best free exchange server clone?

[Brazen]

Any body know of any really awesome imitators to Microsoft Exchange Server? I know of SamsungContact and Kroupware/Kobal Server. What would be REALLY cool though is if there is an opensource server software that would run on 2k/xp server or workstation and make your network think there is an exchange server running.

Ok, ok, here is what I really like, the way Outlook will immediately show that you have an email when the server recieves it. At least that is how it worked at a company I worked for years ago, and we used it like internal instant messaging back before IM clients became popular. Now I gotta set up my own email server at a school with NO budget and though I've done administration on a linux sendmail server, I REALLY don't want to return to those days. I also have another question, will any IMAP server do this? From what I understand IMAP what Exchange uses and I have seen some IMAP capable server software albeit for linux.

 

[Saltin]

While Exchange supports all standard mailing protocols (SMTP, POP3, IMAPv4), the way that Exchange and Outlook communicate in an corporate environment (ie not over the internet) is propriatary (MAPI).

You arent going to find anything open source that matches Exchange functionality and feature. There isnt any open source competition (yet anyhow).

 

[Brazen]

So can anybody tell me the difference between IMAP and POP3?

 

[Brazen]

and by the way, there IS competition as I have already previously stated (Kobal Server, SamsungContact, and also the not-so-free Suse OpenExchange). What I want to know is what is the BEST, or if anybody has used these free alternatives and has any thoughts on them. Thanks.

 

[TheOmegaCode]

Originally posted by: Brazen
So can anybody tell me the difference between IMAP and POP3?

g o o g l e . c o m

 

[Brazen]

Yeah thanks, you're a big help. Way to tack on another post

 

[watts3000]

Most school systems are like non profit organazations they get software and hard ware for next to nothing. You need to contact microsoft yourself and ask them how they price school system.

 

[Brazen]

Yeah, great thanks. I already know about Academic discounts and I already know for how much we can get MS Exchange. Again, our budget is zero, and I just want to know if any one has used any of these free email servers and if they have any thoughts on them, or does anyone know of any good Exchange-like email servers or any good plain old email servers that are free and preferably run on Windows 2000/XP.

 

[ojai00]

A free one that you can try is Mercury/32. I think it has IMAP features on it. IMAP (not sure what it stands for) is the thing that allows you to get your messages right away. POP3 waits for your mail client to check for mail and then downloads it when you receive new messages. Hope this helps.

 

[Buddha Bart]

from http://www.imap.org/imap.vs.pop.brief.html

POP was designed to support "offline" mail processing. In the offline paradigm, mail is delivered to a (usually shared) server, and a personal computer user periodically invokes a mail "client" program that connects to the server and downloads all of the pending mail to the user's own machine. Thereafter, all mail processing is local to the client machine. Think of the offline access mode as a kind of store-and-forward service, intended to move mail (on demand) from the mail server (drop point) to a single destination machine, usually a PC or Mac. Once delivered to the PC or Mac, the messages are then deleted from the mail server. Although the limitations of offline access have triggered interest in using POP in online mode, POP simply doesn't have some of the functionality needed for high-quality online (or disconnected) operation. Indeed, POP's "pseudo online" mode of operation, wherein client programs leave mail on the server, often depends on pervasive availability of a remote file system protocol in order for the mail client to access or update saved-message folders or message state information such as status flags.

IMAP can also do offline processing, but its special strength is in online and disconnected operation. In online mode, mail is again delivered to a shared server, but the mail client does not copy it all at once and then delete it from the server. It's more of an interactive client-server model, where the client can ask the server for headers, or the bodies of specified messages, or to search for messages meeting certain criteria. Messages in the mail repository can be marked with various status flags (e.g. "deleted" or "answered") and they stay in the repository until explicitly removed by the user --which may not be until a later session. In short: IMAP is designed to permit manipulation of remote mailboxes as if they were local. Depending on the IMAP client implementation and the mail architecture desired by the system manager, the user may save messages directly on the client machine, or save them on the server, or be given the choice of doing either.

