Get a head start evaluating Internet mail packages
Internet mail with Windows NT? You bet. And my tests showed that Internet
mail can be easy with packages such as Post.Office for Windows NT (Netscape Mail
Server for NT), MetaInfo Sendmail with POP3, NTMail, Krypton Internet Mail
Server (KIMS), and Ipswitch Imail. KIMS is the only product that provides true
security between servers across the Internet. Imail strikes a good balance
between ease of administration and feature set. Each package has strengths and
unique qualities. Your task is to select the package that best meets your needs.
So you have to evaluate your requirements and line up the products head to head
with them. This cruise through the Internet mail course gives you a head start
in the evaluation race.
Serving Up the Mail
To understand how Internet mail packages work and which one is best for you,
you need to know about the basic transport mechanisms they provide for mail
delivery. Internet mail's two major protocols are Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(SMTP), ordinarily for mail between servers, and Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3)
for client/server connections. You usually need both.
The SMTP server sends and receives mail for your users and stores it
locally. This server also listens for connections from other SMTP servers. The
servers connect via TCP/IP port 25 using Telnet--the same service you can choose
for an interactive session with a host somewhere on the Internet. Once you
connect, a simple text-based exchange transfers the mail. This push
protocol works reasonably well for servers that are always available.
In contrast, for machines such as workstations that can use Remote Access
Service (RAS) to collect mail or that aren't always turned on, SMTP is
inappropriate. Instead, to let the receiver decide when it wants the mail
delivered, these workstations need a pull protocol. That's where POP3
comes in. It lets a client connect to the server and receive mail on demand.
Besides providing the basic transport mechanisms for mail delivery, an
Internet mail package needs to perform other essential functions efficiently.
How the administrator needs to add, configure, and remove users is crucial, too.
Even if the server runs perfectly, if it's difficult to administer, it won't
work well for you. Another consideration is that users can best handle some
aspects of their accounts, so you need to know whether the server lets them.
Also, the server needs to provide automation tools such as mailing lists and
mail robots.
All the products I tested worked as advertised, sending and receiving mail
through SMTP and POP3 correctly. All the POP3 servers worked properly with both
Microsoft Exchange and Eudora as clients. Although I couldn't test scaleability,
all the products performed well, and none used CPU excessively. These products
differed in installation, configuration, and features. Post.Office is by far the
easiest to install and configure, but it is nowhere near as rich in features as
NTMail, which is well integrated into NT. NTMail's installation went well and
the product lets you make the most of its capabilities and those of its
companion, NTList (an email list server). Be aware that NTMail's learning curve
is steep. MetaInfo's implementation of Sendmail works well, but it seems best
suited to UNIX users moving to NT.
Finally, note that all the products I tested are dedicated mail servers. If
you're implementing a broader-based solution (e.g., a Web server), you'll find
that some Web server products include a mail component. For example, Interware
by Consensys is a broad-based Web server product that includes SMTP and POP3
services. Also note that you can implement an SMTP gateway instead of a native
SMTP server. In this case, the SMTP mail is rerouted into another mail system,
such as Microsoft Mail. See the review of MailNet on page 31 for an example of
such a gateway product.
Post.Office/Netscape Mail Server
When Netscape Communications wanted to license a mail server, the company
chose Software.com's Post.Office. Netscape and Software.com offer this product
in two incarnations, one for each company: Software.com's is Post.Office, and
Netscape's is Netscape Mail Server for NT. Either way, it's slick and easy to
use.
Each company has its own packaging of the product. The Software.com version
comes in single-platform versions--Alpha, Intel, or MIPS--on floppy disks.
(Software.com also plans to provide a bundled version.) The spiral-bound
documentation is good. It introduces the SMTP and POP3 protocols and gives
step-by-step instructions for several typical system configurations. The
approach to installation can be a bit annoying if you want to simply get to it,
but the instructions will be helpful if you need some hand-holding. Netscape's
package provides the code on CD-ROM and bundles it for both the Intel and Alpha
hardware platforms. Netscape's manual is perfect-bound, but it's otherwise
similar to Software.com's.
Installation
Installation is easy. The installer, InstallShield, has a wizard interface
to navigate the process, which takes fewer than 10 minutes (although if your
installation needs name servers, configuring them can require up to an hour).
The first installation step is to agree to a lengthy license agreement (if
you read it, you'll double your installation time). The server can run either on
its own account or on the NT system account. The installer asks whether you have
created an account; if you say no, the installer launches User Manager. After
you enter the usual name and company information, the installer asks the name of
the domain that the server will service, the port that the integrated Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server uses for management, and a password for the
administrator account. The default port for HTTP is port 80, but if the machine
has an existing Web server, you can choose a different one.
After you specify the target directories, the installer copies files and
makes the necessary Registry entries. That's all. The installation is complete.
Now, you need to create the user accounts.
The installer also acts as an uninstaller. It does a clean job of removing
the server, if necessary.
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