Mail server on DSL connection 5

[NYR]

Hello,
We have a ADSL connection to the internet, 768kdown/128k up.
We have around 15 users in this office and the connection speed is fine. We are thinking (lightly) about installing a MS Exchange server in this office attached to that circuit, ISP allowing.
Has anyone done this? How well does it work? How much would this impact my internet speeds with all the mail traffic? Any tips or tricks that I need to think about?
Thanks.

 

[ryanropp]

We did exactly what you are attempting and it works perfect. I don't know if your dsl provider gave you a router, but we used the linksys router and it works great for allowing the mail to come through to your exchange server. You have a good connection coming down so it will not affect speeds for your internet unless all of you download music and movies all day ... Once you have the exchange server setup and a static ip for dsl, have your isp map the mx record for your mail to the ip address on your router. Then in the router, you can specify the specific ports to map to your internal address that resides on the mail server. It's simple. Let me know if you need anymore advice.

Ryan

 

[NYR]

Thanks for the reply, I am continuing to look into this.
I have a few more questions.
1. As far as servers go, are there any name brands out there that are better as e-mail servers or does it matter?
If there is no difference, what should be the minimal processor speed, memory, HD etc.?
2. POP3 or SMTP? Which is preferred.
3. I am fairly new to Exchange, could someone point me to any good links on how to configure that portion of it.
Thanks again

 

[donnie4564]

For 15 mailboxes a 1.0ghz PC could handle the load. But with Exchange you will need to think of fault tolerance and recovery in the event of a crash, I don't know anyone that would react kindly to their mailbox getting blown away. System disk mirrored, separate mirror for database, A good backup tape drive, ect.

For what you are doing I would look for low end server built for fault tolerance.

SMTP is preferred with Exchange because exchange was built to work with Outlook which is full of features, some of which you will not be able to take advantage of if you use POP3.

Microsft.com/exchange

 

[ChrisHirst]

SMTP with Exchange is nothing to do with working with Outlook. Outlook uses IMAP, MAPI and POP3 protocols depending on version. SMTP is the Internet mail communication protocol used for server to server exchanges.

For 15 mailboxes the CPU speed hardly matters (I ran 30 users on an K6 II 350 easily). You will need fast drives (SCSI prefered) and plenty of memory (256 min) regardless of the mailbox count. Separate system drive (can be IDE) with individual drive spindles for database and log files. A goob backup routine is more important than drive mirrors because the main problem is corrupting the database files and breaking a mirror with Exchange can often cause more problems than it solves. Before going down the Exchange or Notes server paths check out the simpler systems.

Winroute pro (

http://www.winroute.com)

superb software router\gateway\NAT firewall\SMTP-POP3 mailserver\DNS\DHCP etc
Winroute will also give you routing to around 30 users from one DSL connection from a DSL router or DSL USB Modem

MDaemon (

http://www.deerfield.com)

Impressive SMTP-POP3 mailserver

Mailgate (

http://www.mailgate.com)

Excellent POP3 mailserver

Exchange resource sites

Slipstick

http://www.slipstick.com

Simpler Webb

http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm

If you go along with Exchange, set up a test machine to play with before going live. Use a good integrated anti-virus scanner on the server. and be prepared for the amount of TLC Exchange will need especially if you are using 5.5.

Chris.

 

[meekrob]

Or you could try a free product that works just as good.

http://www.e-smith.org/intro/

It's linux based, but everything is controlled through a web based control panel. It is a piece of cake to install (much easier than exchange) and is very reliable. For 15 users a Pentium 133 will easily handle the "load".

For any server you will need to get a static IP from your ISP.

 

[tom11011]

Double check if your ISP allows port 25 traffic to pass. Lots of them don't, only there domain names to cut down spam abuse.

If yours doesn't you can set your exch 2000 server to forward mail to a smart host, namely your isp.

 

[NYR]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. If I could I would vote all of them "Helpful". I have a lot of information to look at as well as a bunch of researching to do.
I am trying to convince the boss to move anyway from the ISP and bring it in-house.
Last question:
Has anyone here had thier servers "Blackholed" and put on the ORBD database? I have read about that, having mis-configured "open-relay" servers blocked. If so, what caused your server to be defined as a open-relay and how to prevent that.
Thanks again everyone.

 

[ryanropp]

Secure your smtp server and make sure you have virus protection software ..We learned the hard way..

Ryan

 

[SteveTheGeek]

Open relay: third parties being able to send email to fourth parties using your mail server.

Exchange2000 by default is not open-relay, Exchange 5.5 is an open relay in it's default configuration.
-Steve

 

[ChrisHirst]

My server has been blacklisted by one client using MAPS (mail-abuse.org) seemingly because my system picks up from 4 separate ISP's (4 domains on the one server in the same office (same parent company) while we move premises) so we send out direct using SMTP and DNS rather than doing lots of configuring on the IMC to send each domain to it's respective ISP and therefore the sending servers DNS does not match the ISP's DNS entries on a reverse lookup.

The curious thing is all these Internet Nannies keep appearing supposedly looking after our interests but nothing seems to change, the same amount (or more) spam is still arriving from temporary AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo accounts etc.

Chris

 

[SteveTheGeek]

Chris,
Have you looked at the email headers of the spam? In the spam I'm getting, the reply-to address is generally hotmail/yahoo/etc, but the originator is either a small ISP dial-up account (generally forwarded through a non-US open relay) or a mail server in asia. From what I gather, the big ISPs have restricted mail sends to some limited number per hour or per day, making it too time-intensive for the spammers to use.
It appears spam is with us to stay, at least until I hunt down and eliminate the eleven people worldwide who have somehow managed to get an email address and yet don't have the minimum IQ necessary to realize that "home based business opportunities" are scams.
-Steve

 

[PKinghan]

Hi all,

Just read the above posts and the are all very helpful. Thanks! I want to look into moving away from a 3rd party who host our mail for us. We then run an etrn command that goes and picks it up and brings it down to our exchange server. We have purchased several static IPs so this shouldn't be a problem. I'm also unsure about MX records etc ...can anyone help? Basically we want to download our mail to our Exchange server without going through a 3rd party.

Thanks

Paul

 

[GlenJohnson]

You can also look into i-mail by ipswitch. It's good e-mail software, and doesn't get hit as hard by all the nasty little bugs on the internet. That's what we're using. Moving away from you ISP may not be the best awnser. You can go to someone like hostway.com and sign up for an account for a good price, and get mailboxes through them. I set up my web-site with them and it came with 10 mailboxes. The nice thing is you can access your e-mail via the internet, and not use outlook, and the virus' will never download to your locals. Good luck. (Always pop-3 in my opinion.) Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional

"Curiosity is one of the most permanent
and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."
Samuel Johnson (1709-84); English author.