InformationWeek

June 21, 1999

E-Mail Showdown

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Related links:

sidebar: E-Mail Systems Test Methods

Related links from our sister publications:

InternetWeek Standards-Based E-Mail For The Enterprise

InternetWeek E-Mail Has Become A Mission-Critical App

Windows The Dangers of E-Mail

Windows E-Mail from Any App

Another in-the-box option is per-user cost accounting. We didn't evaluate this option because it wouldn't fit our typical enterprise E-mail scenario, but it can be used to generate per-user reports based on message number and size transmitted or received, or on the amount of disk space used.

We also didn't evaluate the two extra-price options available for N-Plex Global: Web access to E-mail, using Isocor's N-Plex WebExpress software, and N-Plex Virus Scanning, which uses Trend Micro's Interscan VirusWall.

N-Plex is the most expensive product in this review; it's priced at $1,000 for the bare software and $5 per mailbox.

Stalker CommuniGate Pro
CommuniGate Pro 3.0b6 is a versatile product from a small company, Stalker Software, known for its CommuniGate E-mail server for Macintosh. CommuniGate Pro is a cross-platform server, with Solaris, Mac OS, Windows 9x/NT, Linux, FreeBSD, BSDI, Digital Unix, Irix, and HP-UX versions available. CommuniGate Pro's strengths, beyond cross-platform support, are its ease of setup, fully integrated Web E-mail, and granular administration via the Web. Comprehensive documentation and virus protection are both lacking.

The electronic-commerce revolution has arrived: CommuniGate Pro is distributed via FTP or HTML download. The download is for a full-featured trial version, which places annoying banners on all messages; upon payment, Stalker sends a key code to disable those banners. To install, we unzipped the files and ran installer.exe. All it asked was where to install the program and data files. A minute later, the E-mail server was live on our ProLiant server, with no rebooting necessary.

All administration is via Web browser, via a management TCP/IP port. There is no functional difference between local and remote administration, so we did all administration from a Windows 98 PC on the LAN. Browsing to a specific TCP/IP port on the server brings up the two-paned management interface. It's apparently pure HTML, with no Java or scripting.

The interface is quick and intuitive to use, and each item contains a hypertext link to Stalker's Web site where there's extensive online help. Using that information, it took little time to interface CommuniGate Pro with our Internet service provider's mail forwarder. It's reminiscent of old Unix manual pages, only better looking and hyperlinked.

Unfortunately, that online help is all there is for documentation. If you want local documentation, you can download those online Web pages to a local machine in a Zip file (which was slightly out of date). Don't know how to do something, or if something is possible? You'll need to do a lot of clicking and reading to find out. Stalker would be well-served by producing a real manual, one that outlined how to set up and use the product, and that provided reference information, rather than relying purely on individual help items for menu selections.

The Web-based management scheme proved to be the easiest of all the E-mail packages--more intuitive than the management console used by Eudora WorldMail and Isocor N-Plex, and better organized than the diverse tools used by Ipswitch IMail. Plus, it offers full remote administration; the only reason to go to the server console would be to stop or start the CommuniGate Pro server from the Windows NT Server Manager. Once it was running, we never touched the console again.

The Web interface also allows for separation of management functions. Although the Postmaster account can perform all administrative functions, other users can be provided with privileges for handling the user directory, changing setting for all or certain domains, adjusting global server settings, and accessing logs and queues. It's simple, clean, and efficient.