Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 on home network?

[GnatGoSplat]

At work, we have this great setup where all users' email is stored on a Microsoft Exchange Server box. So that means we can launch Outlook on ANY machine and have access to our individual Inbox, Calendar, etc. This is nice, because it means email is always in "sync" between every machine.

At home, I have 2 networked machines that I use regularly (desktop and laptop), and email is never in sync. Items in my Sent folder are different based on which machine I sent the email from. Email status (read, deleted, etc.) is obviously different between each machine. I really like how it's set up at work.

Is it possible to set up a Microsoft Exchange Server system at home? I have Exchange Server on CD from MSDN, and I tried installing it once in WinXP. It didn't run, apparently because I need a Server OS. Before I go to the trouble to obtain a server OS, will it even work with my current POP/SMTP setup? I use POP/SMTP through Softhome.net on a dialup connection through a router. My work is directly connected via T1, and they have their own POP/SMTP so it's a very different type of setup than I have at home.

 

[ktwebb]

2000 server with active directory. Then you'll need your own domain with dynamic DNS pointing back to your IP. This wouldnt work with your ISP mail servers or your ISP's email domain name.. A DNS MX record would point back to your IP if it was static which it isn't since your on a dialup, thus the dynamic DNS problem. the mx record would point to yourdomain.com so any users you setup on the exchange server would be johndoe@yourdomain.com. The long drawn out point is you don't even want to bother with setting up exchange. From the sounds of it, it would be a bit much administatively to you anyway, even if you could jump through all the hoops you'd have to, to set it up correctly. If you are running Outlook express, there should be an option on there somewhere to keep email on the server, meaning your ISP's server. This would get you the same result you are looking for anyway without the headaches. Synch'd email inbox and so forth. Calendar and the like would still be kept locally.

 

[spidey07]

Sure you could do it, but that would be pretty expensive wouldn't it?

 

[Nothinman]

Even if you can afford all the software required it requires a lot of planning and to get AD alone working well, let a lone exchange.

I personally have an IMAP server that keeps all my mail, it runs fetchmail to download mail from my ISP (which I don't even use much because AT&T's servers suck so I have my own smtp server using sendmail) and sorts it for me with procmail. I can connect with an IMAP supporting mail client or via the web using IMP and apache. It's really convenient and works well, it's also a lot less complicated and convoluted than AD and Exchange IMHO.

 

[vi edit]

Exchange requires:

1. lots of $$
2. lots of beef to run it efficiently
3. lots of reading to install and administer

Way, way, way over the top for a home user for 2 accounts. Sure it would be a cool project, but other than that, it's like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer.

 

[GnatGoSplat]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll just have to leave things the way they are.

 

[ktwebb]

Look, if you want your inbox to be the same on both machines? Do what I suggested. Use message rules to NOT download messages from the server. If your using Outlook express, go to Tools, Message Rules, Mail Rules, New, Select action for your Rules box and check "Do not download it from the Server", click ok, and the messages will stay on your ISP's server. You should download the subject headers in your email client on either machine. Thats OE6 but you can do that in 5 as well. In outlook, go to Tools, Mail, Accounts, Properties, Advanced, check "Leave a copy of messages on server" check box. If I understand what you want out of your original posts, that will do it. Won't synch sent messages I don't believe or calendar etc... but you inbox will be the same on both machines.

 

[manly]

Arguably, Nothinman's suggestion is the best solution to the problem.

 

[WarmAndSCSI]

You don't need E2k at home unless you're already running a Win2k Server with NTDS/AD enabled.

Don't mess with Win2k+E2k unless you've had experience with it; the setup will give you many headaches if you don't know what you're doing.

But if you want to run the eval of E2k for a while and get to know it that'd be a GREAT project for ya. Probably give you lots of experience for a future job maybe and working with the wonderful world of MS software.

 

[GnatGoSplat]

ktwebb, good suggestion and would work perfectly on broadband. Might be a little slow on dial-up though.

Nothinman, what software is required to run an IMAP server and fetchmail? That sounds interesting. How about a local POP3 server that downloads mail from my email account, and then I can set up my clients the way ktwebb suggested? That way there should be no performance hit.

I had thought about keeping my outlook.pst file on a central server and accessing the same file from both machines, but that gets into all kinds of sharing violations (already tried it). Oh well, it would have been nice to be able to keep all my contacts and calendar entries in sync too.

It might be good for my career to play with E2k, but I don't want to have to pay for a domain to do this!

 

[Nothinman]

Nothinman, what software is required to run an IMAP server and fetchmail? That sounds interesting. How about a local POP3 server that downloads mail from my email account, and then I can set up my clients the way ktwebb suggested? That way there should be no performance hit.

