Should we host our own emails?

A

:: A l e x ::

Greetings all,
I'm a newbie trying to figure out the best solution for my employer.

We have approximately 30 employees using Outlook and Exchange. Currently, we
are using Interland to host our website and emails - and there in lies the
problem. Our email service could NOT be more unreliable and it is beginning
to affect (slightly) employee productivity.

I mentioned that we are using Exchange 5.5 it is configured to route
internal messages only and as a means for me to backup all the emails of my
users.

I am considering everything from simply switching hosts to implementing
Exchange 2000 as a "true" exchange server. Of course, my concerns range from
security, reliability and ease of implementation and administration.

Can someone please point me in the direction of resources that I may use to
make an informed decision in the best interest of my employer ...

Thanks in advance,
ALEX
 
L

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

For POP connectors? See http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_smtp_diatribe.htm

For Internet Mail in Outlook? Get rid of the POP and host your own mail.
Your current configuration is not supported in versions of Outlook prior to
2002, and is not ideal even then.

Hosting your own domain's mail will be a lot easier, mail will be faster,
you'll be able to use OWA and Out of Office, you can easily assign multiple
addresses to each user, can use mail-enabled public folders, publicly
addressable distribution lists/groups, and can scan all inbound/outbound
mail for viruses using Exchange AV software on the server.

See http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/MF002.html for instructions on how
to get Exchange 2000 to receive Internet mail sent via SMTP, the way it's
meant to do. For Exchange 5.5, see
http://www.exchangeadmin.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=15729

You can do this even with dialup/ISDN (get an ISP who supports ETRN) .

If you have broadband but with a dynamic IP (such as a cable modem/ADSL
account):

You can use a dynamic DNS host such as www.dyndns.org - you set up an
account, such as yourcompany.dnsalias.com, and whomever hosts your public
DNS should set your primary MX record to point to yourcompany.dnsalias.com.
Open up port 25 inbound in your firewall or router, direct all traffic to
your internal IP for the Exchange server.
You run a service on your server (software available for download from the
dyndns website) and set it up to update dyndns with your current dynamic
IP.


For Exchange 2000, see http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/MF002.html for
instructions on how to get Exchange to receive Internet mail sent via SMTP,
the way it's meant to do - for Exchange 5.5, see
http://www.exchangeadmin.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=15729

You can do this even with dialup/ISDN (get an ISP who supports ETRN) .

If you have broadband but with a dynamic IP (such as a cable modem/ADSL
account):

You can use a dynamic DNS host such as www.dyndns.org - you set up an
account, such as yourcompany.dnsalias.com, and whomever hosts your public
DNS should set your primary MX record to point to yourcompany.dnsalias.com.
Open up port 25 inbound in your firewall or router, direct all traffic to
your internal IP for the Exchange server.
You run a service on your server (software available for download from the
dyndns website) and set it up to update dyndns with your current dynamic
IP.
 

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