The examples in this workshop show the setup of a Windows-based package called Mailserver6 from Kerio available from £327.82 (20 users), although there are lots of other products you could use, including open-source software.

The exact details will, naturally, differ depending on the software involved, but the basic principles are the same no matter what you use.

Sizing the hardware

Of course, the first thing you’ll need is some kind of PC to host your mail server, but it doesn’t have to be very powerful.

The minimum required for the Kerio software is a PC with a 500MHz processor and 256MB of Ram, running Windows 2000, XP or Server 2003.

Neither does it have to be dedicated to the task: if you have an existing file server, it makes sense to use it.

Just check that it’s not being hammered by anything else (you can check this with Task Manager) and appreciate that you’ll need to allocate extra space for user mailboxes, which may mean upgrading or installing extra hard disks.

For the examples here, I’ve installed the Kerio software onto an old Pentium III PC with 512MB of memory and a 40GB hard disk running Windows 2000 Server.

According to Kerio, that should be more than sufficient to host mail for a company of up to 20 users, although a bigger disk might be needed as you get to the top of that number.

Installing the software

As with most small-business mail servers, you can download a full working copy of Mailserver6 from the Kerio website and evaluate it for 30 days before deciding whether to buy it.

Installation starts with an Installshield wizard that steps you through the basic copying of the software onto the Windows host, with the mail server configured as a background service that will start automatically when the PC is turned on.

The Installshield utility then calls a second wizard to configure the mail server for your domain and add a user account with administrative rights, to later continue the setup and manage the software.

To send and receive Internet mail, a fully qualified domain name needs to be specified.

That name may be provided to you as part of your Internet package (for example, yourname.yourisp.com) or you may have registered your own, typically in the format yourname.co.uk.

Either way, be aware that if you want mail delivered directly to the server you’ll need to make sure that it’s accessible from the Internet (that is, not hidden behind a network address translation (Nat) firewall) and that there’s a public DNS MX record configured for the domain name you’re using.

Your ISP can normally arrange this last requirement for you.

And that’s it as far as basic setup is concerned. Having run the install wizard you should have a fully working SMTP (Simple Message Transfer Protocol) mail server that can be used to send and receive mail on the local network.

You will, however, have to set up user accounts before that can happen, and configure the client software.

Plus, depending on the type of connection, other changes may be required to allow the server to send and receive messages over the Internet.

Configuring users

The management console in Mailserver6 is typical of the kind of interface provided to manage a mail server, with an Explorer-like control tree down the left and more detailed menus alongside.

Most of these menus are very straightforward and easy to follow, such as the user menu where, on a small network, details such as user name, password and so on can simply be typed in.

This can take a while, so on a larger Lan the information can be imported from an existing Windows NT domain, Active Directory or Novell server.

There’s also the option of authenticating users directly against Windows Ac tive Directory or using LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) with the LDAP server included in the Kerio package.

Users can be assigned to groups and have quotas set in terms of both how big their mailboxes can get and the size of messages they’re allowed to send or receive, with user aliases another useful option.

For example, you could create a mail alias of information@my.domain.com to which general enquiries could be sent, perhaps via a website form.

That alias can then be forwarded to one or more actual users, making it a lot easier to cope with staff changes, sickness, holidays and so on.

The Kerio package also includes a list server, which can be used to automate things such as mailshots and newsletters.

Using this, outgoing mail can be addressed to a mailing list rather than the individuals concerned, the list server working out who should be sent the message and dispatching copies automatically.

Potential recipients can also subscribe or unsubscribe themselves using email embedded commands or links from a website.