I have to say, it's a good solution for small office

[Anonymous]

I recently setup an office with 1and1 Exchange hosting. I am very surprised at the amount of functionality with the exchange server over the Internet. I have had PST import issues, but overall it's a great service. You can share calendars, tasks, contacts among users easily.

[eWebtricity]

So is the connection secured or encrypted? Hows the backend mgmt interface?

[dhodge]

As usual with 1and1 everything is good except for the service. All communication between the client and server is encrypted. You can also connect via SSL. The OWA (Outlook Web Access) is very nice. Almost identical to the actual Outlook 2003 client.

I have had syncronization issues with an old PST file but am working that out. The backend management is via the 1and1 control panel and is very easy. You simply login, and add exchange accounts to your package. Within minutes you are sharing data with the new user at the office.

[dhodge]

Um, okay so it wasn't as good as I thought. Although I have been using the 1and1 Exchange Hosting services for quite some time, I implemented in a real office environment for the first time recently.

In theory it's such a good system, enabling total sharing without the need for an exchange server. However, about the third day things started to become intermittent and syncronization was failing. This went on for several days.

After talking to 1and1 support, they said they were aware of the problem and would have a supervisor call be back asap. About 5 hours later, as I was at the office swtiching them to an alternate system, the supervisor called me and said they had added two more load balancing servers and that the problem has stopped.

Too little too late. The office is now running an alternative program I sell called WorkGroupShare.

[eWebtricity]

Too bad you got off it, i wanted to know how it worked full scale via the Internet.

[dhodge]

Yes, it is unfortunate but it was just too unreliable. I may use it again in future for another office, and I'll post the results here.

[VerityNS]

Yes, it is unfortunate but it was just too unreliable. I may use it again in future for another office, and I'll post the results here.

I'm interested in knowing if you get FULL Outlook functionality from it, or if OWA is your only source of using the Exchange functions.

[dhodge]

You get full Outlook functionality!

I was amazed at this myself but you can use Outlook 2003 and share your calendars, tasks, contacts etc with other users the same as you would with a local Exchange server.

[eWebtricity]

How many users are you running with it? Hows the administrative side of it, adding/deleting users, etc ...?

[VerityNS]

How many users are you running with it? Hows the administrative side of it, adding/deleting users, etc ...?

Well, seeings its an exchange server, I'm having to imagine that administering it is no diferrent than administrating a windows server. Just connect through terminal server and add/edit/change users in AD.

Exchange is a resource hog! For offices running 10-15 users, a gig of ram, single processor, and a standard IDE or ATA drive would work fine. But anything more than that, Exchange will buckle hard without some heavy resources behind it. I think that would be my major concern. Knowing they have good hardware and enough resources in the box to keep it up and running.

For 25 users or more, I probably wouldn't want anything less than 2 gigs of ram, dual processors ( could probably get away with a single ) and a raid 5 setup with an online spare. If you dont have a hardware applicance doing spam and antivirus, your going to need software loaded on the server itself handling that, and it will get ugly unless you have enough resouces to handle it all.

[dhodge]

You don't get an entire Exchange server for yourself, you simply get accounts on a shared server. I'm not certain how they have it setup but you order the accounts through your 1and1 control panel. You can add and remove Exchange accounts that way. Then you download a profile and load it into Outlook 2003 (the only client it works with, which they provide for only $6.99 shipping or you can use your own) and voilà your data is synchronized with the 1and1 server. I use the Outlook Web Access which is accessible from any Internet enabled computer when I'm at the office or on the road, and my Outlook 2003 client at home. You can even access your data from a WAP enabled cell phone!

Anyway, once you have added additional users, you can begin sharing data between Outlook 2003, or from OWA using public folders.

The problem is that you're synchronizing data over the Internet and the connection is sometimes Intermittent. Unless everyone in the organization is going to use the Web Access for sharing data it just doesn't work. When you click on the other persons calendar in Outlook 2003 there is a delay. The office I set it up in was going offline for hours at a time, but they claimed to have fixed this issue by adding more servers.

It is dependent upon the Internet though which makes it unreliable. Good for sharing data between a mobile sales force, or keeping data synchronized for yourself, just not for an office that is constantly sharing their calendars, tasks, email etc.

[dhodge]

FYI I've started up my own Exchange Hosting service with another company that focuses solely on Exchange and promises a much more stable infrastructure.

If anyone is interested I'm in the middle of updating the company website but I have accounts starting at just $14.99 USD for full Outlook functionality with Outlook 2003. Also includes OWA, OMA, and SmartPhone / Pocket PC support with ActiveSync.


Cheers,
Dylan

[VerityNS]

FYI I've started up my own Exchange Hosting service with another company that focuses solely on Exchange and promises a much more stable infrastructure.

If anyone is interested I'm in the middle of updating the company website but I have accounts starting at just $14.99 USD for full Outlook functionality with Outlook 2003. Also includes OWA, OMA, and SmartPhone / Pocket PC support with ActiveSync.


Cheers,
Dylan

Will your site have complete details on your offerings? What is the web address?

[dhodge]

Yes it will, along with reseller options as well if you're interested. I'll keep you posted if you want. I'll post the link here when it's ready.


Cheers,
Dylan

[dhodge]

Okay here is the link to the new Exchange Hosting services. Anyone interested in reselling should contact me via the website.

I don't want to get too much into it here as it is beyond the scope of this forum. Reseller prices are substantially lower than retail on the site.

http://www.DigitalVault.biz/exchange.htm