Some help deciding which office networking/server solution to go for

[naimcohen]

Hi all

I have a friend who owns a small business. He has 3 computers in his office, 2 are new i5 dell PC's and one is an old PC which is getting along.

Both new PC's are running windows 8 with office 2010

There are 5 email accounts which are all hosted by Gmail (custom domain) and are set up as IMAP and viewed in outlook.

One is the boss's PC which has all the email accounts on, one is an employee who has 2 of the email accounts on (the 2 most used ones) and the slower one is used a few times a week by the accountant.

The problem is that the emails are painfully slow. There is currently around 4000 emails in the main 'info@ account'. When looking through emails it seems like outlook is always re-downloading the message when you click it and even though they are on fibre internet it still takes a few seconds to load, which you can imagine when searching through emails does get very annoying.

So, is there a way to get outlook to keep a local copy of everything to stop this happening?
He wants to stay on IMAP so all the emails are still synchronised on the PC's and his smartphone.

If not then what is a good solution? I have come up with either:

1. Getting their own server in place and storing all emails locally. The added benefit here is they can use the server to back-up to and as a fileserver for the accounting program.

2. Move over to Microsoft exchange and have that hosted externally with someone like rack space or whoever

3. Office 365. I don't know too much about this but it does pop up when searching for a solution.

What is the best way to do this? Also, if going with option 1 could you specify what kind of server would be needed and whether it be server 2010/2013 or small business edition or something else..

Thank a lot!

 

[Enigma102083]

Office 365 is a very good inexpensive solution for what you need. Think of it as basically hosted Exchange with some extra optional features, as well as an option for subscription based Office 2013 Pro.

 

[gsaldivar]

It sounds like your issue is local: either Outlook or LAN is misconfigured, you have a problem with the computer itself, or there is a bandwidth issue. Google's servers are extremely fast and capable of handling a large number of users, so the problem is not likely to be on their side.

There are 5 email accounts which are all hosted by Gmail (custom domain) and are set up as IMAP and viewed in outlook.

I assume this is a Google Apps setup, in which case I hope you are using Google Apps Sync for Outlook instead of manually configuring your Outlook client. If that's not the case, I would strongly recommend using the Sync tool that they provide:

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync

If you are already using this, try increasing the cache size so that more emails are retained on the local computer. Next, you might want to post more info about your network (firewall make & model) so that people here can see if there are any known issues. It's possible, but not likely, that it is interfering with the data being exchanged with Google's servers:

https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/2622308?hl=en&ref_topic=2535852

Next time you experience the slow email problem, run a speed test and post the results as well as the expected result (the rated speed that's on your internet bill). A large gap between the two numbers may indicate a bandwidth issue and we can go from there.

Good luck.

 

[Enigma102083]

Also look at the AutoArchive in Outlook, you should be able to configure it to move older emails into a local archive folder.

 

[naimcohen]

Right, Thanks for the suggestions!

I have upgraded the email account and now using Google app sync. Seems to have fixed the problem! But...and here's the issue..

It seems like you can only have one email account per outlook account. So if I wanted to check a differenr email account I would have to close outlook and then open it again...which isn't really ideal or even practical to do...

So any ideas on this issue? I thought about adding the other accounts as IMAP but then that defeats the purpose of app sync!

Thanks!

 

[kevnich2]

Ideally - you only use outlook to check one email account. Each employee gets a custom email address and then the generic emails are setup as aliases to that account. For example, you want an info@domain.com, support@domain.com and customerservice@domain.com Your a small business so John Doe handles both info & Support issues. You setup one mailbox for John Doe and info, support as aliases which go to his mailbox. Then you can setup different identitities so that if someone emails info@domain.com and John replies back, it will come from info@domain.com instead of johndoe@domain.com

Hope this makes sense? Again this isn't a rule or anything but in the many businesses I've worked with, it's made the most sense so far when it comes to email setups.

One other question - why doesn't the business use the webmail system instead of outlook?? Then you can use the calendar, company contact list, etc etc

 

[gsaldivar]

It seems like you can only have one email account per outlook account. So if I wanted to check a differenr email account I would have to close outlook and then open it again...which isn't really ideal or even practical to do

Try this on each of the additional accounts:

https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/170961
https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/170962?hl=en&ref_topic=2784906

 

[gsaldivar]

why doesn't the business use the webmail system instead of outlook?? Then you can use the calendar, company contact list, etc etc

You also can do all this within Outlook using Google Apps Sync. Outlook is a much more productive front end for companies compared to webmail, but with Google as the host you use either method as desired.

