Transferring Microsoft Mail Post Office

[stranglehold]

We have a small inter-office email setup with the current post office on a win95 pc. The client pc's are a mix of win95, win98 and win2000 using Outlook or mesenger. Server is NT4.0. Currently we are only using this for 6 people.

Basically, we are about 8 years behind.

We are looking at doing some selective upgrading of the hardware, starting with the win95 pc's. Most likely, we will be going with WinXP.

My main question is; What is the best option for the post office location?

Would it work if I set it up on the NT server? I do not think the post office software is the same on XP. Am I correct? Is there a comparable software on the XP?

My experience with XP is very limited at this point. And that is only with the home version.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Rockn]

XP nor Win95 have the ability to manage a post office. The post office is on the NT server. I don't know why anyone would want to point the post office setup to a workstation as opposed to the server where it should be.

 

[stranglehold]

I did not set it up. Right now the post office is on the workstation. I can move it to the server pretty easy. I guess My question concerned the administration of it in XP or 98.

When you say XP nor Win95 have the ability to manage a post office, what do you mean?

When this was setup, all the clients ran win95, and I do not think there was a "server" initially. The server was added later and the post office was never moved. It has always been administered from the win98 pc containing the post office.

I made a mistake in my previous post. I said messenger when I should have said Exchange.

 

[stranglehold]

XP nor Win95 have the ability to manage a post office.

Is it true that I cannot administer a post office from 98 or xp?

Rockn seems to say that it cannot be done in 95, but I know that is false because I am currently doing it.

What about NT4.0?

I have not been able to find out how to do it with 98 yet.

 

[stranglehold]

Anybody know anything about this?

 

[Rockn]

Microsoft Postoffice was never a part of Win9x. Maybe somone figured out how to move it there and got it to run for office email (I think that was all it was meant to do), but it was never intended to be there. Any email client will be able to access an MS post office. I don't think any of the newer server OS's even have post office any longer and MS is making you buy Exchange Server to do the job now.

 

[stranglehold]

It seems to be integrated with the Win95 OS.

Select Control panel then mail.

If we move to a current OS, what are the options for inter-office mail?

Can outlook handle it all, or would we be forced to purchase exchange?

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Windows98 certainly manage and host a Microsoft Mail Post office. Have several customers using it since it's free and there is no need for them to go with a whole Exchange server.

They have a variety of computers (Win95, Win98, Windows2000 and XP) that all share several calendars this way.

Not the most technically elegant solution but it works quite well.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Just re-read my post and left out one word...CAN.

Windows98 CAN certainly manage and host a Microsoft Mail Post office. Have several customers using it since it's free and there is no need for them to go with a whole Exchange server.

 

[stranglehold]

Thanks.

At least I know I am not going down a dead end path looking for a solution.

 

[Grimy]

Wow, this takes me back.

MS Mail workgroup postoffice comes with Win95 and is basically a somewhat restricted version of MS Mail Server and uses simpler admin tools. It will work with Exchange if the Exchange client is installed.

I havn't seen it used in years, but remember that it worked well in small workgroups and peer-to-peer networks. Not sure if it will work on operating systems other than Win95.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Like I said, it does work with other operating systems that Win95.

So far have it on NT 4 Server, Windows2000 Server and Win98 as the location for the Post Office location.

For clients have it running with Win95, Win98, Windows2000 Pro and XP. (Just don't have any ME clients but don't see that being much of an issue).

 

[Grimy]

Sorry, Bob. You even posted it twice and it still didn't regester with me about the other os's. Brain fade for sure. Anyway, it's a valuable thing to know. Thanks.

 

[stranglehold]

I have been doing some reading and see lots of options for mail servers. There is so much out there to consider. Including ArGoSoft, SurgeMail, IpSwitch Imail. The best looking one for my applicaion appears to be. Pegasus Mail (www.pmail.com).

We are considering replacing some of or PC's with current technology. This will include WinXP Pro and Outlook 2003. Due to some software issues, we will be keeping at least one PC with Win98 SE on it. Hopefully all of the Win95 pc's will be gone. At the same time, we will be adding another workgroup with several PC's and printers to the network. These will we Win2000 and Win98.

Given my primary desires of;
Using outlook(several versions) as my common mail client
Having a mail server for internal mail messages
Only some of the pc's will have internet mail, but all of them will have internal email.
Simplicity and ease of use with little administration needed
Cheap or free is good


It still looks like microsoft mail is the front-runner due to it's simplicity.

Now, I just need to figure out how to get it setup on my win98 pc. Or even WinXP Pro, but I do not have one of them yet, so I would be unable to test it.

I searched Microsoft's site and found this link. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;142746 , but I do not have that icon on my control panel. My icon is just mail, and running it just shows my mail accounts.

Not much else of use showed up from the search.

How do I install the microsoft mail post office?

Thanks

 

[Bob Cerelli]

On the Win98 CD, go to Tools / OldWin95 / Messages / US /
Run WMS.EXE (Windows Messaging)

Then go to the Control Panel and there will be a new icon for Microsoft Mail Post Office.

From here you can create a new post office, setup the admin password, the location for the post office on the Win98 computer, and create users.

Make sure you have file sharing enabled and that the post office directory is shared.

It may work with XP but I've only tested it with Win98 and Windows2000.