My boss wants me to have our own mail server.

[EzLogic]

we currently have our own domain name for our website and we use the POP email that came with our hosting.

we have our outlook setup in this fashion:
email address: someone@mycompany.com
pop: mail.mycompany.com
smtp: mail.mycompany.com


Anyway, we are having a lot of problem with the hosting company regarding the email. Our email is coming very late and delayed. For example, an email is sent originally at 1pm and my boss will get it at 7pm. and so on. i also experience those problems. And it has been happening for over 2 or 3 months.

So, my boss wants us to have our own email server, Exchange 2000 or 2003.
So, we ordered a T1 line (to replace our DSL).

So, can I host our own Email server and still have the same email alias? someone@mycompany.com and come to the exchange and not go to the website's ISP?

How hard is it to do that. I have descent knowldege in NT and installation, but, nothing is Exchange setup and all.

Can someone please give me links, or tips on how to start and i will research it more. What are the steps.

thank you so much in advance.

Ali Koumaiha
Wireless Toyz
Farmington Hills, Michigan

 

[tmt7734]

Installing exchange is pretty straight forward. Search Microsofts site and there are some good procedural steps on there.

It easy to still have your web hosted elswhere and have you email hit your office. You just change the MX record, your hosting company will be able to do it for you.

 

[substitute]

Yes, talk to your hosting company. They will set up so mail to your domain is passed to your server. The actual user mailboxes have to be set up on your new server, the ISP is only interested in the bit after the "@".

Your ISP may also provide a service whereby when your server is off-line they redirect your mail to their own server. That then tries to forward the mail to you until your server comes back online. This is what our ISP does and it saves our bacon when there is a connection problem.

However, your delays might stem from problems with your ISP's connectivity, in which case your email will still be delayed, as the sender's mail server will be in charge of the retry cycle.

You can run a mail server behind DSL, you don't have to have T1. The fact that you were getting your email down DSL from your ISP suggests there isn't a speed issue, though I've just moved off DSL myself to improve speed.

If you have a firewall (of course you have!) you need to set it to pass SMTP port 25 to your server. Simple but easy to forget!

Good luck

 

[blubomber]

What kind of a network do you have now? Are you using windows 2000 and do you have Active Directory deployed? How many users do you have?

If you do not have alot of users, 25 or so, and do not have active directory deployed, then you can look into using Microsofts Small Business Server 2003. You can get it bundled with exchange 2003.

If you already have active directory, then just get Exchange 2003 stand alone server. Setup is pretty straight forward but it would be a good idea to go to Microsoft's website and download the Exchange 2003 Deployment guide. That will give you all the info you need to know.

And you will be able to keep the same email address you have now.

 

[EzLogic]

Thank you guys for the repsones.

Blubomber, we have win2000 server with about 15-20 users. We're not using AD.

We use the T1 for other connection speed.



Ali Koumaiha
Wireless Toyz
Farmington Hills, Michigan

 

[blubomber]

You could still go with small business server with your current situation. But you will have to read up on it to see if it fits your needs.

But, to deploy Exchange 2000 or 2003, you must have Active Directory up and running. AD in your environment should not be a difficult deployment but it will have to be another area for you to study up on a bit.

Here is a link to the Small Business Server website.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/default.mspx

 

[roger2420]

We had this happen with our server and we host our own website and exchange server. we solved this by using dyndns.org and also have there backup mx record.

 

[sidetracked]

Wow..what an awesome boss. Why aren't u using AD? your loosing a lot of benefits from that. you should hire a consultant for a free eval of your workplace.

MCSE 2K - MCSA 2K - NET+ - A+

Paul..

 

[Simonchtan]

u dont need T1 link. a decent 512Kbps ADLS can do quite alright so long you limited the SMTP transfer limit to a managable values.

Remenber your ISP needs also your Ptr and MX records for your mail server address add of cos a Public IP would be required though i not really DHCP IP address. will cause delay of mails if your IP address changes before those Dynamic DNS server can update your MX records.

I know no voice, I knew nothing about systems,
i know NUTS on networking, Therefore I dont know anything!
-----------------------------------
©2003,2004 SCHT.

 

[Dsrt]

We actually just went through something like this. We are running an NT domain, so we had to install Windows and exchange 2003 on it's own domain, set up a trust and implement AD.

We just brought our email internal at the beginning of last week and we're still working out bugs.

Email me if you have questions and maybe I can help you out.

 

[Zelandakh]

But if you email each other, none of us gains from your teething troubles.

<signature for rent>

 

[fs483]

I'm actually in the process of doing this now. We just had our exchange installed a few days ago. I just finished creating all the mailboxes, installed anti-spam and anti-virus software for emails this morning... We should be switching the mx records next week... BTW, most DSL services block port 25 therefor not allowing you to host an email server. T1 or ADSL will work fine. Make sure your clients are all using MS Outlook (comes with SBS2003). I think Outlook express doesn't allow you to connect to an exchange server. If you have a users on laptops, you might also think of setting up .ost so those users can access their emails even when they aren't connected to the network. Next step is to setup Outlook Web Access and a VPN connection for the road warriors...

 

[Dsrt]

We are running exchange 2003 on it's own domain because our primary is an NT domain and as you know, AD will not work in that environment.

Because we were going to use the same domain name that was currently being used by our ISP, we could not run in parallel...it was all or nothing. To make matters worse, not only did I associated all my email accounts with the NT login but I also am running two domain names. Talk about a huge pain in the butt.

I set up the accounts, got everything the way I wanted it, then called our ISP and had them change the MX entry to point to our server.

Since then, email works, but it's very spuratic. I can add a user and it works fine, add another one and I end up having to delete his account and rebuild it. OWA works sometime, sometimes it doesn't. I can set up one account with pop access, and another one keeps telling me that it can't login because of a bad password/username even though the accounts appear identical.

Frankly, at this point, it's become and major stresser, never knowing what's not going to work when I come in.

 

[smsg]

DSrt,

When you say "Because we were going to use the same domain name that was currently being used by our ISP, we could not run in parallel" are you referring to your_company.com?

I cannot see any reason why you cannot use that for your AD domain (although most books will say use local.yourcompany.com). You should be running your own internal DNS server in the first AD domain controller anyway. You can have all your hosts listed in the internal DNS but only the mx and

http://www records

in the ISP DNS. This is called split or hidden DNS. It only is a problem if your dns settings are not correct. You should have your primary DNS set to the internal DNS server and your ISP DNS as your secondary.

You should also be using a firewall/reverse proxy so as not to expose your mail server to the internet. When computers search for host.yourcompany.com, they will never find your internal hosts if you don't allow incoming DNS request through your firewall. Also, you should be using internal Ip addressing inside your LAN anyway and unless you have port/Ip address redirection enabled, external computers will not be able to resolve any of your internal hosts.


SMSG

 

[minderaser1025]

Ali Koumaiha

Just saw your issues... How much time have t planned into your infrastructure. With doing the T1 you have the capabilities to now do everything in-house. Make sure you get a good firewall. The el-cheapo linksys will not do what you want. We got our T in the spring, and are now using netscreen firewalls. They are very extensive in what they do, and allow for VPN also. Dont forget you need the basics. Ns1,ns2, DC, Exchange, and with the new system you can do the vpn to allow your users to work from teh field.
Sinceryly Matt

Brighton MI. (were not far.) what does wireless toys do_?