exchange server??
- Started
- Last post
- 4 Responses
- jpea
just curious, as i've only used LAMP servers, but why in hell do some businesses use exchange server for email handling?? it always seems to get me at odds with their IT people when i'd like them to host their sites on LAMP servers (seeing as that's what i know). they can never get ASP and permissions config'd correctly and i'm always ending up the bad guy.
so... why do people/corps use it? what does it do that a simple pop or imap *nix account can't do?
- ribit0
I'm wondering too... Considering getting hosted Exchange for our small studio, but we really would only switch from our current IMAP service to get the shared contacts and shared calendars... Is there a way for us to get these collaboration tools while keeping our existing IMAP email service?
I've seen a few web-based services, and the PHP Simple Calendar, Firefox calendar, XCconnect/XCvault, Intranets.com etc...just havent found which is thebest solution for 4-5 users.
- abettertype0
Don't really know why an office of 4-5 would pay for or lease an exchange server. There are accounts you can lease...
Working at a University, the only real use I saw was the ability to look at other peoples calendars and contacts. You could even give others access to edit your calendar and/or contacts. Good if you have people always on the road and a person who sets up events on everyones calendars. For 4-5 people though....there are php calendar scripts that do that as well, just dont know how intergrated they are with email. Webamil is a nice feature as well, as you can look at your calendar and contacts from any computer with web access. This beats out other webmail clients, where you have to always import changes you made to your contact list on your computer....
- ribit0
we already have webmail and synchronizing to email clients thru our IMAP mail service.
Advantage of (hosted) Exchange would be in integrating calendars and contacts with the email, but not sure if we really need that, and I'm not so impressed with Exchange from what I see so far, so maybe a web-based or PHP solution will give us more features specifically designed for collaboration, tasks, notes, lists, schedules etc
Have also looked at Basecamp, but it seems more optimized to design projects, where we are working more as an editorial team...
- jpea0
sounds like you'd be looking for more of a project management solution. check out http://www.dotproject.net/
might work for what you need without switching to exchange. maybe not though since i'm not sure if it integrates in any way for contacts and stuff.