Microsoft Exchange

[herme3]

Can you tell me any information about Microsoft Exchange? A company that I do some computer work for is considering purchasing it for their e-mail. Are there any major security flaws, or is it a good program?

[Pangloss]

It's a bit of an undertaking -- it's a good bit more than just a mail program. MS offers, if memory serves, a five-day course on it that's pretty good. There are also some excellent books available. Supporting Exchange involves a little bit of a learning curve, especially in an Active Directory environment. (It helps a good bit if you're already familiar with the principles of AD.)

 

If all your office is doing is passing email around the company then they may be able to get by just using POP3/SMTP/IMAP services in their Windows Server (which I assume they already have). Or you can convert an older computer to Linux and throw in a similar client, without impacting on the performance of your existing Windows Server (which is presumably doing something already). These are popular and common alternatives.

 

If they're planning to do calendar/task/appointment sharing, and/or they have Active Directory, and/or they need a lot of control over the email system in a comprehensive package, then Exchange Server is a good investment. There are alternatives at that level as well.

[herme3]

Thank you for your reply. Can you please explain how the e-mail accounts would be setup? The company wants to have all the e-mail addresses ending with their web site's domain name. The domain for the web site is registered through GoDaddy. My recommendation to the company was to use GoDaddy's e-mail system, which is something they are considering. If they wanted to use Microsoft Exchange or a POP3 service instead, how would they get the e-mail addresses to work with the domain?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

They'd have to set up a server with Exchange on it and set GoDaddy's DNS to point to it.

 

There are free alternatives to Exchange if you just want to send email, by the way.

[Klaynos]

If you JUST want it for email, exchange is not the best option... It is quite a nice app, but for massive email handling it can't cope, at least one ISP I know runs exim mail servers infront of all it's exchange servers to stop they dieing... Although that shouldn't be a problem for you. There are alternatives for most of the functionality, but if you just want mail then it's really not the best option...

[Pangloss]

Can you please explain how the e-mail accounts would be setup?

 

 

The Microsoft web site has plenty of tutorials that are much better at explaining how the program works than I could possibly be.

 

If they're interested in some training you can drop me a private message and I can see about getting you hooked up with a local training provider.

[herme3]

If you JUST want it for email, exchange is not the best option... It is quite a nice app, but for massive email handling it can't cope, at least one ISP I know runs exim mail servers infront of all it's exchange servers to stop they dieing... Although that shouldn't be a problem for you. There are alternatives for most of the functionality, but if you just want mail then it's really not the best option...

 

I don't think there will be a lot of e-mailing. It's just a local pest control company, and they want about 40 e-mail addresses, one for each employee. I think they just want customers to be able to e-mail any questions or comments to the technician that did their service. I believe that using GoDaddy's e-mail system would be enough, and I'm also familiar with how GoDaddy works. However, another IT company wants them to buy an e-mail server and Microsoft Exchange. They say that they will need it for good security, but I feel that the IT company just wants money to install the server.

[Klaynos]

If they're saying MS exchange and a server, just for email for "security" reasons, they are just after money.

 

Email is NOT a secure medium, ever...

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

If they want security, use GoDaddy and then look up GnuPG.

[Pangloss]

I don't think there will be a lot of e-mailing. It's just a local pest control company, and they want about 40 e-mail addresses, one for each employee. I think they just want customers to be able to e-mail any questions or comments to the technician that did their service. I believe that using GoDaddy's e-mail system would be enough, and I'm also familiar with how GoDaddy works. However, another IT company wants them to buy an e-mail server and Microsoft Exchange. They say that they will need it for good security, but I feel that the IT company just wants money to install the server.

 

Exchange would not be a cost-effective choice for this company. You know, you can download the trial version for free and take a look at it directly. I don't think they realize what they're actually talking about. It's been my experience that a lot of times the MBA types will say something like "Exchange" because it sounds impressive, but what they really mean is "we're putting a hyperlink to Hotmail in everyone's IE Favorites".

[bascule]

If you've never used Active Directory and aren't comfortable with mmc, you shouldn't be installing Exchange.

 

Exchange deployment is somewhat difficult, and if you screw it up, you can expect to have all sorts of problems with your server. I had to fix a botched Exchange deployment that would hang the entire system indefinitely if you attempted to shut it down, for example.