setting up an email server on LAN

[scroatbagg]

I hope one of you network gurus will be able to help me with this one??

Set-up – 4 Pc’s all running Win98se. All networked and all using M$ family logon. tcp/ip - ipx/spx - netBEUI all installed. All have Office 2000 using Outlook 2000 for email etc.
Objective - I would like to set up an email server on the main Pc that will allow me to receive emails from my POP3 accounts then distribute or allow the rest of my family to retrieve emails sent to them via the LAN when they logon to their own system or any of the 4 Pc's. Is this possible with Win98 or will I need to change to Win2000 and put on the server pack from Office? If the Win200 option is the only option will the emails still be retrievable via the Win98 machines? Should I set up the main Pc to be dual boot if I need to go the Win2000 option? If it were possible to do via Win98 some help in finding the right software would be much appreciated.

[Ghost_Hacker]

I don't know of a email server that runs on 98. However if you have Win2k server and Exchange server then you can create mailboxes on Exchange that any Outlook client can connect to. That's the easy part, the hard part is setting up a connector (Internet Mail Service) to connect to a "foreign mail system" (another mail server on the Internet). You will need the permission and help of your ISP or whomever host your email accounts to do that.


By the way what is this "server pack from Office" ? Do you mean Service pack ?




[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 12-21-2001).]

[scroatbagg]

Ghost

I mean the server extension pack that is with Office 2000, it will only run on NT or Win2000. I was told I would need to install this as it allows administration to the setup of Win2000 and it will then allow me to set up Exchange server??? Not so sure if my source knew what he was talking about, some geezer down the pub who says he is a network admin techie!!
All I want to do is download me emails into a mailbox I can then access and so can the others, seems like its not going to be as easy as one thinks?? Any more advice or suggestions would be more than welcome. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

[Ghost_Hacker]

OK.... Office 2000 server extension allow you and others to post information on a web server or SQL server for group collaboration. Of course you'll need either a IIS webserver or the personel webserver product for it to work.

A tidbit from tyhe MSDN:

"Office Server Extensions are a set of Web applications built on the FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions (which are installed with the Office Server Extensions), Active Server Pages, and ActiveX® Data Objects. They run on the Windows NT® 4.0 Workstation operating system with Personal Web Server 4.0, or Windows NT Server 4.0 with Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0—the built-in Web server of Windows NT Server—to provide additional publishing, collaboration, and searching capabilities. Office Server Extensions work with client-side software in Office 2000, Windows® Explorer, and the Web browser to provide these new capabilities to the user. The features that Office Server Extensions add to your Web server include:
· Web Publishing: Users can save files to Web servers and just as easily open files on Web servers from within Office 2000 applications. They can also navigate a Web site in the same way they navigate a file share today.
· Web Discussions: Users can discuss a document and its contents by adding comments to HTML or Office binary format documents from their Internet browser or an Office 2000 application. Users can even comment on other comments and be working simultaneously.
· Subscription and Notification: Users “subscribe” to particular discussions, documents, or folders on a Web server and are automatically “notified” by e-mail when the status of those Web documents changes, providing quick responses to new information.
· Search: Users can search a Web site using a full-text search or the properties of their Office documents, such as title, author, category, keywords, or a custom property.
· Start Page: The Start Page provides easy access to all Office Server Extensions features, and provides an interface for users who don’t have Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or 5, or Office 2000 installed."

You can always get Outlook to download email from any number of accounts, but the email will be in one mailbox and I don't know of an easy way to share the "information store" with other computers.

Here is some information that might help(a big maybe):
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q205229
http://www.outlookfolders.de/english/QSync/preface.htm
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.htm


Good Luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[scroatbagg]

Ghost, thanks for the info, read it understood it not!!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif I will try the links and see if there is anything is of use. Thanks for your help.