Hosting Microsoft Exchange Server at home or paying for online host??

[BoboKatt]

Hey all,
Was just wondering what is a better deal for 2 people that require the functionality and portability of Outlook and Microsoft Exchange server? I mean for 2 people would it be better for me to setup a server at say my office or home or would it be easier/cheaper more cost effective to go with an online hosting site?

In this regard just how hard is it to set up a Microsoft Exchange server on your own? Do you require any special hardware? I currently have Windows XP running in our office. We have all do our own back up and we don?t have a server. We have a simple router and DSL that we all just share. We use Outlook exclusively and have thousands of our contacts and tasks and calendar events we use so using ?webmail? based services like hotmail, etc, to the best of my knowledge wont work. We all travel extensively and it?s always a pain currently as when we do find internet access, we are still able to connect and get our email but we all use different accounts to deal with the fact we don?t have the same SMTP outgoing server.

The hardest part is when we arrive at different offices and we need to synchronize our Outlooks between laptops and desktops? thus the concept of the exchange server seems ideal even though we are such a small group.

I am sorry if this is not the correct area for me to post this but if anyone can point me to a better spot if this is incorrect let me know.

Thanks!

 

[DnetMHZ]

Well if you are going to run Exchange you will first have to set up a server and active directory.

System requirements for Windows server 2003 can be found here.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/sysreqs/default.mspx

 

[LOFBenson]

Figure out the cost of rolling out your own Small Business Server 2003 box + windows xp pro to your workstations if you don't already have it. SBS2k3 might also have other features you want which would make it worth the price. Remember to include a real backup solution. Then compare it to the cost of outsourcing exchange.


Outsourcing Exchange Pros:

Cheap.
Easy.

Cons:

If your internet connection goes down you can't access anything
Some admin who isn't really accountable to you/your company has access to your email
Your hosting company could disappear on you with no warning

 

[brockj]

I am running a exchange server out of my house and I am going to go away from it. First off, you will NEED a non-residential IP or else many people will not get your email as it will be considered spam. This is the biggest reason I am moving away from it. Besides that you really need to know what you are doing to run a good exchange box. I do much of the maintenance on ours and unless you know what you are doing I would say go with the pros.

 

[BoboKatt]

Very helpful folks! thanks

 

[netsysadmin]

Brockj...the outgoing SMTP from a dynamic IP is easy to solve. Just setup a smarthost pointing to your ISP's SMTP server. Then your email passes through the ISP's SMTP server and it wont get flagged as spam.

John

 

[RebateMonger]

I'd recommend hosted Exchange accounts. They are only around $10 apiece per month nowadays. Be sure you have a reliable host. Intermedia.net and ownwebnow.com are two that come to mind.

With those, you also can use Outlook's "RPC over HTTPS" mode, which lets you use FULL Outlook 2003 to access your mailboxes. You also get OWA (web-based) and Windows Mobile (to your PDA or SmartPhone) access.

If you find you have need for other Windows Server services (like shared files, VPN, SharePoint, Remote Access), then you can certainly consider an SBS 2003 Server. You can even get THOSE in hosted form, which might make sense if you want to try one for a while before you commit to your own SBS Server.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: netsysadmin
Brockj...the outgoing SMTP from a dynamic IP is easy to solve. Just setup a smarthost pointing to your ISP's SMTP server. Then your email passes through the ISP's SMTP server and it wont get flagged as spam.

Yeah. Definitely don't use a Dynamic IP address for hosting an email server. I block all mail coming directly from dynamic IP addresses, and I'm sure that many others do, too.

Edit:
Just to clarify my statement, I'm saying not to send email DIRECTLY from a dynamic IP, or else your emails will be rejected by some email servers. Cox, for instance, rejects all inbound email from dynamic IP addresses.

You CAN use your ISP's mailserver as a SmartHost, though, sending your email from your Exchange Server to your ISP's SmartHost and then to the rest of the world.

 

[BZeto]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: netsysadmin
Brockj...the outgoing SMTP from a dynamic IP is easy to solve. Just setup a smarthost pointing to your ISP's SMTP server. Then your email passes through the ISP's SMTP server and it wont get flagged as spam.

Yeah. Definitely don't use a Dynamic IP address for hosting an email server. I block all mail coming directly from dynamic IP addresses, and I'm sure that many others do, too.

How does the filter tell if the email is coming from a dynamic IP address?
Also, whats the big deal with hosting a mail server on a dynamic IP? If the IP changes isnt it reassociated with the dns server and everything is routed properly?

 

[stash]

You can host an email server on a dynamic IP with no problems. I've been doing it for probably 6 years now. You just need to do as netsysadmin noted, and route all your outgoing mail through a smarthost like your ISP's SMTP server.

I also use a service running on my ISA box to update my DynDNS account if my IP change. And I use a service from DynDNS that queues my mail if my mail server goes offline. This is great for when I do upgrades (or when I moved and my network was down for 10 days).

Most ISPs TOS forbid running mail servers, but they don't all block SMTP inbound. If that's the case, they won't bother you unless you are sending and receiving a huge amount of mail.

 

[netsysadmin]

Yeah my setup is also similar to stash's. I use zoneedit for my DNS and they also have a store and forward service for my email in case it goes down. Stash I also have an ISA box...how funny!

John

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: BZeto
How does the filter tell if the email is coming from a dynamic IP address?

You can use the SORBS DUHL block list in association with your mailserver's Connection Filtering.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: brockj
I am running a exchange server out of my house and I am going to go away from it. First off, you will NEED a non-residential IP or else many people will not get your email as it will be considered spam. This is the biggest reason I am moving away from it. Besides that you really need to know what you are doing to run a good exchange box. I do much of the maintenance on ours and unless you know what you are doing I would say go with the pros.

A good point, but I did away with mine due to the amount of spam I was rejecting. There was so much spam coming down the pipe and getting rejected that I was having trouble using my connection (RR Premium 8Mbit down 512 up) for streaming video and Xbox Live. Now I'm using AppRiver at $12.95 per user. Their spam filtering is top-notch.