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NTMail Outpaces Solid Pack of IMAP Mail Servers
May 3, 1999

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By Gregory Yerxa Choosing an e-mail server is a bit like choosing between a fully loaded SUV and a sedate sedan. You can pay a lot of money for a big vehicle with every feature imaginable or you can pay relatively little and get a streamlined model that focuses on pure transportation with some extras. Full-bore solutions, such as Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange, are akin to full-featured SUVs. These messaging leviathans offer calendaring, collaboration and robust directory services for enterprise-level messaging. But what if all you need is solid, dependable transportation for your e-mail? If that's the case, a basic e-mail server that supports IMAP, POP3 and SMTP will fit the bill.

We took seven IMAP/POP3 servers for a test spin in our University of Wisconsin Real-World Labs®. Our tests showed that these streamlined alternatives to the messaging behemoths really deliver. Most cost around $4 to $10 per mailbox. Major-league messaging solutions tip the budget scales at around $50 to $75 per mailbox for 25 users, down to $15 to $50 per mailbox for 1,000 users. If you don't need extensive directory services and calendaring, then the feature-rich offerings of these servers should earn them a spot on your short list.

Although we tested only Windows NT versions, Stalker Software's CommuniGate Pro and ISOCOR's N-Plex Global both come in versions for Sun Solaris, and Stalker offers CommuniGate for Linux and MacOS.

How They Rated Gordano's NTMail (formerly Internet Shopper) raced to a first-place finish; it delivered everything we were looking for and more. The rest of the field was solid, but some early subtle differences among the best and worst of the products grew more pronounced as our testing progressed. We focused on integration with NT user and external databases, and antispam and SMTP security options. We also tested Web management and the quality of user interfaces. Both areas, however, carried less weight in our grading.

IPSwitch's IMail and ISOCOR's N-Plex Global met our expectations but lacked the extras necessary to keep up with or top NTMail. Stalker's CommuniGate Pro also met our expectations but lacked expected security features and an array of options. QUALCOMM's Eudora WorldMail Server, Rockliffe's MailSite and Vintra Systems' Mail Server Professional trailed with less-than-shining feature sets and limited functionality.

IMAP Is Enterprise-Ready While IMAP is not new to many network administrators, it has matured considerably in the past few years. Client support has solidified with second- and third-generation clients from Microsoft, Netscape Communications Corp. and QUALCOMM. With these stable IMAP clients, there's no reason to avoid implementing IMAP. It offers a robust feature set along with a solid online/offline storage model. During our tests we used each of the mail clients and had no compatibility problems with any of the servers. With that in mind, the benefits of providing IMAP support for roaming users are clear and forecast the eventual demise of POP3/SMTP-only mail services. IMAP is easily supported in conjunction with POP3 services and should not be overlooked as the default mail-access protocol. The original pitfalls of IMAP servers, most of which were related to server-side storage, are now easily handled with robust message-size and message-store restrictions.

WUI Who? Each of the IMAP mail servers we tested includes some form of management via a Web browser. In addition, these servers typically give authenticated users access to large amounts of server information through the browser. Using this interface, individual users are able to access their e-mail and change some of their configuration information without administrative assistance. We call this versatile interface a WUI, or Web user interface.

The features and quality of the WUIs we tested varied dramatically. Unlike the NTMail WUI, most Web interfaces are still unrefined and often provide access only to account settings, such as away messages and password changes. Just three of the products that we tested--NTMail, IMail and CommuniGate Pro--have Web interfaces for accessing and sending mail. The good news is that all the servers we tested have sufficient SMTP and antispam features. NTMail, MailSite and CommuniGate Pro also support real-time blackhole lists (RBLs) of open SMTP relay hosts.