Absolute Newbie Design Question

[MoaTad]

In our small company we run Win NT 4 and Exchange 5.5 for internal email and have external email hosted through an ISP. The ISP also hosts our domain name. Our network domain is the same name as our public domain name (ex. mycompany). Each workstation on our network has Outlook set up to check 2 mail accounts, the Exchange Server and the ISP email account.
As I set up each email account with our ISP, I use the same username as the one our users log into the network with, so their "internal" and "external" email addresses are the same. (ex. bob@mycompany.com)
So, when a user sends an email to another user, it doesn't matter which account they use to send the email, internally via Exchange or externally via the ISP. Either way, the email gets there. They just have to remember to send via the external account when emailing someone outside our company.

So now, I am charged with implementing a new network that will have Win Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003. We will still have the ISP hosting our domain name and handling external email. I have learned that in order for me to make the user's internal and external email address match, I need to name my domain "mycompany.com" instead of just "mycompany".
Is this correct? Or am I going about this all wrong? Obviously, Active Directory is new to me and all the reference books I have cover much more sophisticated situations than mine.

I would appreciate any and all comments and suggestions on this.

Also, I am unsure as to whether I should install Exchange on the Domain Controller or to install it on a second server. I've read that having it all on one server is ok for a small company like mine (<50 users), but other than performance, I wonder if there are other reasons to split them onto two servers?

 

[Zelandakh]

Yikes. You know how to complicate things!

Keep one server - it isn't recommended but it works fine.

Have your ISP change your MX records to:
10 your public IP address for your Exchange Server
20 their SMTP server

They will need to accept your domain emails to their SMTP server. This is in cae your Exchange server is not available.

Then create an SMTP connector on Exchange to be your bridgehead to send and receive emails.

Ensure all users have the right email address - use RUS to make a global change.

Outlook then just connects to Exchange and nowhere else. You'll see a big improvement in performance too.

I've done this down to Exchange servers with 3 users!!! It works.

 

[kmclane]

I run a Small Business Server 2003, which puts on one box, get this, Server 2003, Exchange 2003, WSS, SQL Server and ISA Server 2000. We host our own e-mail. We use our isp's server as a smart host. Our internal domain is mycompany.local. This works fine unless you plan on having Macs, then they recceomend .lan. If you have at least a decent DSL connection you can host your e-mail in house and have your isp set themselves up as a backup mx. You may want to look at SBS2K3, the pricing is way better. HTH.
Ken

- If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit.
Mitch Hedburg

 

[Zelandakh]

Yup, SBS is great. But disable the stuff you don't need like SQL, WSS, ISA etc. You need a minimum of 1GB of RAM and preferably 2GB to make it fly. And a box with plenty of disks - not just disk space if you can.

 

[kmclane]

# or 4 is better if you use the extras. We were only using it as a file server when I started here, now I put everything to use. I forgot about RWW. Now I can be home sick and still login and work.

- If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit.
Mitch Hedburg

 

[MoaTad]

Thanks Zelandakh for the fast response! I inherited this mess and have been keeping it afloat for a while, but I would like to set up the new network in a more proper way. Unfortunately, I'm out of my depth here so forgive me for the follow-up questions.

I pretty much understand that the users would only connect to Exchange, and Exchange would determine whether to route the emails internally or out to the ISP. (I'm assuming that thats what the SMTP connector does.)

The question is about the communication between our Exchange server and our ISP. First off, when you say:

"Have your ISP change your MX records to:
10 your public IP address for your Exchange Server
20 their SMTP server"

could you elaborate a little?

Second off, our Exchange server is behind our firewall currently. I'm not sure what I would need to do to expose it to the ISP. I'm not thinking it could go in the DMZ, so would it be a matter of opening up the right ports?

 

[MoaTad]

Thanks Ken for the advice. That is the direction I'd like to go in for setting this up.
We used an old version of SBS and it caused so many headaches that we decided not to go further with it. Since we have already purchased W2k3 and Exchange 2003, we are committed to them even if it turns out to cost a little more (and give me more grey hair).

Our connection is a very fast and reliable DSL connection, and if I can get enough detail on how to set this up, I think it would suit our needs.

 

[Zelandakh]

Phone tech support at the ISP and they'll help you on the MX record.

On your firewall, open port 80 through to the Exchange Server and port 25 and 443. This will give you OWA, secure OWA and SMTP. Job done.

SBS against Exchange is mainly down to cost. If you;ve got it, go for it.