[WinMac] Re: Small office mail system

Dan Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Thu, 11 Mar 1999 05:19:00 -0500

        Well, you have quite a few options... Eudora Internet Mail Server (EIMS
1.1.2 is the same thing as Apple Internet Mail Server 1.1.1 (AIMS). EIMS is
up to about version 2.2.1, and is actually quite nice... Except that it is
not a very "secure" (in terms of redundancy) mail server. I don't *think*
EIMS will dial out at specific intervals, either (but I could very well be
wrong on this count... It's been about 3 months since I've used EIMS).

        MS Exchange 5.5/SP2 is nice, and will do everything you want... And more.
But it is expensive, and I wouldn't try it without at least a 9 gig SCSI
drive and a PPro or PII pee-cee with 96-128 MB of RAM.

        Another solution is a dedicated "Internet Appliance" with Web-based admin
tools... About $1200-$1500. These are Linux-based and preconfigured for the
designed duty.

        Cheers!
        Dan

At 08:33 PM 3/10/99 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I'm looking for comments/recommendations for an email system for a small
>office (10-20 users). I've been lurking on this list for some time, and
>read with interest the summary posted several months ago by someone who
>asked a similar question, but I think their interest was related to a much
>larger installation.
>
>Background:
>
>Our current situation is that we use Quarterdeck Mail (formerly Starnine
>Mail, originally Microsoft Mail) on Macs for our internal email; with a
>home-brew rig that receives internet mail from our ISP whenever the line
>is up (and brings the line up when it needs to send mail), uses a table
>plus rules to determine an internal recipient, and forwards it through the
>internal mail system. This situation just evolved: we were using MS Mail
>from about 1990, and just kept upgrading it, and about five years ago
>started using the internet, and hacked up a solution on a spare Mac to
>move mail back and forth, and later taught it to handle enclosures, and so
>on. We wouldn't have chosen to go this route if we were starting now.
>
>The internal mail works pretty well: QD Mail is reasonably flexible,
>allows local and server folders, filtering rules etc; it has the great
>advantage of a nice HyperCard XFCN that has allowed us to create a number
>of robots which do things like process email sent from forms on web sites;
>we all know it well. But it has some disadvantages: the latest version of
>the QD Mail client is a bit slow; we are locked into a proprietory system
>with no choice of clients; there's no Windows client, so we have to put a
>Mac on everyone's desk even if all their work is on Windows. And the real
>problem is that the interface to the internet is impoverished, and only
>improves when a programmer here can devote some time to it; and its
>integration with QD Mail will always be weak.
>
>I'd like to move to a standards based (ie POP3 or IMAP) system for our
>internal mail, allowing a wide choice of Mac and Windows clients. I'd
>prefer to use a server running on Mac, because we've got several old
>machines lying around, and because most of us are familiar with Macs and
>will find it easier to administrate. And I'd like to retire the homebrew
>system which interfaces the internal mail to the internet, so I'd like a
>single system which knew how to talk to an ISP over a dial-up line.
>Things I'd be sad to lose in the transition (but recognise I might have
>to) include the ability for each user to create some folders on the
>server, and some on their local machine; and the flexibility in
>translating internet addresses to local users that we have currently.
>
>Questions:
>
>As far as I can see, my choices are
> - Apple Internet Mail Server (AIMS)
> - Eudora Internet Mail Server (EIMS)
> - Communigate from Stalker Systems
>
>[Q] Is there another product I should add to this list to consider?
>
>[Q] For any of these products, can anyone tell me if they think it would
>do the job, if they'd recommend it, if they think I should avoid it? For
>any of these products, what are their strengths or weaknesses?
>
>[Q] Another consideration is that we've obviously got a lot of old mail
>messages stored in QD Mail. We can get it out, and massage it into any
>published format; do any/all of these products offer a sensible import
>format that would old messages to be transferred, with original dates and
>senders?
>
>[Q] One other alternative is that I know that Starnine offer an SMTP
>gateway. Obviously this would leave us still locked into one source, Mac
>only, client; but I'd be interested if anyone has experience to report
>with it.
>
>Thanks in advance for any information or advice. Please reply either to
>the list or directly to me as you think best - I'll summarise what I learn
>to the list.
>
>Many thanks,
>
>Ben Rubinstein
>Cognitive Applications Ltd
>benr@cogapp.com
>
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>
>

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