Recommendations for/against Comcast Business as an email provider
Slightly off-topic, although I got my foot stuck in this door since I have installed and maintain a LAMP server and apps at this client site. So, there's a bit of Linux in there. I have a client running a small business with my LAMP server as his only non-desktop machine, and Comcast Business for internet provider. He's been using a patchwork of email services over the years (they use AOL and Yahoo! email addresses and a former web design firm provides their domain's POP server.) They are entitled to Comcast Business email as part of their internet package. I wondered if folks here had experience with setting up other clients with Comcast. In particular, my concerns are reliability (losing email during business hours means lost business) and whether they provide decent spam filtering. I've set up other clients with Google and/or Google Apps Premier ($50/year/user) accounts, and their IMAP servers provide nearly 100% uptime and excellent spam filtering. Providing email, spam filtering and network support is really beyond the scope of my services - mostly software development and application support -- so I'm hoping to find a service reliable enough to just configure once and leave running, with the occasional rare tweak. I don't see these folks having any need for an inhouse mail server if reliable services are available elsewhere. I'd welcome any recommendations and/or experiences. -- Ted Roche Ted Roche Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Recommendations for/against Comcast Business as an email provider
On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Ted Roche tedro...@tedroche.com wrote: Providing email, spam filtering and network support is really beyond the scope of my services - mostly software development and application support -- so I'm hoping to find a service reliable enough to just configure once and leave running, with the occasional rare tweak. I don't see these folks having any need for an inhouse mail server if reliable services are available elsewhere. I'd welcome any recommendations and/or experiences. Take a look at the Qmail Rocks implementation of qmail/IMAP/ClamAV/SpamAssassin combo for doing corporate email severs: http://www.qmailrocks.org/ I've set this up once in a business environment using the horde application frame work as the mail interface on the server: http://www.horde.org/ The setup is very involved, but the end-results are quite slick. mark ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Recommendations for/against Comcast Business as an email provider
In keeping with what appears to be list etiquette I have chosen to partially ignore your subject line and provide an alternative solution to your issue. :) I have not used email through my Comcast business connection (have Comcast + DSL for redundant connectivity at work). Instead I chose to use Postini (owned and run by Google) to filter spam, viruses, and provide uptime. They are NOT a free service but they are very cheap and VERY GOOD. It is simple to use and simple to setup. Via the Postini web interface I had to: add email addresses and aliases, setup my internal/receiving host server address, and specify some options like level of spam filtering, whether to accept or reject email to unlisted addresses, etc. After the intiial setup, adding an email address or deleting one takes about 1 minute via a web interface. To learn the interface, understand the options (it's google, it can take a bit), figure out all the actual addresses and aliases in use as opposed to just configured, and setup 25+ email addresses with an additional 40 aliases took about a day. Most of that was spent on items 2 and 3. My rambling point being: if you understand email options, it ain't rocket science to setup. At my internal site I had to setup postfix, web based email, and change my MX records to point to Postini. I also recommend you set the firewall to only allow external mail access from the Postini servers (after a delay to let the TTL for the old MX records die). Net result, EXCELLENT spam filtering and stats (over the last hour 95% of all my email never came down the pipe, currently all spam, no viruses), virus scans by multiple anti-virus, virtually 100% uptime (I've been down for maint before, they buffer several gigs of deliverable email) and ZERO complaints (OK, I too have a user or two that complains about EVERY spam message, that doesn't count). Cost is $12 per year per actual email address (not aliases, which are free). I think they have a more hosted version for about $25/year which MAY (or may not) be closer to what you want, I haven't used it. Pricing link for various service options/levels is: http://www.google.com/postini/compare.html They provide an email summary to each user about quarantined emails and the individual users can release their own quarantined messages if you like. They support user level white/black lists (again individual users can manage them via the web interface). I no longer have to update email anti-virus or spam lists, or deal with users white/black lists, or deal with spooling during down time, ... I get to keep internal email with