Hello folks,

My institution would like to provide each staff member with an email account. The staff member should be able to check his/her email both via webmail and POP3. I have been tasked with choosing a suitable mail server to use, but i'm currently in a dilemma. Here's the a list of mail servers i've come accross so far:

MailEnable
Pegasus Mail Server
ArGoSoft Mail Server
MDaemon Mail Server
w3 JMail Mail Server
CommuniGate Mail Server
ISMail Mail Server
Sun Java System Messaging Server

Does anyone have any recommendations on which mail server to use? This is for a Windows environment. Your recommendation doesn't have to be in the list above. I personally have some inclinations already but would like to get feedback and reviews from the community.

Just FYI, this isn't a webhosting related institution. Well, it doesn't provide webhosting solutions to the general public at least. :)

Merak has an integrated webmail and handles it's own SMTP/POP3 server. You should give it a try.

Yeap I seconded u, Merak is good, but u may also consider Imail, just that I find the pricing a little on the high side. Mailenable Professional also can handle this quite well

Thank you for the suggestions. Anyone else? I would appreciate comments also on the list of products i mentioned above. :)

From your list I would choose Pegasus or Argosoft, but I guess you should first try XMail as it includes SMTP and POP3 and is extremely customizable (and by the way, it's FREE).

http://www.xmailserver.org

XMail is a rather good solution, and as Fabio said, extremely customizable.

Has anyone tried SmarterMail? Any comments? ( http://www.smartertools.com )

I can highly recommend mailenable professional edition. The cost is very reasonable, the webmail interface is fairly smooth (and skinnable if you fancy it), the server is straightforward to configure and seems to perform well.

SmarterMail has nice server side rules though :)

Kris

Originally posted by zsindhu
XMail is a rather good solution, and as Fabio said, extremely customizable.

Has anyone tried SmarterMail? Any comments? ( http://www.smartertools.com )

Trying smarter mail now on a new server, I do not have enough exprerinece with it to say for sure but so far it i looking good. Nice easy admin panel for setting it up and setting rules.

Mai enable pro is about the best for the price of the paid servers..
Xmail is good, heck for free it is great but you will want to make sure you download a couple of add on tools for admining it like queue manager and Xmail admin. The only thing I have not been able to find is an easy virus scanner patch for the windows version, there are a few for the linux version so I know one is out there.

Imail is the best

Techark,

I know what you mean about XMail :)

We have found that MailEnable can be a pain with very high traffic. Their 'BadMail' logic is something I personally fail to understand.

We are in the process of exploring SmarterMail too, will let you guys know how it goes :)

I would recommend MDaemon Mail Server
i have been using this for the past 5 years and
it has Webmail & POP3 support


S. Rathana Prasad

for what it is worth I have put mail enable on hundreds of servers, it seems that the free version is a bit limited , but what would you expect for FREE. MY vote is in for mailenable

No one uses Exchange Server?

I would recommend MailEnable too. I've worked with IMail too, but like MailEnable Pro better (and it's alot cheaper).

regards,
Steen

Thank you. Does anyone have any experience with Microsoft Exchange?

Microsoft Exchange works great for LAN/Intranet servers, however it doesn't for Internet-accessible, multiple-domain-hosting, non-trusted-user-access servers.

Exchange is horribly expensive - you'd probably have to charge as much for each exchange user as you are for the hosting account.

Smartermail looks good, not used it myself but know a few hosts that have and it seems to get very good feadback.

We have used MailMax which was good but we now use Merak and I would highly recommend it.

Regards

A big vote for Stalker CommuniGate.

The program is rock solid and very well designed. My mailserver runs until I need to apply a patch. I run mine off of Linux, but a few months back, I had the motherboard VRM's die and was gonna have to wait 4 hrs for a new one from Dell. I didn't have another Linux box to use in the meantime, but with CommuniGate, you can install the Win32 EXE and restore the ComminGate base directory and bammmm, your back up and running. I was able to more the server temporarily to a windows box and keep my customers happy.

That not only pertains to linux, CommuniGate can be easily transported between over many OS's. It integrates easily with ClamAV freshclam, and Spamassasin.

I'm usually not one to sing the praises of software, but in this case, Stalker deserves it.

According to Serverwatch, Merak is the best mail system for windows.

http://www.serverwatch.com/stypes/servers/index.php/16181

There're many reviews on many mail systems there.

I recommend using MailEnable. We have worked alot with MailEnable and it runs very nice. MailEnable pro comes with WebMail as well.

i recommend it too, but its antispam is not good.

don't know why the enterprise version takes too long to come out.

i recommend MailEnable too. Exchange might be overkill if you don't use all the features.
Originally posted by amzhost
don't know why the enterprise version takes too long to come out. FWIW support just posted a message that says they are releasing ME Enterprise beta later this week...

I run an Exchange 2003 ASP.


xiotek.com

PM me any questions you might have about exchange

MDaemon Mail Server is the best for windows system

Seems everyone has his favorite, for me current Merak but I feel if mailenable continues to improve as what it has been doing , it will be a fantastic product! Still waiting for its Enterprise version.

use hMailServer from www.hmailserver.com.. Quick tutorial on how to install a free powerful open source server at www.concept4.ca/diy

I like mailenable, but I have recently run across:
http://www.youngzsoft.net/cmailserver/index.html

It looks good as well, but I have not used it personally.

I have been playing with MailEnable for a little while now and like it pretty well. I have also looked at Smarter Mail because it looks like you dont have to pay for antivirus on a per user basis and they get their definitions from Trend.

I am looking to provide an additional service to people who dont want all the features of my exchange service but want god antivirus and spam filtering.

I was also considering Merak, because it looks like it would scale well and might be better for a long term strategy.

XioTEK Exchange Hosting
http://www.xiotek.com

I have used Merak, but did not take their internal anti virus and spam, instead using external which is much cheaper and Merak supports RBL , filters etc which is very easy to configure. Mailenable is my target, waiting for their Enterprise edition. I like their features and ease of usage

We've used MDaemon for 6 years now and it's phenomenal.

Two of my network consulting customers use Exchange instead / in addition to MDaemon because of a personal preference. Having installed and maintained it for these customers, I would agree with SEATi about Exchange -- it's great for an internal mail server on a trusted LAN or secure WAN.

I'd have a big problem with using Exchange on the open internet without a real good knowlege of it, because you'll need to take some special steps for security.

By comparison MDaemon's security features are easy to understand and quite comprehensive. MDaemon's developer, ALT-N, does a phenomenal job of inventing solutions to the latest mail-related security issues, and implementing them in their new releases.

My favorite part about MDaemon lately has been the security bullitens they (ALT-N) release to registered MDaemon owners, recommending certain setting changes, etc. to protect from some new intrusion / DOS attack method.

I can highly recommend MailEnable Pro - for the money, it's an excellent product. You can easily add just about any 3rd party virus software that supports command line scanning to enable virus scanning support of emails, and it comes with a nice web interface. It seems to be very stable for us, and it also easy to configure and use. I use both the free (standard) and paid (pro) versions on different servers and am very happy with it.

yes and wait for enterprise version will soon be released.

I use Imail

To me Mailenable is a promising choice, and is getting better by the day, their new releases keep clearing the bugs. Waiting for their Enterprise version, once it is up and stable. I am expected to change my email servers to Mailenable