I know there are a bunch of "exchange clones" out there, but I have yet
to come across one I would recommend.  That doesn't mean there is not
one out there.  If all you want to use it for is a shared calendar, you
may want to check out a company called softalk.
http://www.softalkltd.com 
They have several programs that do this kind of thing.  Honestly I
wouldn't use them as an email server, but if you want to use it for
Outlook synchronization and shared calendars, it does a pretty good job.
I think it only runs on Windows....  It uses an Outlook plugin, so no
messy webapps, and if you don't use it for processing email you wouldn't
have to mess with your current email setup at all (which again I highly
recommend if you use this product).  

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Javier Jarava
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 4:02 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [ActiveDir] Maybe OT: Shared Calendars w/o using Exchange?
Tips/Suggestions/Recommedations?

Hi!

Sorry if this question is a bit off-topic to the list, but I've seen
some Exchange-related questions here, so I know there is Exchange
expertise hanging around ;) and I didn't know where to ask; please
feel free to point me to the proper forums (forii?) to ask in.

I am looking for a way to implement shared calendars "a la exchange"
(ie, they have to be "visible" and used from within Outlook 2003), but
without actually using/hosting an Exchange Server ourselves. The idea
is that people should be able to see/manage the calendar of the people
they manage, so free/busy info is not enough. And the "outlook"
requisite is a must (as my CEO put it yesterday: "I live within
Outlook; I don't want to meddle with web apps or the like)

I know that it's a bit odd of a requisite, but we are a small co. (~
40 employees) and the president feels that having to babysit a server
in-house is a bit of a needless burden.

At present we host our email / web presence / customer ticketing
system in a pair of VPS from Verio, so if the proposed solution could
run on top of FreeBSD it'd be a big plus ;)

Of course (now going for the "and ask about the KitchenSink" part ;)
if we could put it into place without having to tweak our email setup
that'd be wonderful!!.

We understand that we'd probably have to install some Outlook plugin,
so that's OK...

If there is no way to have the "Shared Calendar" feature as a
stand-alone service/server, I guess the next step would be to ask
those of you who know Exchange for an "exchange clone" that runs on
FreeBDS / Unix..... Or last but not least, I guess that there must be
"hosted Exchange" providers out there that you can recommend. That'd
mean re-doing our mail system, but I guess that we could live with it,
if need be.

Thanks a lot for those of you who have read this far.

  Best Regards

  Javier Jarava
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