[Eug-lug] Fwd: question about email hosting solutions

[David Mandel]

Mike,

I have been bouncing some of my mail thru gmail accounts for a whille
to use Google's SPAM filters with good success - assuming one doesn't
mind letting Google look at and analyze all of your email.

But at this point, I'm thinking about using gmail for domains.
In fact, I am testing the system with DavidMandel.com (and dmandel at pdxLinux.org)
and one or two other domains.
So far I see good things and bad things and don't know how they will balance.

Good Things:
   (1)  It is free
   (2)  It is easy to use and not too bad to configure
   (3)  It has large (maybe even huge) storage limits.
   (4)  I like the SPAM filtering and the message tagging
         (labeling in google talk)
   (5)  One can easily use gmail's POP or automatic forwarding to keep a copy
         of everything on your own machine.
         I don't trust anyone enough to let them have the only copy of my mail.
   (6)  The labels and filters and SPAM system works well.
   (7)  The interface is as nice as a web interface can be.

Bad Things:
   (1)  There are security and privacy issues
         Do you really want communications to your lawyer and accountant and
         business partners on google servers?
   (2)  There is no support for secure communications, imap, procmail, pgp,
          and a number of other things.
   (3)  I don't know anything about a gmail API if there is one.
         I'm not sure how one would integrate gmail with something like mailman
         on a personal server.  Gmail's mailing lists are extremely basic and
         while useful can't replace sophisticated mailing lists like mailman.
   (4)  There isn't a good way to upload existing mail to your gmail account.
   (5)  You are stuck using a web interface.
         Personally, I like pine or emacs to read and write mail.
         I know these aren't modern, but they are very efficient.
   (6)  One is limited to adding 25 accounts per domain.
         This works for all of my domains, but just barely.

I don't want this to sound too negative.
To date things have been going pretty well with my "gmail for domains" test,
but it is still too early to know for sure.

I host my own web services and don't mind doing this, because I don't
know of anyone who provides to type of services I want at a price I'm
willing to pay.  However, my needs for mail services are rather basic
and it is too time consuming and painful to continue hosting them
myself.  So am looking for a cheap, easy, hosting solution.
Gmail for domains may well be the answer.

David Mandel

On 11/20/06, Michael Miller <mike.mikemiller at gmail.com> wrote:
> David,
>
> You should look at gmail.  I've only received two or three spam
> messages with my gmail account.  I mark them as spam and I don't see
> that type of message again.
>
> Mike Miller
>
> On 11/19/06, Ben Barrett <stircrazyben at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I love gmail's labels (as opposed to folders, which allow no overlap in
> > context-tagging).
> > Their recent application additions are awesome, and I like their calendar
> > too... I have not used their "for domains" service yet, but am curious to
> > see what differences exist in the domain/organization implementation.  Group
> > calendaring is hot.  :)   I also like their txt-msg appointment reminders,
> > fwiw.
> > YMMV, of course, and IMAP, heh, well traditional folders are kind of
> > limited, dare I say,
> > and I can see why they don't provide it -- how would you stuff a tag cloud
> > into bins?
> >
> > As for the run-of-the-mill hosting services... if your spam volume is low
> > enough (and, er, your users' bandwidth is high enough),
> > you can let nice mail clients like thunderbird handle it (albeit with a
> > touch of training).  I haven't seen any run-of-the-mill hosting
> > services which include SpamAssassin, but then again I haven't been looking
> > :)
> >
> > I've become a reseller for web hosting recently, contact me off-list if
> > you're interested.  I am pleased with the service so far, nuff said.
> >
> > good luck!
> >
> >     Ben
> >
> >
> > On 11/19/06, David Mandel <dmandel at pdxlinux.org> wrote:
> > > Hosting email should be simple, but it isn't - thanks to all the
> > > SPAMERS and system crackers and whoever.
> > >
> > > As a result, I'm tryed of hosting my own mail and I'm looking around
> > > for a hosted solution for a few domains.  What do people recommend?
> > > What are the pros and cons to gmail for domains?
> > >
> > > David Mandel
> >
> >
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