 

[kevnich2]

You also can do all this within Outlook using Google Apps Sync. Outlook is a much more productive front end for companies compared to webmail, but with Google as the host you use either method as desired.

Sorry but I think this is more subjective. I've used both outlook and the gmail interface and I'd take the web interface hands over outlook. Most companies I've worked with have been trying to switch off of outlook as employees become more mobile and not always at one specific computer.

 

[gsaldivar]

Sorry but I think this is more subjective. I've used both outlook and the gmail interface and I'd take the web interface hands over outlook. Most companies I've worked with have been trying to switch off of outlook as employees become more mobile and not always at one specific computer.

Your preference for a web interface is fine, but it ultimately depends how the organization wants their employees to work. In my experience, Outlook remains the standard front end for the majority of businesses, regardless of whether users are desk-bound or mobile.

It is certainly possible to configure Outlook where a user must depend on a single computer for email. However, that is not the configuration that is being discussed here.

With Google hosting the back end, Outlook acts as just an interface. It does not require that users stick to one specific computer. A single user may use any number of desktop computers running Outlook, in addition to laptops, web interface and mobile phones. In this configuration, all devices are configured with the same Google account. Since changes are synced back to Google, all devices are updated with the latest information when they ping the server:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQcwW9hNRMk

 

[drebo]

Hosted Exchange is vastly superior to Google Apps in every way.

 

[TechVill]

With Google hosting the back end, Outlook acts as just an interface. It does not require that users stick to one specific computer. A single user may use any number of desktop computers running Outlook, in addition to laptops, web interface and mobile phones. In this configuration, all devices are configured with the same Google account. Since changes are synced back to Google, all devices are updated with the latest information when they ping the server:

The fact that you can open your Outlook in various devices using the same Google Account is what I really like about Outlook. It is very convenient to use.

 

[naimcohen]

Hi guys

Well thanks for all the advice! With google I have managed to set up the other accounts as delegate accounts and with only a few hiccups its more or less ok! One account is having issues joining and also when you send an email from the delegate accounts it is saved in the main (info) account sent items and you can't add in a name for the from part, it just has the email address. But this can be changed for the main account. A little more fettling and I'm sure it can be done but I had enough of it for one night, and besides its working!

Another question though...Money wise the cost is $5 per account per month, so at 5 accounts it is $300 a year. Say you got your own server and hosted Microsoft exchange on it, and that the life of a server is 6-8 years or so, surely it works out to get your own server with exchange installed?

If that is a viable option could you suggest which of Microsoft's server OS is best to go for as I have heard that the new small business server OS doesn't have the functionality for exchange...or something like that.

Thanks again!!

 

[gsaldivar]

Say you got your own server and hosted Microsoft exchange on it, and that the life of a server is 6-8 years or so, surely it works out to get your own server with exchange installed?

Google is $5/month/email if you are monthly, or $50/year for annual ($4.17/month). So for 5 users that's $250 a year instead of $300, which is very competitive for hosted service. If you are comparing this cost to doing it on your own, the biggest part of your equation will be labor - not equipment. The only way this makes sense to do on your own, is if the person installing and maintaining your server is working for free, or if you are spreading that cost over a large number of users.

 

[naimcohen]

Oh I didn't realise it was cheaper if paid annually, thanks for that!

Well the reason I mention a server is that he is probably going to need one for another piece of software which is to be used, so in this case it may be worth it.

What hardware and server OS would you recommend which would be capable for the usual server roles and exchange? Thanks

 

[JasonCoder]

Office 365 is a very good inexpensive solution for what you need. Think of it as basically hosted Exchange with some extra optional features, as well as an option for subscription based Office 2013 Pro.

Don't forget the government back doors thrown in absolutely free. Sorry, couldn't resist

 

[Enigma102083]

Oh I didn't realise it was cheaper if paid annually, thanks for that!

Well the reason I mention a server is that he is probably going to need one for another piece of software which is to be used, so in this case it may be worth it.

What hardware and server OS would you recommend which would be capable for the usual server roles and exchange? Thanks

If there aren't that many users, and you don't need anything super fancy, a hosted VPS might be a better idea.