You install five separate modules: IMail, IM, WorkgroupShare, Premium Anti-Virus, and Premium Anti-Spam. Anti-Spam must be installed on the IMail server, but you can install the others on separate servers. I installed everything on the same server. The basic software installation process was simple and well documented. However, at one point it wasn't clear whether I should enter the mail server's host (DNS computer) name or the primary mail domain; the latter was needed.
ICS's administrative interface is Web based. It works well enough, and I could navigate the pages. However, the interface could use a warning feature; configuration changes you make are lost if you fail to click Save before moving to another page.
ICS offers users a Web-based client, called Web Messaging, in addition to Outlook support. As Figure 2 shows, Web Messaging gives Web users access to email, contacts, calendars, and tasks through an interface similar to Outlook 2003's.
I found the collaborative features easy enough to set up and manage, although there's room for improvement. To use the collaboration features, you need to configure the server-based features and install a client software component. The client software synchronizes the content of public folders and shared client folders between the user's email client and the server. Every IMail email user is a potential collaboration user, although this access isn't automatic and has to be configured. You can also create collaboration-only users who have no email privileges.
ICS supports five types of public folders: Mail, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Contacts. You must grant someone access to a public folder when you create it, so defining user groups first makes sense. ICS gives you flexibility in assigning access rights to public and shared folders. You can grant access to a public folder to many users and groups, each having its own access level. When adding a folder to a hierarchy, you can set it to inherit access rights from the folder above it.
Users can share private folders they designate; you configure how and by whom the private folders will be accessed or authorize users to do their own configuration. The client software maintains a synchronized copy of shared folders on the server. By default, the client resynchronizes with the server every 20 minutes; clients can also request immediate resynchronization. Although resynchronization adds delay and overhead compared with IMAP-based folder sharing, it lets users share folders outside the IMAP structure, including mail from other POP3 accounts or other folders stored within an Outlook Personal Folder .pst file. (For information about using IMAP and POP, see the Web-exclusive sidebar "IMAP Vs. POP Clients on the Same Mail Account," http://www.windowsitpro.com,InstantDoc ID 50612.)
I tested client-side access in two ways: using Outlook 2003 under Windows XP and Outlook 2000 under Windows 2000 Professional. To access shared Outlook folders, you must install the WorkgroupShare Outlook add-on on each client computer. When you use a version of Outlook as the email client, WorkgroupShare implements the client-side software as an Outlook COM add-on.
On each system, I installed the client software from the network share created by the ICS installation process. ICS supports unattended installation of the client software through a logon script but requires a client-specific answer file to provide a user's Collaboration User ID (username) and password. ICS stores the user's Collaboration password separately from the IMail password. Using the IMail account management screens rather than the collaboration screens to change passwords helps keep the two accounts synchronized.
Outlook 2000 worked pretty much as I expected. A Shared Information folder appeared in the Personal Folder that receives new mail, and under it I could see the hierarchy of public folders I'd created, as well as another user's calendar folder that I shared. Outlook 2003 organized folder display by type. Of the five Public Folders I created, four appeared with their respective groups. For some reason, the Mail folder failed to appear with other mail folders. However, I could access the Mail folder in the Folder List view.
In testing WorkgroupShare's free/busy group scheduling features, I discovered that users need to manually enter the free/busy query string, which tells Outlook how to obtain free/busy information from the mail server. For free/busy support under Outlook 2000, WorkgroupShare's client installation instructions directed me to download and install Microsoft's Web Publishing Wizard on the client system. After I completed these steps, using the free/busy function to schedule a group appointment worked well.
One less-than-convenient feature has to do with the Collaboration User ID used to authenticate access on the client. To change this ID, you must uninstall and reinstall the client software.
ICS's collaboration tools are effective and easy to use and manage. Although integration of the products could be better, it doesn't pose a major problem.
Kerio MailServer 6
Kerio MailServer 6 (KMS) from Kerio Technologies is a full-featured mail server that includes groupware features. Its support for the Microsoft Entourage email client and Apple Computer Open Directory under Macintosh OS X sets it apart from the other products I reviewed.
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