OK, for question 2. I’ve been to Serverwatch, and not had much success in finding a decent, freeware or open-source e-mail server for Windows NT. I was told IIS had SMTP services, but apparently that is only if you are running NT Server, not NT Workstation. I have downloaded IMS mail, but it is rather old, and does not allow a Web interface.
So, the short question is - any good, freeware NT mail servers? Shoot, I wouldn’t mind paying even, except the ones I see cost way too much $$$ for me.
IIS does include SMTP, and you can configure it to relay your local mail if you’re careful about permissions, but AFAIK it does not include POP or IMAP services. That means it provides outgoing mail, but no incoming. Since you’re not running server, it’s a moot point I guess.
We run MS Exchange for local distribution on the LAN, but everything connected to the world is Unix, so I don’t have specific recommendations. You might check Tucows for their list of free/shareware mailservers. A lot of these are targetted at spammers who just need to send mail, but it looks like some are complete systems:
http://www.tucows.com/mailserver95.html
My chosen solution, which I’ve not implemented in over two years of having my connection, is to have extra (cheap) hardware running linux. If you just have a single box and want to do it all on NT, then you’re stuck. If you’re lazy like me, probably you have to do it on NT or it will never happen.
But, if you have the room/power outlets/etc, I recommend it. I’ve got an old Pentium 100 running linux as my firewall, and another couple of old Pentiums sitting in my garage waiting to be made into mail/dns/database/web/whatever servers and stuck in a DMZ off of the firewall. This solves the cost of software problem. For me, old hardware is usually free.
For NT, the name that sticks in my head is VPOP3 from Paul Smith in the UK. I believe the cost is about 20 UK pounds, not exhorbitant, but not free, either. I’ve not tried it, but I vaguely recall someone saying they used it.
Good luck!
I don’t want to get too far OT, but just point out that even a Pentium is more horsepower than you need. My firewall for my home network is an old 486 running linux. If you stick with a command-line interface, this works fine, and people will pay you to cart off 486 hardware.
I did it originally as a linux newbie, and found it pretty easy to get a minimal install up and running as a firewall. Adding a mailserver might take a little extra effort because you’ll need to nail down the security issues more.
Well, I have a spare PC or two, and I could go the Linux route. My situation is that the UnaBoard is on the NT machine, and to enable the e-mail functionality on it I think the e-mail server has to be on the same machine.
But, I also did want to explore e-mail servers as a new interest. If I can get the Board to talk to the Linux machine…hmm, I just looked it up and I don’t think it will work that way.