Mail Server / Exchange Server

[Preston Hagar]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 7:10 PM, Patton Echols <p.echols at comcast.net> wrote:
> Greetings all:
>
> My 'buntu usage has been limited to my desktop and intranet / backup
> servers.  My questions concerns the real time difficulty of maintaining a
> mail server for a small organization.
>
> First, once up and running, is the routine maintenance of a mail server
> particularly difficult or time consuming?
>
The only really time consuming part, in my opinion, is spam
prevention.  I typically install/manage Postfix+Courier IMAP and POP
or Dovecot+amavis+spamassassin+clamav+roundcube

Spam prevention really depends on the environment you are setting up
the email for and the tolerance for false positives and email delays.
In environments where a false positive or two isn't the end of the
world and an email, every once in a while taking 2 hours instead of 2
minutes to be received isn't an issue, it is fairly easy to setup spam
controls with greylisting that will stop 99% or so of spam.  If you
have an environment with zero tolerance for delays or false positives
(if at all preventable), then spam fighting can be a constant
challenge.  It isn't a daily thing by any means, but once a month or
so you typically have to revisit your spam rules to try to keep an eye
on them.  Other than that, like most Linux services, the difficult
part is the initial setup.  Once up, it requires very little
maintenance.


> Second, <noob mode=elevated> The organization's current service limits the
> number of emails per day.  The service says "everyone does it that way"  If
> hosting ones own service, isn't it just a function of bandwidth?
>

Yes, if you host your own email, you would set the limits to whatever
you want (including unlimited).  "everyone does it that way" is just
an excuse to have an option to charge more for sending more emails.

> Third, If my mail server is a virtual server in a data center somewhere, and
> serve mail out of it, does my server deliver mail through some other
> provider's server?  Or direct to recipients?  If the answer is "either" how
> does one decide?
>

Typically, if you are in a normal data center, your mail server will
talk directly with the mail server of the recipient/sender.  There
will be no "middle man"   Most "home" Internet connections along with
some cheap "business" Internet connections to homes and regular
offices will block most email traffic, requiring you to use their
server as a relay.  Every data center I have encountered as well as
most business static IP Internet connections (in the US at least),
will allow you to send email directly.  In fact, most data centers I
am aware of don't even offer a mail server to use as a relay.

> Finally, the organization's mail is currently hosted on a  exchange server,
> but I am told that it is really only being used for mail.  Does anyone know
> what else an exchange server can do that is useful? and or is there a
> particularly "fine manual" that I should read?
> </noob>

The top two things are shared calendars and shared contacts with
Outlook.  I would be sure to check and see if anyone in the
organization uses either of these.  There are replacements for this
(like Zimbra, or shared Google calenders), but they typically aren't
as seamless as Exchange/Outlook integration.  That said, I do my best
to get people to move away from Exchange to postfix, due to the great
increase (in my opinion) of reliability.


>
> Thanks for any thoughts.

As one last thought, have you considered Google Apps for Domains?
Depending on how small the small organization is, this might be a
valid option.  You still would use your own domainname, As a quick
rundown, here are the pros and cons (as I see them):


Pros:
Free for non-profits and "for-profit" organizations with less than 25
users (inboxes, you can have pretty much unlimited email
forwards/aliases)
Google manages the spam prevention and does a pretty good job of it.
Google pays for the server, hosting, and ensuring uptime
Free IMAP and POP support and free, unlimited sending
7 GB+ of space per Inbox/User


Cons:
Occasional downtime with no control or recourse.
You give all of your email to Google and have to trust them with it.



Anyway, it might be something to think about if you are looking at
getting away from your current email provider.  It is generally better
than just about any other hosting provider I have found (assuming you
have 25 or less users) and won't require the headache and maintenance
of learning how to manage and email server.



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