internal email security, scripted backups, retention policies, etc. The is a very low/no maintenance way to get web based filtering and spooling but local email (no hacking of web email or social engineering of web passwords, local backups and retention). It gets you Google's uptime and spooling etc. that you mentioned, with some local control. Obviously the level of local control you may want/need is likely one of the deciding factors in your case. I think you can get a demo from them. If not, let me know and I'll be happy to show you the web interface if you are in the Nashua area. On 2010-08-30 10:31, Ted Roche wrote: Slightly off-topic, although I got my foot stuck in this door since I have installed and maintain a LAMP server and apps at this client site. So, there's a bit of Linux in there. I have a client running a small business with my LAMP server as his only non-desktop machine, and Comcast Business for internet provider. He's been using a patchwork of email services over the years (they use AOL and Yahoo! email addresses and a former web design firm provides their domain's POP server.) They are entitled to Comcast Business email as part of their internet package. I wondered if folks here had experience with setting up other clients with Comcast. In particular, my concerns are reliability (losing email during business hours means lost business) and whether they provide decent spam filtering. I've set up other clients with Google and/or Google Apps Premier ($50/year/user) accounts, and their IMAP servers provide nearly 100% uptime and excellent spam filtering. Providing email, spam filtering and network support is really beyond the scope of my services - mostly software development and application support -- so I'm hoping to find a service reliable enough to just configure once and leave running, with the occasional rare tweak. I don't see these folks having any need for an inhouse mail server if reliable services are available elsewhere. I'd welcome any recommendations and/or experiences. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Recommendations for/against Comcast Business as an email provider
On 8/30/10 10:31 AM, Ted Roche wrote: Slightly off-topic, although I got my foot stuck in this door since I have installed and maintain a LAMP server and apps at this client site. So, there's a bit of Linux in there. I have a client running a small business with my LAMP server as his only non-desktop machine, and Comcast Business for internet provider. He's been using a patchwork of email services over the years (they use AOL and Yahoo! email addresses and a former web design firm provides their domain's POP server.) They are entitled to Comcast Business email as part of their internet package. I wondered if folks here had experience with setting up other clients with Comcast. In particular, my concerns are reliability (losing email during business hours means lost business) and whether they provide decent spam filtering. I've set up other clients with Google and/or Google Apps Premier ($50/year/user) accounts, and their IMAP servers provide nearly 100% uptime and excellent spam filtering. Providing email, spam filtering and network support is really beyond the scope of my services - mostly software development and application support -- so I'm hoping to find a service reliable enough to just configure once and leave running, with the occasional rare tweak. I don't see these folks having any need for an inhouse mail server if reliable services are available elsewhere. I'd welcome any recommendations and/or experiences. I no longer bother with trying to setup email services for the clients to whom I provide web hosting services. It is just too tedious and time consuming to try to keep up with all of the latest and greatest steps necessary to hold off the spammers. So I setup my clients with Google Apps standard unless they specifically need the Google Apps Premier level of service. It saves me a lot of headaches and makes the clients happy too. Dan attachment: coutu.vcf___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Recommendations for/against Comcast Business as an email provider
On 08/30/2010 10:31 AM, Ted Roche wrote: Slightly off-topic, although I got my foot stuck in this door since I have installed and maintain a LAMP server and apps at this client site. So, there's a bit of Linux in there. I have a client running a small business with my LAMP server as his only non-desktop machine, and Comcast Business for internet provider. He's been using a patchwork of email services over the years (they use AOL and Yahoo! email addresses and a former web design firm provides their domain's POP server.) They are entitled to Comcast Business email as part of their internet package. I wondered if folks here had experience with setting up other clients with Comcast. In particular, my concerns are reliability (losing email during business hours means lost business) and whether they provide decent spam filtering. I've set up other clients with Google and/or Google Apps Premier ($50/year/user) accounts, and their IMAP servers provide nearly 100% uptime and excellent spam filtering. Providing email, spam filtering and network support is really beyond the scope of my services - mostly software development and application support -- so I'm hoping to find a service reliable enough to just configure once and leave running, with the occasional rare tweak. I don't see these folks having any need for an inhouse mail server if reliable services are available elsewhere. I'd welcome any recommendations and/or experiences. Have you checked out ClarkConnect (http://www.clarkconnect.com) I used it for years before I decided to out source and I loved it. -- Thanks, Joseph Smith Set-Top-Linux www.settoplinux.org ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Recommendations for/against Comcast Business as an email provider