 

[watts3000]

I have dealt with small companies and medium size companies before. There is no way in hell that there budget is zero. Believe me they can come up with the money if they wanted to .

 

[TheOmegaCode]

Originally posted by: Brazen
Yeah thanks, you're a big help. Way to tack on another post

God forbid you open up a search engine and type imap vs pop3.

Now I don't want to come off as a linux zealot, but since you have no budget, you might want to consider it. You don't have to go with sendmail, there are a multitude of other imap servers. An easy thing to do would be to install Debian, and install courier-imap or cyrus-imapd. It's a cheap, easy, and well documented solution. It's just something to consider...

 

[Sunner]

Seems like TheOmegaCode was on to something.

 

[Brazen]

Bart and Oja, thanks for actually giving information. I've actually dealt with Pegasus Mail before. I do work for a local school district also, and they wanted an internal instant messaging system, and again for FREE. I had forgotten about it, I might give the Mercury Mail Server a test drive and see how it handles.

Also, Bart I guess what I was mostly wanting to know was if an IMAP server would not require you to always hit the "check mail" button to see if you have mail or not or would it just show up in Outlook. Does anybody know anything about this? Do you all agree with Oja that this is indeed how it works?

Watts, I personally don't see what is so hard to understand about people wanting something for free? However, yes, to a point I can come up with the money, but it is just not justified in this case. There is definately no way I could come up with enough fundage for Exchange server.

To the rest of you, stop posting messages if you aren't actually going to provide any information. I believe you all have a name for that.

Anybody else have any thoughts (that actually require thought thanks) on the topic? Keep'em comin if ya do. I like to explore all the options...

 

[ojai00]

Even if you are setting up a POP3 server, you can still have the messages downloaded every minute. By default, if you're using Outlook, it'll check for new messages every 10 minutes. You can change that setting to check for messages every minute by going to Tools > Options > Mail Delivery and changing the value.

I haven't really been administering Exchange but at where I used to work, I remember setting up Outlook on client computers to download from an IMAP server.

EDIT: Oh yea, if all you want is options, here's another one Imail server. I don't know how much it costs to set Exchange up but you can get unlimited users for $1995. I don't think that's a bad price to pay...and set up was pretty painless too. If this is still too much for your budget or whatever you can turn up, then I guess you can stick with Pegasus

 

[n0cmonkey]

100% Free or Open Source software solution (not 100% what you want, but good enough for most):
OpenBSD (or other F/OSS OS)
Postfix (or other F/OSS MTA)
UW IMAPd (or other F/OSS IMAP Daemon)
Jabber (only good open source/free IM client/server I know of)

Total cost: A couple of hours, hardware, and a good beer afterwards.

 

[igiveup]

IMAP use would only get you part of what exchange offers. Groupware is the major strength of Exchange (IMHO). The combination of the group scheduling and task assignment really go to a level that IMAP doesn't touch. IMAP does give you a global address book capability I believe, but thats about as close as it comes.

I too have been wanting some OSS alternative to the MS email solutions that keep me tied to this part of the platform. Ximian has software that will connect to an Exchange server, but thats not what you were looking for.

 

[Nothinman]

IMAP will not cause the messages to automatically appear like with MAPI, I think MAPI is the only thing that does that.
IMAP will not give you a global address book, most clients I've seen have a component that allows you to search an LDAP database for addresses, so using OpenLDAP for the global address book would work.

With your supposed budget of $0 you're best bet is pretty much what n0c said, although I personally would uses Linux instead of OpenBSD and Cyrus instead of uw-imapd.

