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Welcome to IWETHEY!

New Welcome Robert
He's lurking back in the corner...

Met him today when I picked up a server case from him.

He has a question. I'll let him ask it.
New Re: Welcome Robert
Thanks Joe. I just posted my introduction.

To ask the question I need to provide a little back-story. A long time ago Gateway used to sell a product they called "Server-in-a-box" which was, for all intents and purposes a complete server package. It ran on a linux solution and provided a web based interface for management that was labeled as "so easy your company secretary can run the network."

My question is this: Is there any current day product that is similar to this? I'm asking for a place I used to work at that is in need of a low-cost/free solution. It is an inner-city mental health clinic that provides a lot of free services to the community. In other words, they are not rolling in the $150 an hour insurance payments. They operate as a training center for MFT and PsyD students and cycle through about 25 students every two semesters. They have a need for a "corporate" e-mail/schedule solution as well as file/print services. However, they are so computer illiterate that even making a shared directory on a Windows workgroup network simply boggles the mind. Ideally this solution would be a "set it and forget it" solution that would allow them to very easily manage users and e-mail/calendaring.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
New There are such things.
A year or so ago a company was trying to recruit me as a dealer for such a system - but they got bought by IBM and I don't deal with companies of that size. I'm sure there are others but it'll take a bit of looking.
New serveri ina box
http://atmail.com/order/appliance/
that is plug and play and some very good software inside. Also If you can find a linux box and just want the software it is extremely reasonable
New Looks nice, but I suspect it's too spendy.
Ubuntu's probably a good choice for this application. It's cheap and well supported and reasonably bullet-proof. One way to approach this problem is to set up a "headless" box and do all the administration remotely. Once it is set up, the users could treat it as an appliance and not have to worry about it. I haven't done this myself (I still just tinker with Linux). Some discussion of the various approaches is here: http://ubuntuforums....read.php?t=690895

HowToForge has a nice tutorial on installing Ubuntu Server 7.04 - http://www.howtoforg...t_setup_ubuntu704

The advantage for a non-profit in going with a Linux-based solution rather than Windows Home Server or the like is the freedom from MS's Client Access Licenses and so forth. But a good article on building a $311 WHS box is here: http://www.homeserve...-server_2871.html I have no personal experience with WHS, either.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck!

Cheers,
Scott.
New ahem, atmail is linux based :-)
$600 for the software, take the tour
New Understood.
I was thinking about the hardware quoted.

If one is only thinking about using their software, then unless they offer something compelling, it probably makes more sense to go with something with larger market share (to have a better chance of someone being able to understand it).

But, honestly, unless someone is willing to baby sit it for free, it's probably going to cost them some money. I don't think there really are any set-and-forget departmental servers that exist yet. (I certainly could be wrong, though.)

Cheers,
Scott.
New TAKE THE TOUR :-)
you must be in management
If one is only thinking about using their software, then unless they offer something compelling, it probably makes more sense to go with something with larger market share (to have a better chance of someone being able to understand it).
exchange has a large market share, do you know what it costs to get someone who understands it? Atmail has a web interface that is easy to manage. Once you get past all of the arbitrary objections Its New, Small Market Share, How will we find someone to manage it and actually look at the product, you might be surprised. The product itself it a PHP wrapper of Exim Mysql and other standard open source messaging tools. The $600 is for the management interface for ease of use for newbies. EXIM's market share is pretty large.
New :-)
New EXIM is the default
MTA in Debian and many other Distros.

And EXIM is so modular it is scary.
New Re: Welcome Robert
Well, I think I'm going to take a stab at Ubuntu 8.04 server with Zimbra 5. The videos they show make it look pretty impressive and there is a detailed walkthrough on how to get it up and running out on the net. Wish me luck!

What would be really nice is a LiveCD that stores all data/messages/settings on a hard drive but essentially is a full proof load and forget solution. That would be nice...
New It's apparently not that tough to make a custom live CD.
It's apparently not terribly difficult to make a custom live Linux distribution. One of the Linux Hacks books talks about how to do it with Knoppix IIRC, but I've never tried it myself. This might be a good approach:

http://www.dedoimedo.../remastersys.html

Good luck!

Cheers,
Scott.
New zimbra 5 is good
     Welcome Robert - (jbrabeck) - (12)
         Re: Welcome Robert - (Robert) - (8)
             There are such things. - (Andrew Grygus)
             serveri ina box - (boxley) - (6)
                 Looks nice, but I suspect it's too spendy. - (Another Scott) - (5)
                     ahem, atmail is linux based :-) - (boxley) - (4)
                         Understood. - (Another Scott) - (3)
                             TAKE THE TOUR :-) - (boxley) - (2)
                                 :-) -NT - (Another Scott)
                                 EXIM is the default - (folkert)
         Re: Welcome Robert - (Robert) - (2)
             It's apparently not that tough to make a custom live CD. - (Another Scott)
             zimbra 5 is good -NT - (boxley)

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