Advice please from any free email (eg gmail) users ?

Got a problem which I wonder could be solved by using gmail or some other
free email server.

I'm a volunteer at SeniorNet and have been running a course teaching
elderly people how to use Outlook Express (and now Windows Mail in Vista).

We have seven computers, each with its own free yahoo email address. Last
year the course ran well with people sending emails to one another in class
via their individual computer yahoo addresses. Message receipt was pretty
quick - usually not more than a few seconds between one computer sending,
and the other receiving.

Now the yahoo server is unsuitable for this exercise, as it can take a long
time for emails sent to the server to actually reach the target mailbox -
sometimes half an our or more. With delays like this it is impractical to
run the course as it is designed.

I think I could set up Outlook Express to use gmail for the same purpose if
I can obtain some free accounts, but I wonder if any users out there can
tell me how fast the gmail server is at delivering messages - ie would I
end up in the same bind as with Yahoo?

I wondered about setting up a local server on the network, but we don't
have a domain name and I think it would be impracticable without one. I
took a look at the documentation for the Mercury mail transport system and
it looks more complicated than I could handle.

Any advice would be most welcome.

Cheers,

John S

 

Mercury is a bit of a pig to learn but is a great product. Something a
bit lighter and more intuitive like hMailserver
http://www.hmailserver.com/ might be better for your needs.

There is no problem running a local mailserver without a FQDN - just use
a sub-domain of seniornet.org.nz for your local mail (eg
local.seniornet.org.nz), set up your local server to only handle mail
for that domain and point the mail client to it by IP address.

 

Gmail is good /fast.
Spam filter is also excellent.

 

You dont need to pay for a real domain.
If you can set up a DNS server and mail server on the network you can
make up your own domain name that is only visible to your network.
so you could use seniornet.local (or anything you want) as a domain on
your own network.

By having both the mail server and your own "fake" domain name hosted on
the network you should have completely reliable mail service even if
your external connection goes down.

If you state what area you are in perhaps one of the local users in here
could offer to set it up for you.

 

Gmail to gmail has no perceivable delay at all when I tried it. Be aware
that they use alternate ports to the old insecure 25 and 110 for email
so make sure to read the howto when setting it up.

 

I would recommend another look at Mercury. Installing and using it is
easier than reading the manual :S

It doesn't have to be complicated if you only want to do simple things
(as you do).

It doesn't use registry entries or databases and installs everything in
one folder, easy to backup, restore or remove if you don't like it.

The best feature is the support forum at
http://community.pmail.com/forums/default.aspx?GroupID=7

There are very helpful people answering any question you may have and
offering advice on setup to suit.

Plus its made in NZ

 

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:56:50 +1300, John S wrote:

snip

Many thanks to those who replied to help me locate either a free email
service with a less sluggish server than yahoo, or a way of operating a
network email server to run an email training course.

It amazes me how helpful people can be to total strangers.

I've had one person email me privately and offer help, plus an older
surplus computer which we could use as an email server.

Other people from two newsgroups have offered practical suggestions.

For anyone interested the suggestions were:-

a) Use gmail - their server is fast & reliable (thanks frederick and
Richard).

b) Use hmailserver - it's easier to set up than Mercury (and use a made-up
domain name) (thanks EMB)

c) Set up a DNS server and mail server on the network (thanks squiggle)

d) Use Mercury (thanks David Lipman)

e) Use Hamster Classic (Thanks P C Paul)

Gives me plenty to work on.

Again, my thanks to everyone who took the trouble to try and help.

Cheers,

John S

 

Make it "seniornet.site". The ".local" suffix is used by Zeroconf.

 

... and well done to you for posting a summary of the helpful suggestions.
Reckon that sort of thing should happen more than it does. Bonus points.