I personally use Linux, uw-imapd, sendmail, fetchmail, procmail, apache and imp for automatic downloading and sorting of mail with IMAP and web (ala yahoo) access. IMAP keeps the mail on the server as one of it's main features, there's no reason to use POP3.

It's a bit of work to get setup, especially if you have no Linux experience, but it works really well and needs very little horse power. My setup is currently running on a Sun Ultra1 167Mhz 128M box. And it's less fragile and less work than AD + E2K =)

 

[GnatGoSplat]

Very little horsepower eh?
I happen to have an old 486-25 sitting around collecting dust. Think it could be an IMAP server? I know it can run Linux!!!
Well, I may look for a Windows solution, but if for some strange reason that old 486 could actually work as a pretty good IMAP server, I might give it a shot.

 

[Nothinman]

Very little horsepower eh?
I happen to have an old 486-25 sitting around collecting dust. Think it could be an IMAP server? I know it can run Linux!!!

Yeah, it would work, although if you have a lot of mail you might not like the speed of the web access. I can't figure it out (not that I've looked real hard) but IMP (the web access stuff I'm using) is noticably slower for reading the email from the same mail box (one that has ~60,000 messages and is over 150M) than say with a 'normal' client like Mozilla or Evolution.

Well, I may look for a Windows solution, but if for some strange reason that old 486 could actually work as a pretty good IMAP server, I might give it a shot.

It would be a good learning experience, and I'm sure it would be simpler and more stable than AD + E2K. =)

 

[dayg]

Hmmm, funny I was thinking of doing that at home as a little project. Anyone done it here? I have cable connection at home with a linksys router, I imagine there are many ports that needs to be forwared (POP, SMTP). Are there any others?

 

[Nothinman]

Hmmm, funny I was thinking of doing that at home as a little project. Anyone done it here? I have cable connection at home with a linksys router, I imagine there are many ports that needs to be forwared (POP, SMTP). Are there any others?

Depends on how you want to set it up. I have 3 ports forwarded to my server (I have a Linux box doing NAT but that shouldn't matter):

25: for smtp (because I accept mail for my own domain, if you're only fetching your ISPs mail you don't need this)
80: for apache, I run imp which is a php IMAP client (if you don't want to run a web client you won't need this either)
993: imap over ssl so I can read my mail remotely without the web client because it's slower than a 'normal' client.

 

[FUBAR]

I have almost exactly the same situation set up at home, just without procmail and behind a netgear instead. I personally don't use IMAP over SSL, yet. Mine is running on a k6-2 300, and used to be on a p166, but without the webmail so it's not an exact comparison. In my case then I need ports 25 for mail, 80 for apache, and 143 if I want IMAP from outside. It's pretty easy to set up with a newer distro, whereas I compiled php myself which was a pain with all the dependancies.

You should probably look at one of the local pc shops and see if you can buy an old box for $50 or somethin. I was seeing in a store this weekend you could get p200 boxes for $30. Old corporate Compaq's but I bet they would work well. That would at least be better than your 486... that may have some (speed) issues running that combo.

Wow nothin.. an ultra 1 huh... you're just a glutton for punishment eh?

 

[Nothinman]

Wow nothin.. an ultra 1 huh... you're just a glutton for punishment eh?

It's actually a nice box, only down sides are the hard drive is a little slow and SBus cards are expensive.

 

[FUBAR]

Actually I was goin for just the general linux on sparc... the u2 I tried on here at work was ... shall we say interesting? But then again I didn't get to play for long before the man deemed that all non-essential equipment must be shelved. Ah well, I did get to post the mozilla 1.0 build before they took it away from me.

I always thought that would be kinda fun to mess with tho, maybe a good firewall/webserver or sumpfin. I imagine it would work well if you had enough time to play and compile everything... not many sparc builds out there.

 

[Nothinman]

Actually I was goin for just the general linux on sparc... the u2 I tried on here at work was ... shall we say interesting?

The only real problem I had was booting the install because it doesn't have a cdrom or floppy, so I setup rarp and tftp, then netbooted it and did a Debian netinstall.

I imagine it would work well if you had enough time to play and compile everything... not many sparc builds out there.

Screw that, Debian has just about everything packaged already, I havn't compiled a single thing on it =)

 

[FUBAR]

I stand corrected... and let me state, for the record then, that SuSE sucks in light of current evidence and in the current context.

Perhaps if I can get the man to give me one of these boxes back I'll have to play again :-D

 

[Nothinman]

I think out of the 10,000+ packages currently in Debian sid, like ~8,000 have Sparc compiled packages. I had WindowMaker, gimp, xmms and other things on it before with the only problem being the 256 color framebuffer in it, now it's a server with no keyboard or mouse.

I think Alpha has slightly better Debian support, probably because they're more PC-like with PCI busses and IDE controllers. I have a PWS 600au I use as a secondary workstation right now, it's really nice.