 

[igiveup]

Ack, yeah, LDAP was the one I was thinking of. All of these *A#$ acronyms. Sorry for the confusion. TY NOTHINMAN.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
IMAP will not cause the messages to automatically appear like with MAPI, I think MAPI is the only thing that does that.
IMAP will not give you a global address book, most clients I've seen have a component that allows you to search an LDAP database for addresses, so using OpenLDAP for the global address book would work.

With your supposed budget of $0 you're best bet is pretty much what n0c said, although I personally would uses Linux instead of OpenBSD and Cyrus instead of uw-imapd.

Thanks! I was trying to remember an IMAP server othre than UW, but I couldnt think of one offhand. Totally forgot about Cyrus

 

[Buddha Bart]

Bart and Oja, thanks for actually giving information.

All I did was search "pop vs imap" in google and gave you the guts of the first hit.

Also, Bart I guess what I was mostly wanting to know was if an IMAP server would not require you to always hit the "check mail" button to see if you have mail or not or would it just show up in Outlook.

Pretty much any mail client can be configured to check every X minutes. In order for the client to actually be notified instantaniously it would either have to be constantly connected, or regester itself with the server in some way and listen on a port so that the server could notify it. I don't know anything about MAPI, so maybe thats how they do it, but I'd bet hard money its just a setting to check every 1 min or something.

You're never gonna find something comparable to exchange for free. If your budget is truely nothing, then your only choice is to glue as many open soruce components together to get yourself "close enough". My guess is if you already have a decent idea of using a linux/bsd machine it would take you about 6 - 8 billable hours to roll a linx+pam+openldap+postfix+uw-imapd+jabber. Then comes the real fun: setting up all the accounts, installing all the client software, and configuring all the client software. Call me lazy but at that point I'd freakin pay out of pocket for an academic license of exchange (ok maybe not quite)

bart

 

[TheOmegaCode]

Thanks! I was trying to remember an IMAP server othre than UW, but I couldnt think of one offhand. Totally forgot about Cyrus

I guess no one reads my posts I mentioned cyrus-imapd and courier-imap

MissMail is an open source MAPI-compliant mail server that's in the works that I stumbled across. Too bad they haven't released any files yet...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: TheOmegaCode

Thanks! I was trying to remember an IMAP server othre than UW, but I couldnt think of one offhand. Totally forgot about Cyrus

I guess no one reads my posts I mentioned cyrus-imapd and courier-imap

Doh! Thats what I get for skimming through most of the thread

 

[Nothinman]

I don't know anything about MAPI, so maybe thats how they do it, but I'd bet hard money its just a setting to check every 1 min or something.

No, the server notifies MAPI clients when there's new mail.

 

[Brazen]

WOW, thanks guys! This thread has really been hoppin' since I've been away. I was surprised to see it still at the top of the OS forum.

Anyway. I'm really lookin for a win32 solution (and it's lookin like Mercury/32 will probably be what I dive into first...and hopefully last). However, if some of you linux zealots are feeling adventurous, you might check out Kolab Server, it supposedly includes all the IMAP and POP3 and global address books in to one, it's just a question though of how well it does it and how easy it is to work with. I may even check it out myself if I go with Linux. My personal preference is to try to move towards all WindowsNT. Yeah yeah, I can just imagine what you all have to say about that (not for this thread), but what can I say, I'm an MCP on my way to an MCSA and I like to stick with what I know. Like I said all I've really done with Linux is troubleshooting and administration on a machine that was set up like 7 years ago (granted it is still running!).

EDIT: Oh yeah, also I think you all may be a little confused about MAPI, I did some reading on Technet and it sounds like all MAPI really does is open your mail client when you send mail from or through a program like Word.

About the instant-retrival-of-messages-thingy, I kinda figured it was something more like just listening on a port instead of querying the mail server every minute. I really don't want to just set outlook to automatically check every minute, due to network traffic you know, if everyone did that you could imagine the sucking sound coming from our hubs. So does anyone know if an IMAP server notifies the clients? Oja, when you were using outlook connected to an IMAP server, did it do this?