[olug] Groupware suggestions - Long

Fri Apr 12 16:25:09 UTC 2002

I'm going to risk going against what I originally believed and state this.  
I would stay away from Win2k/Exchange...I'm certified on Win2k and I still 
couldn't make it "hack proof".  So if this computer is connected to the 
outside then you will start to have issues with that.  However the OpenLDAP 
idea was mentioned and I feel as if I must expand on it.  I have installed 
OpenLDAP and Rolodap per the instructions from the recent OLUG meeting and 
have found it very intuative and nice to use.  Now the problem someone 
brought up was going to the web interface to add a contact.  I know Outlook 
Express does and I'm pretty sure recent versions of Outlook have an LDAP 
client that allows you to connect to an LDAP server and add/delete/update 
all you contacts from the directory.  (Just checked and at least Outlook XP 
has this functionality).  So I guess my suggestion is to put up a secure 
*nix based box (my personal recommendation of OpenBSD or Debian) and install 
OpenLDAP (and rolodap if you want).  Then just set-up the standard 
complement of services you want---qmail for mail, apache for web, etc....So 
maybe I'm insane here but I think this could be what you want?  And you can 
always install phpGroupWare for those clients that like to do everything web 
based....I personally wanted people to go web based when I was working in a 
sys admin job because we could not have license expensive software like 
Outlook then....we could do everything web based...Any questions drop me a 
line....

Thanks,
Nate

>From: Forrest Dickinson <fdickinson at morganhunter.com>
>Reply-To: olug at olug.org
>To: "'olug at olug.org'" <olug at olug.org>
>Subject: RE: [olug] Groupware suggestions - Long
>Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 09:33:05 -0500
>
>Hi Eric,
>
>At the risk of "going against the grain" in a Linux users group I would
>recommend that you go with Exchange 2k it and Lotus Notes are your two only
>real options for true groupware(in my opinion).  Where exchange sucks at is
>on the SMTP side when it comes to content and spam filtering but you can
>always use a Linux box running Sendmail or Postfix as your email gateway 
>and
>filter attachments with that.  Development on Lotus Notes/Domino is 
>arguably
>easier but the Notes client sucks (in my opinion) its more of a resource 
>hog
>than Outlook is and its extremely unintuitive for the end users.  I am the
>Sysadmin for a Recruiting Company in Kansas City and we are developing our
>entire groupware database on Exchange/Outlook.  In our public folders we
>have more than 200,000 contacts with various custom forms depending on the
>division.  The speed is fast and stability is good on the server side the
>only time I reboot the exchange servers is after I install security updates
>(of course on Linux you usually don't have to do that) but my exchange
>servers are up for months at a time.  I am running outlook xp on the client
>side.  I would suggest that if you use exchange you defiantly get your 
>win2k
>server with active directory running right. Also if you run exchange or
>lotus notes you need to have a server dedicated to running it and only
>exchange or notes.  That's where a lot of people mess up on NT and Win 2k
>networks you should always have a dedicated server for each application you
>are running (for example we have six servers here a fileserver, Exchange
>server for public folders, exchange server for private folders "mailboxes",
>a server running Domino, a terminal server, and a server running ISA server
>for the firewall) when you try to get a win2k server or a nt server to do
>two or more things no matter how small the network is you are usually
>messing up (that's one of the areas linux/unix kill Microsoft).  But anyway
>I would recommend going with a Exchange 2k it may be over kill in some 
>areas
>for you but I am sure your boss is like most bosses if you get this
>accomplished for him/her they will always want it to do more.  You can go
>with Lotus notes and domino if you want but Last time I checked notes is a
>lot more expensive than exchange and Notes admins and developers are 
>getting
>to be a lot less in demand which is something to consider from a resume
>standpoint. Anyway just my 2 cents.
>
>Forrest Dickinson
>Systems Administrator
>Morgan Hunter Companies
>7600 West 110th Street
>Overland Park, Kansas 66210
>Main:   (913) 491-3434
>Direct: (913) 409-1230
>Fax:     (913) 409-1232
>mailto://[email protected]
>http://www.morganhunter.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Eric Penne [mailto:epenne at yahoo.com]
>Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 8:43 AM
>To: olug at olug.org
>Subject: Re: [olug] Groupware suggestions - Long
>
>We've tried this and it doesn't seem to work.  This is part of the
>circular discussion that I've had with my boss 3 times now. Each time
>he go back to this and tries it again.  Each time I spend the next hour
>and half troubleshooting why it doesn't work and explaining to him that
>I can't get it to work.
>
>This was the original idea though, but for some reason it just won't
>work.  I've never found a reason for it not working.
>
>Thanks
>Eric
>
>PS If a good solution can be found (Win or Lin) there might be some
>money involved to set it up and train me on it.
>
>
>
>
>-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
>
>For help contact olug-help at olug.org - run by ezmlm
>to unsubscribe, send mail to olug-unsubscribe at olug.org
>or `mail olug-unsubscribe at olug.org < /dev/null`
>(c)1998-2002 OLUG http://www.olug.org
>
>-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

"Only those who think know, but those wo know always think."
Nate Rotschafer
Millard West High School
Omaha, NE

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

For help contact olug-help at olug.org - run by ezmlm
to unsubscribe, send mail to olug-unsubscribe at olug.org
or `mail olug-unsubscribe at olug.org < /dev/null`
(c)1998-2002 OLUG http://www.olug.org

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_