posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 12:07 AM by bradley

I don't think it's "that" complicated

Found a blog that said that Exchange was too complicated and while I would argue that setting up Exchange with a MX mail record just might be a little ...well... sometimes frustrating depending on your ISP...the wizard of SBS to set up email...it's not that bad.  Not like Tim makes it sound.

The dirty little secret of the SBS world is that while many of the consultants turn their noses at using POP...it's the most comfortable transition from a firm who's used to peer to peer and based on my unofficial view, probably used way more than we think.  Yeah, yeah you still have the 15 minute issue, but do you honestly truly need Spam that much faster?

I just think we need to recognize that Pop is probably used a heck of a lot more than we'd like to admit around here.

Just remember run the Connect to Internet Wizard.

Comments

# re: I don't think it's "that" complicated

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 12:41 AM by Adam Reynolds
I agree with the POP transitional thing. With a recent SBS upgrade combined with bringing mail management in-house, this was the only possible way to get the mail flowing while I was untangling the client's mess of Domain, Web, and Mail hosting that had evolved over the years. As we removed the sticky tape and barbed wire from each of the internet-related pieces, we were able to SBS-ise it. The client is now happy and un-POPped.

A.

# re: I don't think it's "that" complicated

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 11:57 AM by Sarah
We use it! If, god forbid, our server crashes, we could always go back to our Verizon webmail page to retrieve our email.

# re: I don't think it's "that" complicated

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 2:31 PM by Nick Whittome
I also just read Tim's post, and while I can see where he is coming from, if you get down to the nitty gritty of even Windows XP, that is complicated to an untrained user.

I looked at exchange for the first time with Exchange 5.5, and boy... that was a dog... But Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 rock! Whether on SBS or not, large or small company. The product is not in any way difficult to setup IMHO with the basics, even as a separate product, but like everything - if you want to know about the deep dark secrets of the product, then it can be very complex.

Whilst I for one cannot wait for the underlying database architecture to change on Exchange, I think there is no better product that gives you email, shared calendars, tasks, central contacts, contacts that link to sharepoint etc etc. Why can a small company not run exchange....?

Frankly... Why not?