can you recommend a free email system

[techidave]

I am looking at replacing my aging 10  year old Exchange server with a free system like Pegus/ Mercury Mail.  Since our school enrollment is continuing to decline, our existence is only a few more years.  But instead of waiting til this Dell Poweredge 2500 dies, I would like to replace it before then.

I would like to continue to host our own server instead of going with the cloud on it.  We currently use Outlook but do not share calendars or anything fancy like that.

I was just wondering what others might be using or might have tried that they would recommend???

Thanks,
Dave

[Stoic Joker]

(Yes I'm an Exchange fan...) Why not stay with Exchange and just update the hardware? Refurbed off-lease servers are fairly cheap, and it's not that hard to migrate if the install was documented well. Kinda like domain controllers, join the new one, promote it, sync it, and demote the old one, done.

...Granted I'm assuming Exchange 2003 here, I haven't tried the above with an Exchange 2000 server...So I can't guarantee it'll work.

[techidave]

Yes, it is Exchange 2003.  And yes we could just update the hardware, but I would also be inclinded to want to update Exchange as well if I was going to stay with that.  I have been told that some of the other mail systems will run on XP and they are not the memory hog that Exchange is.

[40hz]

Might be easier to stick with what you're already familiar with if you're only looking at a few more years of keeping it going.

That being said, Mercury is a good solution for light to moderate e-mail traffic. If you routinely pass large attachments back and forth - or do a lot of "copy all" announcements or distributions - Exchange is usually much more efficient with message storage space. So keep that in mind too.

[Stoic Joker]

Yes, it is Exchange 2003.  And yes we could just update the hardware, but I would also be inclinded to want to update Exchange as well if I was going to stay with that.  I have been told that some of the other mail systems will run on XP and they are not the memory hog that Exchange is.

-techidave (July 08, 2011, 07:38 AM)

Anything that has to deal with that many mailboxes, is going to need that much memory (which is cheap these days). I really don't see Exchange's usage as excessive. I've got several SMBs that run their Exchange & DC on the same box with only 4GB of RAM (and 20 or less mailboxes) that are doing just fine. Key is to be sure to put the Exchange mail store on its own partition to keep it from fragging C: to hell and back (that's one key point that will make, or break an Exchange deployment fast!).

SBS is a classic train wreck. Everything is on C: and DNS is borked, and the box goes tits up in a year ... Why??   ...I see this happen all too often.

Mail server running on XP!?! ...Oh the horror!

[40hz]

SBS is a classic train wreck. Everything is on C: and DNS is borked, and the box goes tits up in a year ... Why??   ...I see this happen all too often.

-Stoic Joker (July 08, 2011, 08:21 AM)

Agree 110% (More like 'The Hindenburg' AFAIC)

I've reached the point where the only SBS project I'm still willing to take on is migrating somebody off it.

[Stoic Joker]

I've reached the point where the only SBS project I'm still willing to take on is migrating somebody off it.

-40hz (July 08, 2011, 08:35 AM)

ROFLMAO 

[Renegade]

I've used a few different email servers, and I'd not go with Mercury32 simply because you need to force it to work as a service. (Has it changed since I last used it?) Other than that, it's solid. Very nice.

Check out hMailServer. It's pretty good. Missing some things, but still a good server. I do miss things I used to have in both Mercury32 and in ArgoSoft.

For web mail, check out AfterLogic.

They have a free version. I've found it to be very nice and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

DO NOT go for ArgoSoft .NET Email Server. The Win32 email server was fantastic and had a lot of good features. The .NET version... major problems. Whatever to you do, DO NOT use it. (You can check to see if they've resolved their issues, but I doubt it. It was a rewrite, and the problems were deal breakers. Do not rely on an initial test either. Problems do not arise for a while, but when they do, they will f**k your server.)

Anyways, I hope that helps some.

[40hz]

If you're looking for a comprehensive webmail system you can run on your own server,  the FOSS RoundCube project looks like a good choice.

It's gotten very good reviews. I'm thinking of using this one for a client project.

[techidave]

We are running around 75 to 100 mailboxes on an old P3 933 with 1.5 gig of RAM.  It has a RAID 5 setup and is at 40 gig partition.  Actually 2 partions. C=8.5 gig and D= 34 gig.

[Stoic Joker]

Check out Stallard Technologies - Dell PowerEdge 2800 (call and ask for Geoff - He'll work with Ya). They're a great company I've dealt with in the past many times. Exchange should run just fine on the machine at that link.

[Renegade]

If you're looking for a comprehensive webmail system you can run on your own server,  the FOSS RoundCube project looks like a good choice.

It's gotten very good reviews. I'm thinking of using this one for a client project.

-40hz (July 08, 2011, 01:02 PM)

I looked at that, but ended up going with AfterLogic as it looked to have better reviews for hMailServer. It does look very good though. I forget whether I tested it or not.

I did try SquirrelMail, but it's pretty basic. AfterLogic blows that away.