E-Mail

E-Mail on the Cheap

Free open-source e-mail servers can give you everything commercial e-mail servers provide, including antispam and antivirus facilities. Some open-source solutions, such as the Courier Mail Server, go further than simple e-mail services by providing groupware functionality, like group calendaring and scheduling.

So what's the catch? In addition to supplying your own hardware, you'll have to obtain the expertise to compile the code and install and maintain the software. In addition, you must be willing to rely on support from informal usenet newsgroups. If you don't have an employee who's a card-carrying geek with time to burn and a spare computer lying around that's got reliability written all over it, then open source isn't for you.

Buying the BoxIf you absolutely, positively must have your own e-mail system in-house, for a few hundred dollars you can buy e-mail server software from the likes of Alt-N Technologies, Rockliffe, Seattle Labs and Stalker. It offers pretty much the same functionality as more expensive software from, say, IBM or Microsoft. As with open-source solutions, you'll need to provide your own equipment and establish your own data-backup procedures. On the upside, installation and support isn't the roll-your-own process of open source.

These e-mail server systems can be installed by anyone with a basic understanding of software-installation procedures: If you've installed Microsoft Office, you can install one of these. Setup will require specialized knowledge of e-mail protocols and processes, however, and day-to-day management will have to be assigned. We recommend hiring a consultant to do the installation and train an administrator for daily upkeep. Contact the e-mail server vendor to get recommendations for consultants in your area.

In addition to buying e-mail server software, you'll need to budget for the operating system, redundant hardware for reliability, a UPS to keep your system running and to provide for an orderly shutdown during a power outage, and an annual software-maintenance contract. If you choose to implement a commercial system, your costs will be higher than with open-source or outsourced solutions--probably even greater than anticipated. Are those costs likely to be offset by the power and flexibility gained by implementing a commercial product in-house? That's the question you must answer before strolling down this path.Unless you have an expert in-house, or the time and money to dedicate to an e-mail-centric position, it's probably easiest to let someone else imple- ment your e-mail system for you. Consider one of the many hosted e-mail providers like ImpactHosting and Greatmail that can do the dirty deed for you with no fuss and no hardware costs.

Before you sign on with a new provider, discuss cost and support. Your provider can host your e-mail domain name, so you won't have to use the provider's generic domain name.

Explore the management interface for adding and deleting users, creating groups, and obtaining reports on individual disk usage. The interface should be usable with little or no training and should be accessible via Web browser with no add-ons required.

Be sure you have the control you need over e-mail identified as spam or containing a virus. If you have a low tolerance for misidentified e-mail, verify that you can turn off automatic deletion so that possible spam can be examined before it's deleted. Basically, you need to sure that the control you're given is granular enough for your purposes.Ideally, your e-mail hosting company will give you better uptime than you could provide for yourself. Check that your hosting provider uses redundant hardware and redundant connections to the Internet, and that it backs up your e-mail data regularly. If the vendor offers a service-level agreement, read it, understand it and don't sign it unless it meets your needs.

Because hosted services limit your default disk space, educate your users about reasonable policies on storing e-mail long term, especially if they're using the IMAP protocol or Webmail, where mail is stored on the server. POP3 clients such as Outlook Express and Eudora pull e-mail off the server and store it on the local PC, but this protocol is best for users who don't have multiple computers--for instance, a work computer during the day and a home computer at night for e-mail.

Webmail access has the added advantage of limiting your support headaches. You won't need to deploy, configure and support a dedicated e-mail application on your users' machines. You'll still have browser-support issues, but the overall impact on your helpdesk will be less than if you put Outlook Express or Eudora on your users' desktops.