Another one for the IT peeps, please!

Would you be so kind as to lend me a hand or three please?

Situation:

Small business, as in really small, only 3 people atm.
ADSL internet connection, dynamic IP.
2 fixed workstations, 1 laptop, 1 server running Windows 2003 SBS (I know, I know...).

We've got our own internetdomain name (let's call it x.com) that's linked to an external host, who also takes care of POP3 email and web hosting.

I've configured the internal server domain with x.office, so that the two domains wouldn't collide.


I'd like to be able to use our Exchange Server to handle SMTP duties (authenticated, no spammers here thank you very much), which I've managed to some extent, while using the POP3 Connector to retrieve email from our host and distribute it around the office.

And there the problems start...

Exchange only allows me to send email if the return domain exists, so I've told it to use our x.com.

All would be going well except that our laptop user (The Boss ) travels a lot, and if any of us sends him an email to his address @x.com the server will promptly grab it and deliver only when he connects to the company network instead of forwarding it to our external host. Setting up another address for him on the external host will result in failure, since exchange won't recognise the username and won't forward it.

Solutions? Forget Exchange altogether and configure all the workstations to get our mail directly from the host? Set the laptop with a VPN (through a dyndns service since we don't have fixed IP) so that he'll get his mail from here? Any other solution?

please

[TSM]

Why dont you just make it so he connects to your server to pick up POP email?

Get a static IP, set the DNS records correctly and get your exchange to do all the tasks.

If not why not set up an external email account and forward a copy of all the email to the other email addy.

Could you use IMAP over SSL on the remote host?

Is there any way that you could get a static IP address and use VPN with that? Most ISPs here will provide a static IP for a very small monthly fee (or even for free).

[TSM]

Portugals ISPs are not known for being very good.

Beat this for stupid.
Netc, on one of their tarrifs for ADSL gave you so many Gb National Traffic & much less International Traffic. Its hard for the end user to know if the server is based in another country.

Originally Posted by TSM

Portugals ISPs are not known for being very good.

Beat this for stupid.
Netc, on one of their tarrifs for ADSL gave you so many Gb National Traffic & much less International Traffic. Its hard for the end user to know if the server is based in another country.

Portuguese ISPs are CR@P. To say the least.
The traffic limits are still being enforced, in some cases you only get 1 GB international and 10 GB national allowed before they start charging stupid fees.

I'm using Netcabo (cable network), and until last month I had a 4 GB international limit, with so-called "happy hours" between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. (no traffic count during that period). From now on it's 30 GB limit, no happy-hours. This is for a 4mb down / 256 kb up line, for which I pay €45 / month (approx. 30£).

Thanks for your suggestions, and please keep them coming.

I am tempted go with the VPN solution, I can set up a dynamic dns for now and try to keep it as up to date as possible...

[TSM]

Originally Posted by Filipe M.

This is for a 4mb down / 256 kb up line, for which I pay €45 / month (approx. 30£).

For less than that i have abt 18mb down / 1.3mb up.

cabo, sapo, iol, telepac and nearly every other tech company charge stupid prices and their contracts are rubbish. I complain nearly every time im there to my dad about what he pays for things, but there is nothing he can do.

Originally Posted by TSM

For less than that i have abt 18mb down / 1.3mb up.

cabo, sapo, iol, telepac and nearly every other tech company charge stupid prices and their contracts are rubbish. I complain nearly every time im there to my dad about what he pays for things, but there is nothing he can do.

Care to throw an ethernet cable that reaches here?