E-mail options

[Jono]

I've been asked to see what's possible about setting up a small company with some kind of e-mail system.

It appears at the moment they have one e-mail address, which is on a @btinternet.com hosted from someone's home ISP package or something like that.

There is a network of sorts in the building, but I'm yet to find out if there's a dedicated server, or if it's just a router providing internet access. I'm pretty sure the latter is the case, because 192.168.1.1 gives me a router-looking logon dialog.

Anyway, assuming there's no dedicated server, nor exchange server. Also assume everyone in the company (about 10 people) want their own e-mail address. And one person there wants to receive all e-mail sent to anyone else...Legal stuff.

What are the options? Set up a main server with ms exchange running on it, use some webhosting and webmail provided by said hosting, or get some external (and expensive?) hosted exchange service... anyone had any experience of doing this?

The people here are the most IT-illiterate I've ever met, but wondering what are my options here. e-mail needs to be secure, and it looks like whoever initially set up the network has long gone.

Cheers

 

[csmager]

Something like Small Business Server sounds ideal. Runs Exchange & lots of other useful stuff at a pretty decent price.

 

[smids]

Might want to check out what sort of net lines you can get to that place. SDSL or something might be useful, especially if you are hosting the server from the building. Leased lines etc. It might be cheaper to get some professional external hosting (might cost about £1000 for a nice dedicated p/a) as SDSL isn't cheap (are they still limited to 2MBit each way?). Hosting the server gives a lot of control but for ease of use, externals may be the way to go, especially as upload speeds on a normal office package is likely to be 1MBit max.

Then again, it's a small company so as long as it will only be used for email, an Office Max or LLU type ISP might be just fine, coupled with your own server as suggested above.