moving mail server from online to local hosting.

RoyalMarine

hi guys, need some help with a mail server if anyone has some information!

currently, our mail is handled by a company in the uk.

we have 9 e-mail addresses with them.

We want to move away from the hosting company, and host everything ourselves.

What will we need to do this?

at the moment, i have a server running windows server 2003 for vpn file sharing for company files, documents etc.

All laptop's have windows xp pro.

I also have another spare computer and another licence for server 2003 available.

I have a copy of exchange 2003 available.

And we have a dedicated 30mb fibre ntl business line for the company.

my goal is...

email comes to any of the mail addresses, and arrives at the server. its stored here.
when a client turns on their laptop, goes to outlook, and sync's with the server, they get their e-mail.
I also want the server to forward a copy of the e-mail to their gmail accounts which they access on their iphones while travelling.
I want to keep the gmail accounts in the loop, as they use that account for their own reasons too, so i dont want to setup their iphones directly to the server.

so, where do i go from here? any help would be great!

justsomebloke

1)Well are you looking to keep it at 1 server or not. What is the load on the current server like and how much free space is there. Looking forward 2 years how do you think the current server will be holding up?

2) have you looked at getting Google to host your Mail instead of a local store and just using Outlook as a gmail client?

3) How is your AntiVirus and Spam going to be dealt with.

aidan_walsh

I think this would be best suited in Servers & Systems.

gibo_ie

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

hi guys, need some help with a mail server if anyone has some information!

currently, our mail is handled by a company in the uk.

we have 9 e-mail addresses with them.

We want to move away from the hosting company, and host everything ourselves.

What will we need to do this?

at the moment, i have a server running windows server 2003 for vpn file sharing for company files, documents etc.

All laptop's have windows xp pro.

I also have another spare computer and another licence for server 2003 available.

I have a copy of exchange 2003 available.

And we have a dedicated 30mb fibre ntl business line for the company.

my goal is...

email comes to any of the mail addresses, and arrives at the server. its stored here.
when a client turns on their laptop, goes to outlook, and sync's with the server, they get their e-mail.
I also want the server to forward a copy of the e-mail to their gmail accounts which they access on their iphones while travelling.
I want to keep the gmail accounts in the loop, as they use that account for their own reasons too, so i dont want to setup their iphones directly to the server.

so, where do i go from here? any help would be great!

Hi,
This is quite a standard setup in the industry. A point to note is that Exchange 2003 has gone into extended support and will be end of life soon, see if you have a license to go to Exchange 2010 instead.
Anyway, Exchange 2003 is set up quite easily out of the box following some basic next, next style installation. Don't install it on a domain controller for security reasons.
If your mail is hosted elsewhere at the moment then the MX record (Mail exchange) (like an IP address for mail only) will be pointing to the hosted company. You need to provide a public IP address on your router/firewall and then contact your DNS hosting provider and ask them to make a MX record change at the same time the hosting company remove theirs (or before it and use a higher priority).
You will still need to scan email for viruses and spam however but having your own server will give you much more control of email. I am assuming you have an active directory set up as you will need this (windows 2000 minimum level).
As for your clients, install outlook client (free with Exchange 2003 and lower) and simply put in the server name and username in the setup wizard.
Also ensure your firewall allows port 25 in and outbound for SMTP email traffic.
You can also deliver a copy of email to individual gmail (or any other) email accounts. I would advise using push email with Exchange 2003 SP2 however as this will give you more control of email etc..

Good luck.
Hope this helps,
PM me if you need any advice.
M

RoyalMarine

Joe the Santa wrote: »

1)Well are you looking to keep it at 1 server or not. What is the load on the current server like and how much free space is there. Looking forward 2 years how do you think the current server will be holding up?

The server is brand new, fairly decent spec, and the load isn't huge as of yet, but as i mentioned, i have a second pc i could use for the mail server, and it probably would be best to keep them both seperate, as if work needs to be carried out on one, the other remains active.

Joe the Santa wrote: »

2) have you looked at getting Google to host your Mail instead of a local store and just using Outlook as a gmail client?

I have, and were trying to cut down on costs, so hosting it ourselves is our best scenario.

Joe the Santa wrote: »

3) How is your AntiVirus and Spam going to be dealt with.

Ah, i do need some suggestions on this one. any advice?

gibo_ie wrote: »

Hi,
This is quite a standard setup in the industry. A point to note is that Exchange 2003 has gone into extended support and will be end of life soon, see if you have a license to go to Exchange 2010 instead.
Anyway, Exchange 2003 is set up quite easily out of the box following some basic next, next style installation. Don't install it on a domain controller for security reasons.
If your mail is hosted elsewhere at the moment then the MX record (Mail exchange) (like an IP address for mail only) will be pointing to the hosted company. You need to provide a public IP address on your router/firewall and then contact your DNS hosting provider and ask them to make a MX record change at the same time the hosting company remove theirs (or before it and use a higher priority).
You will still need to scan email for viruses and spam however but having your own server will give you much more control of email. I am assuming you have an active directory set up as you will need this (windows 2000 minimum level).
As for your clients, install outlook client (free with Exchange 2003 and lower) and simply put in the server name and username in the setup wizard.
Also ensure your firewall allows port 25 in and outbound for SMTP email traffic.
You can also deliver a copy of email to individual gmail (or any other) email accounts. I would advise using push email with Exchange 2003 SP2 however as this will give you more control of email etc..

Good luck.
Hope this helps,
PM me if you need any advice.
M

thanks a mill for that info. We really cant afford to go and obtain a exchange 2010 licence, so were stuck with the 2003 version. We do use active directory, but as i mentioned above, im thinking of keeping the mail server completly seperate.

Would it be easier and more secure to use say a linux OS, and a free mail exchange program rather than going microsoft route?

Tomtata

Here are the steps.

Take note of your your Static IP Address (From NTL)

Install Win 2003 on the spare server, Install Exchange 2003 (Its straight forward and there are loads of docs on the net if your stuck)

Add mailboxes for existing users in Active directory.
Install Outlook on all client machines and setup the account.

Contact your domain registrar and ask them to setup an MX & SPF record for your domain.
(For the MX just mention your IP address)
(For the SPF just mention "v=spf1 mx ~all")

Contact NTL and ask them to setup a PTR record.

Now for Spam filtering I recommend you use a hosted solution e.g. Postini (If you use a hosted solution you will need to alter your MX record to post to Postini first)

There are a number of software solutions aswell e.g. MailMarshal, ORF Enterprise etc...

Best of luck, Keeping the exchange server separate is good practice, let me know if you need any more info.

fcrossen

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

Would it be easier and more secure to use say a linux OS, and a free mail exchange program rather than going microsoft route?

Frankly I would say yes. You can install a webmail client (horde, squirrel, etc) and use IMAP for your external access.

A couple of other observations/points:
- mail filtering does not take as much grunt as you would think. If you use DNS RBL lists you will eliminate about 97% of all SMTP connects, leaving much less virus and spam filtering to do.
- be careful about 3rd party spam filtering. Some of them are s**t and false positives are something you DON'T want.
- cutting down on costs is all fine (and a linux based solution will certainly help), as long as you have the mail server expertise in house.
- look at backup MX (I use zoneedit.com)
- if your existing server has a reasonable amount of grunt, virtualise a linux server on it. Don't give it too much RAM (512MB is fine), and don't run a GUI on it. (Look at webmin).
- watch out for security - you are opening ports to the big bad internet - especially if you are using webmail, IMAP, etc. Use encryption and a self-signed certificate.