Mail server for Windows

[scaryjim]

Not sure if this should really be a Windows or Linux thread tbh, but....

The background: When I first went self employed many years ago I was doing quite a bit of web design and services, so I shelled out for VPS and have spent several happy years running a Linux VPS. When the self-employed work dried up and I went back to full time, I had a couple of critical sets of email service and some website still hosted on the server, that I've been gradually trying to move off. I've pretty much got the last of other people's stuff off there now, so I want to get rid of the VPS (far too expensive to justify) and run the services myself (hurrah for fttc and static IP addresses ).

I'm about to knock myself up a web server, and having been a .NET chappy for the last 4 years I'm going for Windows Web Server (it helps that I've got access to it dirt cheap ). Now, I'm a Yorkshireman, so I'm not going to shell out on Exchange server! I've been mulling over several alternative options in terms of handling email. I'd love some advice from you knowledgeable hexus types

1) Install suitable mail handling software on my Windows box, including imap/pop3 servers. Having run mail services on a VPS before all the mail services were already set up and running, so all I had to worry about was setting up accounts. Ideally I'd like something free, with decent graphical tools for all the main management tasks.

2) Set up a second server running linux to handle mail services. Tempting as it gives me the opportunity to claim both linux and Windows admin experience if I ever go back into server admin professionally (but Gods I hope not ), but will mean running two servers at home with the additional power draw that implies. But I can just download a suitable linux distro and fire it up, and I'm pretty comfortable with that.

3) Stop faffing around stick email through Google Apps for Domains. This may be the easiest option (I've not played with apps for domains yet), and none of the domains I run will need more than a few users, so it's suitable for the free version. On the other hand, it means all the emails will go through Google's hands, and be subject to whatever nefarious purposes they have. I'm not sure I'm too bothered about that, really, but not having the experience of Apps for Domains leaves me a bit wary of putting potentially mission-critical email through it.

So, opinions? Better 1), 2) or 3)? Or am I missing a really obvious option I've not covered?

[blueball]

I have run Ability Mail Server for many years, gives me pop3, imap, webmail even creates a certificate for you so you can run on https if you want. Its not free but pretty cheap and you can run it as a service on windows. You can control it through a GUI on the server or through web pages remotely. Can link it to your AV as well and you can setup your own spam filtering rules very easily.

Very very happy with it.

[Raz316]

I've used hmailserver before which is free and did exactly what I needed - http://www.hmailserver.com/

Edit: For what it's worth, I use Google Apps for email on my own domain. It's simple to set up and gmail is the best webmail system I've used

[AlexGTR]

At my current job we use MDaemon, its a lot cheaper than exchange and may be worth a look?

[b0redom]

IMO, not worth running your own mailserver any more. I'd go with Google hosted, and I know a couple of people who are far more capable than me who are also doing the same.

[shaithis]

Visualise it all, then you can mix and match.

[gss03]

Office 365 - Full Hosted Exchange for a few quid a month - If you are a .net developer are you also an MS registered partner?
Sign up to their cloud partner accelerator and yet a years Office 365 (for 250 seats) for nowt!
You also get some free Azure time with this at the same time - might be useful for .Net app development......

(other hosted exchange providers are available....)

[scaryjim]

I have run Ability Mail Server for many years, gives me pop3, imap, webmail even creates a certificate for you so you can run on https if you want. Its not free but pretty cheap and you can run it as a service on windows.

At my current job we use MDaemon, its a lot cheaper than exchange and may be worth a look?

Office 365 - Full Hosted Exchange for a few quid a month

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Those are all interesting, but I'd much rather avoid paying anything since the whole point is to ditch monthly expenditure on the VPS! After all, I can pick up Linux free to run my own server, or use Google if I want a hosted solution.

I've used hmailserver before which is free and did exactly what I needed - http://www.hmailserver.com/

Ah, I knew I'd seen one somewhere I liked the look of - that's one I've looked at before a couple of years ago. Nice to have a personal experience of it, will definitely download it and have a play.

Edit: For what it's worth, I use Google Apps for email on my own domain. It's simple to set up and gmail is the best webmail system I've used

IMO, not worth running your own mailserver any more. I'd go with Google hosted, and I know a couple of people who are far more capable than me who are also doing the same.

I was starting to come to the conclusion that Google would be the easiest option, although hMailServer may well suffice. Of course, I could always mix and match the two solutions - run some domains off hMailSever and some on Google... more thought needed, obviously! (this thread was suppose to answer questions, not raise them! )

If you are a .net developer are you also an MS registered partner?

Well, a) I was a .NET developer; important distinction and b) don't see why I'd be a partner anyway? Unless I'm missing out on something obvious, but I was just web developer pleb in a research unit. Now, I may have registered some years ago for server-type stuff when I was being proper self-employed, but I really can't remember. Perhaps I should look into it all again (although now I'm doing neither development nor sysadmin, I'm not sure I can be fussed tbh ).

[tweakservers]

try SmarterMail as well as the free edition comes with 10 users enterprise features.

[peterb]

I run postfix (with sasl) to provide SMTP services, and dovecot to privide POP and IMAP mailbox services.

It all sits on a Fedora based linux box. I use a mini ITX mobo with a 1.2 GHz processor and the whole thing draws 40 watts, and that is with two 2.5" drives in a RAID 1 array.. Using an SSD would lower that, although I'm not sure I'd want to use an SSD on a server.

Alternatively you could run on a virtual machine on your windows server.

[scaryjim]

try SmarterMail as well as the free edition comes with 10 users enterprise features.

Hmmm, that looks really good, and I certainly wouldn't need more than 10 users for my initial purposes. Cheers

I run postfix (with sasl) to provide SMTP services, and dovecot to privide POP and IMAP mailbox services.

It all sits on a Fedora based linux box. I use a mini ITX mobo with a 1.2 GHz processor and the whole thing draws 40 watts, and that is with two 2.5" drives in a RAID 1 array.. Using an SSD would lower that, although I'm not sure I'd want to use an SSD on a server.

Alternatively you could run on a virtual machine on your windows server.

Cheers Pete, any opinion on whether it's better to run two servers or run on a virtual machine? I'm kind of tempted to keep half a hand in with some flavour of linux in case I go back to development or server admin full time in the future, but there's also the fact that I'd be running it all in my spare time (which is minimal!) so I could do with something that's nice and easy to adminster.


Good contributions from everyone so far though, this is why we love Hexus

[oldboy47]

Not used it for a few years but I believe Pegasus Mail & Mercury might possibly meet your needs.

[shaithis]

The thing with virualising is that you can still mix and match windows and linux...also if you have a catastrophic hardware failure, you can replace the hardware in the host, reinstall and then bring your VMs back up without any changes. Makes admin and maintenance a complete and utter breeze.

Also, for the services you are listing, they are low resource.....ideal for putting on the same physical hardware and saves money to boot.

[peterb]

I run mine on a low-end machine (and apart from mail, it is a web and fileserver too. But as shaithis says, it isn't resource intensive (unless you want to store a lot of messages in an imap folder - when you will need disk space) so try it on a virtual machine. You can easily transfer the config files to a real dedicated machine at a later date.