On 8/30/2010 10:31 AM, Ted Roche wrote: Slightly off-topic, although I got my foot stuck in this door since I have installed and maintain a LAMP server and apps at this client site. So, there's a bit of Linux in there. I have a client running a small business with my LAMP server as his only non-desktop machine, and Comcast Business for internet provider. He's been using a patchwork of email services over the years (they use AOL and Yahoo! email addresses and a former web design firm provides their domain's POP server.) They are entitled to Comcast Business email as part of their internet package. I wondered if folks here had experience with setting up other clients with Comcast. In particular, my concerns are reliability (losing email during business hours means lost business) and whether they provide decent spam filtering. I've had excellent up-time with Comcast Business Internet. Their spam filtering in their residential service has been adequate for those clients who use it. I have not yet used their business email service, however, I do plan to in the next few weeks. As Comcast provides an eXchange server for business class there are some benefits to this client, as they all use Outlook and want a shared calendar. And I just don't have the time to implement an alternative for them. I'll let you know the results of using Comcast Business email service after I have some experience with it. I have another client who converted to Comcast Business Internet today. I plan to use Comcast's email server as a pre-filter for spam filtration and as backup email server to feed their in-house Postfix/CourierImap setup. I'll let you know how that works too. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Recommendations for/against Comcast Business as an email provider
On Aug 30, 2010, at 10:41 PM, Dan Jenkins wrote: On 8/30/2010 10:31 AM, Ted Roche wrote: Slightly off-topic, although I got my foot stuck in this door since I have installed and maintain a LAMP server and apps at this client site. So, there's a bit of Linux in there. I have a client running a small business with my LAMP server as his only non-desktop machine, and Comcast Business for internet provider. He's been using a patchwork of email services over the years (they use AOL and Yahoo! email addresses and a former web design firm provides their domain's POP server.) They are entitled to Comcast Business email as part of their internet package. I wondered if folks here had experience with setting up other clients with Comcast. In particular, my concerns are reliability (losing email during business hours means lost business) and whether they provide decent spam filtering. I've had excellent up-time with Comcast Business Internet. Their spam filtering in their residential service has been adequate for those clients who use it. I have not yet used their business email service, however, I do plan to in the next few weeks. As Comcast provides an eXchange server for business class there are some benefits to this client, as they all use Outlook and want a shared calendar. And I just don't have the time to implement an alternative for them. I'll let you know the results of using Comcast Business email service after I have some experience with it. I have another client who converted to Comcast Business Internet today. I plan to use Comcast's email server as a pre-filter for spam filtration and as backup email server to feed their in-house Postfix/CourierImap setup. I'll let you know how that works too. To the best of my knowledge both the residential and commercial email is run by zimbra, with the exchange emulation turned on for the commercial accounts. this is based on marketing by zimbra, and the look and feel of the setup page we have on one of our Comcast commercial lines. -- Steven C. Peterson Mainstream Technology Group s...@mainstream.net Office: (603)966-4607 x 2409 Cell/SMS: (347)329-3605 Skype: datagen24 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Recommendations for/against Comcast Business as an email provider
On 8/30/2010 10:51 PM, Steven C. Peterson wrote: To the best of my knowledge both the residential and commercial email is run by zimbra, with the exchange emulation turned on for the commercial accounts. this is based on marketing by zimbra, and the look and feel of the setup page we have on one of our Comcast commercial lines. Excellent to know that. I've been meaning to learn more about Zimbra for awhile. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
