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    • CommentAuthorbohara
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2008 edited
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    I am curious how others are handling small business email. I am currently running an exchange on SBS2003 in our office, but I am tired of maintaining/patching Backup DNS etc. It is critical to our business, and am wary of running postfix on a slice as an email/spam solution.

    I'd love to hear what other providers and solutions people are using successfully.

    Thanks.
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      CommentAuthorprionux
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2008
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    I personally use Google Apps for all my email needs. The basic plan is free and spam filtering is top notch. I also love the free POP/IMAP access and the fact that they do not add little text adds to the end of my outgoing messages.

    • CommentAuthorTJ
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2008 edited
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    For some business clients I've outsourced to webmail.us. They're rackspace hosted (which is great, despite of the bad press of the past few days) and I've never had a problem with them so far.
    Also, their reseller accounts are quite cheap if you have lots of users. Pricing goes down A LOT from retail, as long as you pay a monthly minimum if the services you buy don't amount to it.

    I also use Google Apps for smaller domains and personal needs. I do admit to paying for my main (/personal) Google Apps account (I guess Google isn't getting rich over my paying $50 for one premier account) but I wanted the 99.9% availability and, to be honest, not having those "non-intrusive" ads on the side for webmail makes you realize how intrusive they really were.

    Edit: DNS is outsourced through dnsmadeeasy.com - THEY POSITIVELY ROCK!
    • CommentAuthorbohara
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2008
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    Thanks for the replies, webmail.us looks like a pretty good option. Any idea how good their spam filtering is?
    • CommentAuthorrob
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2008
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    We use FuseMail and find them much more flexible than Webmail.us. At one point they used to be the same price, but due to Webmail.us being purchased by Rackspace, they've increased their prices too much. FuseMail allows you to set up unlimited domains / aliases / etc. Both are pretty good though.
    • CommentAuthorilikepi
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2008
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    I setup tuffmail for a relative’s office (three people). Along with FastMail.FM, webmail.us, and FuseMail, tuffmail seems to be among the top recommended mail providers. My research mainly consisted of sifting through discussions on http://www.emaildiscussions.com/, some googling, and comparison of the various feature sets offered. I ended up with tuffmail because it was possible to get lower pricing by sacrificing some disk space (which wasn’t needed, since the users all regularly download their mail via POP into a custom client application). During the trial period I was pleased with the provided ability to customize which anti-spam measures would be used. In fact, the help page for that functionality proved useful when I configured postfix and SpamAssassin on our slice.

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      CommentAuthormatt
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2008
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    You might look into running Zimbra on a Slice (1-2GB). Lots of people here doing it and it's becoming a popular alternative to Exchange. The setup isn't too bad and after that it's relatively hands off.
    • CommentAuthorbohara
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2008
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    Matt, I will look into it. It appears I have a lot of good options. Thanks for the input everyone.
    • CommentAuthorbohara
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2008
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    Curious if anyone has worked with scalix. It seems like the only other valid option I have run into in my searches. It looks very complete.
    • CommentAuthorLon
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2008
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    I have been running Communigate Pro by Stalker.com for the better part of 6 years.

    They used to be less expensive, but the most rock solid SMTP server I have ever seen.
    There web interface is quite amazing.

    They have a "community" version which is free and supports one domain and I think either 5 or 10 accounts.
    • CommentAuthorscott9s
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2008
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    I'll second the free www.google.com/a solution. Its worked great for me.
    • CommentAuthorTJ
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2008
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    Spam filtering on webmail.us is very decent. Not as good as Google, though. But at least I've never gotten any phone calls from my clients about email not working.

    I did try fusemail for a few days but I gave it up. The control panel and the way everything is set up just gives you that constant sense of "this is not yet done and shouldn't be live yet" and I found it totally confusing for even the simplest email setups. I mean, for G-d's sake, the reseller welcome email and PDFs contained incorrect and outdated information. I just... nothing was where it should've been in that system.

    PS: I'm biased, I admit it. Out of my low $xxx activation fee (which was non-refundable) and $99 first month's prepayment (which said nothing about being non-refundable), they refused to even refund the $99 when I terminated early as per the specially negotiated exit clause. So they kinda left me with a bad taste. Oh well, somebody got 1/4 iPhone with that.
    • CommentAuthorRossH
    • CommentTimeJan 27th 2008
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    I'm a huge zimbra fan myself but unfortunately it is hard to find decent pricing on it for smaller users. Anyway here are some of the places you should look for business email hosting:

    www.webmail.us
    www.everyone.net
    www.google.com/a/
    www.fusemail.com
    www.luxsci.com
    www.intermedia.net
    www.discoverefficiency.com
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      CommentAuthor10drill
    • CommentTimeJan 28th 2008
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    I've been using Tuffmail for my personal and business email for 2 years, and have set up and configured accounts for clients ranging from 1 user to 25 users. Highly recommended!
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      CommentAuthorsime
    • CommentTimeJan 28th 2008
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    Look no further then Tuffmail—the best email hosting you can get. Alternatively, there is Slashmail, it is not as fully-featured as Tuffmail but it’s also top-notch, and cheaper. I host my mail at Slashmail.

  1.  permalink
    There's been some mention of Zimbra and its competitors, here are comparisons between many of them and a zimbra hosting provider, showing:


    Fusemail vs. Zimbra hosting,

    Zimbra host versus Exchange host,

    Google Apps compared to hosted Zimbra

    • CommentAuthorwitten
    • CommentTimeMar 21st 2008
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    I can understand your hesitance to run Postfix on a slice yourself, but I can vouch for the fact that it really is a good option as long as you have to expertise to do it (or access to the expertise). There are many excellent anti-spam solutions as well, such as SpamAssassin (content-based filtering) and TMDA (challenge-response).
    • CommentAuthorgene
    • CommentTimeMar 22nd 2008
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    I work in R&D at a company that produces email/communication networks. Zimbra is what we use internally,
    coupled with our own anti-spam/malware software. We're pretty happy with it, and the rich client works rather well on an iPhone :-)
    • CommentAuthorslamb
    • CommentTimeMar 25th 2008
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    Ugh, don’t use TMDA or any other challenge-response anti-spam system. It doesn’t solve the spam problem – it shifts the burden to people who send you email, which I find quite rude. You will find out that your customers are unwilling to shoulder this burden, and it will cost you money.

    • CommentAuthorMary
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2008
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    Try mailpicker.com You will able to manage all your mail in one place. I already love it!