exchange server for home POP3 email account?

[Moby-Dick]

They are tighenting up on who they sell the action pack to these days IIRC.

you just want to set up a single shared mailbox with local sync to each of the PC's ?

[mikerr]

They are tighenting up on who they sell the action pack to these days IIRC.

They just don't want people installing/selling it on clients networks (as used to happen a lot).

If you are in IT in any shape or form, it's still a bargian.

[Moby-Dick]

yep - its designed for internal training etc. - I have an MDSN sub so havn't had a need for it

[Splash]

I'd generally agree - setting up an Exchange server for home is overkill. It's not like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, it's like using an ICBM to crack a walnut. If you really want to run a mailserver from home I'd be looking at one of the linux how-to guides, but do you *really* want the hassle? How are you going to manage availability, backups etc etc?

The hosted Exchange or some other hosted email service to me is the way forward for you.

[chinny]

It's still pricey as a way to collect email and view at it on a few machines. I'd still go for IMAP on some flavour of *Nix. Saves 200 beer tokens.

[latrosicarius]

Hi, thanks for all the replies so far. I was away for the weekend, and I come back to a bunch of new replies!

I can't use IMAP b/c simply put, I'm using my ISP's email and I don't trust my ISP. I would rather retain all the mail locally by POPing it.

Also, just for some extra info if you guys were wondering: This is for my parents. They are used to simply using outlook to send and receive mail.

The ONLY tricky part is that I have a few PCs around the house. I want them to be able to use any one of them to open Outlook and work with email.

Right now, each PC is set up to all read the same PST on a network drive (I know: bad, but it's the only way, and that's why I'm asking about exchange or other options).

They have been doing this fine for years, but when Outlook opens the PST file on one computer, it is inaccessible on the other computers until they close Outlook on the first. As it is, they already have trouble sometimes remembering to close it, but now with the new Outlook 2007 sometimes it doesn't ever close all the way and it stays open as a process in Task Manager. I cannot expect them to close it manually from Task Manager. This is just the straw on the camel's back that makes me want to upgrade to a real solution for allowing them to use their SAME POP3 email, from multiple locations.

[Funkstar]

Hosted Exchange account

http://www.simplyms.com

This is by far the easiest solution to the problem.

[aidanjt]

fetchmail (or some other MRA) to grab mail from your ISP, imapd to let everyone access the shared mailbox.

Easy peasy.

[peterb]

If you have a central POP mailbox, then everytime one of the computers with outlook downloads mail, it will either delete it from the server, or if you set it to leave it on the server, it will download it every time you open outlook until it is deleted. This really is a case of using POP to download it from the ISP, and then distribute it locally via IMAP... unless I have totally misunderstood what you are trying to do.

[Splash]

It's still pricey as a way to collect email and view at it on a few machines. I'd still go for IMAP on some flavour of *Nix. Saves 200 beer tokens.

The cost argument is all well and good until you factor in the initial cost of the hardware, electricity to run the hardware, maintaining availability of the MX (what would you do if your ADSL line went down for any period of time - are you planning a backup MX somewhere? If so... does this cost you more?), backups, making sure you don't end up being used as a spam relay....


Just a thought - if you own a domain for this (and if you don't that's another cost to factor in regardless) then why not take a look at Google Apps? I got 500 mailboxes and it costs me nothing. It plays nicely with Outlook via IMAP or POP3. Sure, there's the concern that your email is being read by a bot to target ads at you if you use the web interface (handy if you go on hols and you need to check your email from an internet cafe), but to be honest if you send anything in unencrypted email you shouldn't be expecting privacy anyways.

[smargh]

Another option is Gmail via IMAP with your preferred email client. For the "locally stored mail" aspect stated the OP, just sync them to a local data store as your backup method.

Another option is hMailServer: http://www.hmailserver.com/ - which is free and was quite stable last time I tried it. As was mentioned, you'll still need a backup MX though.

[CaptainCrash]

I can't use IMAP b/c simply put, I'm using my ISP's email and I don't trust my ISP. I would rather retain all the mail locally by POPing it.

If you simply want a copy of your IMAP folders in a local PST file for backup purposes, doesn't Outlook allow you to do this?

Tools > Options > Mail Setup > Send/Receive > [select group containing IMAP account] > Edit > [select IMAP account] > Account Options > Receive mail items > Download complete items including attachments for subscribed folders