Need to change from private mail server to hosted solution

[george46227]

Currently we run on own mail server on the premises - the hardware (Pentium 600 MHz 128MB RAM), software (W2K using Argosoft Mail Server + Mail Filter Pro and AVG plug-in), whole deal. It's taking too much time to manage it - it's an old machine and hangs several times per week needing frequent reboots. I think it's a load issue, I've tried several things to fix it but not much help. Instead of getting a new server we are thinking of going to an outside source for mail hosting.

I need at least three sources to analyze and recommend to the president - features, cost, etc. Our email setup is pretty basic - no distribution lists, a few forwarding/aliasing setups, we only do pop service, we send users to the ISP for outgoing/smtp. We have about 120 mailboxes (including four small remote offices) and get a lot of email - probably over 1000+ per day and plenty of attachments (some fairly large 10MB+).

Last time I checked into this I spent hours searching the net, came up with tons of "solutions" but very little in the way of useful details with which to make a decision - who to use and why, what they offered specifically, etc.

Any suggestions, recommendations would be appreciated - who have you used, how good is the service (including uptime, support, etc.), do they have user access to the mail set up (web-based control panel, etc.), features like spam and virus filter, what price range, etc.

George

 

[smah]

I've been using the mail service provided by my domain registrar and have been very pleased. It's a little expensive but worth the money in my opinion. I use Domain Direct (which is somehow an affiliate of TuCows). Their 'personal identity' account is $35/year with 1 e-mail address. Additional address are $15/year each. It provides 10Mb mailboxes, spam filtering, & user control panel with rules, etc, pop & web based access. Their mail service is the primary reason that I use them. Here's a link

http://www.domaindirect.com/personal.html

I very much doubt that you can use their e-mail service without using them as the domain registrar though, but you might want to investigate changing your registrar. For clarification, this would not mean that you'd need to change your web hosting service if you have one.

 

[jlockley]

After using Godaddy for both hosting and email for a year for a non profit I co manage, I decided it was working so well that I moved my entire business services there. Prices are low, at least for us, as we are not very large. Their packages are fairly ala carte, so you can have email hosting with single or multiple accounts. Hosting accounts include up to 200 addresses with only about 3 mg storage space each, if I remember correctly, or for 19 a year you get an acceptable amount. It's worth taking a look at.
Godaddy appears to be the KMart of the Internet.

 

[george46227]

jlockley

Thanks for the info - I will check it out, I haven't heard of them. I'm getting no responses (surprisingly)!

George

 

[progolf069]

george46227,

I do alot of webhosting with eroute.net (databases, JSP, CGI, etc. - the whole nine yards.)

You can get anywhere from 150-Unlimited email accounts, depending on which plan you purchase. Hopefully 150 would be plenty, and it was cost you hardly nothing.

If anything else the web hosting give you a test/demo server for whenever you might need it.

Pretty good company, tech support is pretty prompt 98% of the time - via email only it appears - let me know if you can telephone support!

Good Luck

Ian

 

[malaycobra]

I moved our company to Verizon Business about 2 years ago after our 2 previous hosts went bust.

35 email accounts so far, some with 20mb file transfer limits (there are three classes of service available to each user)not sure of the mailbox size limit but we do CAD work and have never hit the ceiling yet.

So far we pay about $55 per month.

We have POP and web access, and web admin is simple.

Maintenance downtime is usually early Saturday morning, and has never been an issue for us.

Good luck with your search, it's a tough decision to make.