Fresh install

[ace2109]

Hi Guys,
I have just done a fresh install of Server 2008 with exchange, this is only the demo version as we are deciding weather or not to use it in our enviornment.

We are only looking to use exchange as we do not need a domain controller at the minute, i understand that we will have to manually manage users etc but we dont change passwords regularly due to the size of our business.

So as i said i have just installed this but i am a complete newbie to this and i need to know how to connect excahnge to my online mailserver to allow it to download my mail?

Not sure exactly how to do this and i was hoping you guys can help me out

 

[ace2109]

Hi thanks for all the response i really do appreciate it.

I am currently running SBS 2008 with excahnge 2007 built in.

Are mail service is currently through streamline.net, are current setup is running hmailserver that downloads all the mail directly and then out to the clients machines. We dont have to use POP3 we can use IMAP if needed.

Simply put i just though exchange downloaded the mail from the streamline server, stored it and let users have access to it.

This is what i am after with exchange but if you guys can recommend anything different then please please feel free to offer advice.

As for AD we dont currently have this setup within our current network but we could deploy it if needed. The nature of our business and the people who use our systems doesnt really require it.

What we really want is a good reliable mail server that will work well with iPhones, macs and PC's.

We currently have around 20 email addresses which im guessing means, if we decide to go down the exchange route, we will need 20+ licenses?

really appreciate all your help on this guys.

 

[ace2109]

SBS comes with 75 licenses for exchange/access so thats not an issue.

The best way is to setup exchange at your business on a static IP and let it do everything.

Do your users access email via outlook?

Yea we all use outlook and iphones

 

[ace2109]

The only thing about going down the active directory root is we are currently looking at upgrading 95% of our machines to mac?

We can deploy AD if necessary, but i am not 100% sure on how to do this im sure there is a lot of guides out and about to make it easier to do.

Can you guys recommend any, if you think its the best route to go down then we will give it a go.

 

[ace2109]

looks like its down the AD route then guys.

Can you recommend any good online guides that could talk me through the process?

I think i will setup a good test rig first though as i have never done this before, just gonna use a simple PC for the server, a few old desktops as clients and then a laptop to see how that goes with users being off site a lot of the time.

 

[ace2109]

I don't know of many step by step guides for SBS. I would say just to the basic install and google/ask quesions as you go along. As it's a test environment you'll break some things, but that's the best way to learn. What kind of time frame are we looking at for the live project?

We are having some issues with are current mail server as it keeps disconnecting but it is fine the majority of the time. I would like to have it deployed and running with 2 months max, I was thinking of using the first month for testing purposes and the second month for actually deploying it.

Have you any recommendations before i start?

I will start by doing a fresh install of SBS and windows XP on a few machines