use your AD as authentication as well.

Main features

* POP3, SMTP, IMAP
* Virtual domains
* Built-in backup
* Scripting
* External accounts
* Rules
* Multilingual
* AntiVirus
* Spam protection
* Routing
* MX backup
* Mirroring
* Multihoming
* SQL-support

if you wanted to be taken back to the OOOOOLD school, you could check out pegasus mail server? I think it's called "Mercury".

Can't remember exactly, but it was still available like 4 years ago last time I looked.

We used to use pegasus @ high school before they realised it sucked :P

Tell them to check the box that says "leave mail on the server" and you can check your mail from any machine. Just make sure to delete messages every so often if you go this way.

Or also check the delete after 7 days/when i delete from trash option.