Mail server for every website on IIS

Question

I'm using Windows 7 x64 and IIS 7 to serve several websites.

What I want to do is set-up a mail server for every domain name (like in Linux hostings), and web-interface for example domain1.com/webmail, domain2.com/webmail ... Is that possible on Windows? Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible, but first a note: Win 7 IIS will limit concurrent connection requests to 3 (home premium) or 10 (anything higher), so it's recommended to use Windows Server software to run production boxes.

You'll first need to install your preferred mail server software. Then you have a couple options depending on how your chosen mail server & webmail interface work:

1. Run separate copies of the webmail interface for each site in the /webmail/ directory
2. Setup /webmail/ virtual directories for each site that point to a single shared instance of the webmail interface code
3. Use subdomains (webmail.domain.com) to all point to a single website hosting the webmail interface.

I would probably opt for #3 for the flexibility and ease of migration later when expanding out of the single server instance.

Answer 2

I guess if you would ask Microsoft, you'd have to buy Exchange and use Outlook Web Access as webmail. In Exchange you would have to configure the different domains and mailboxes.

In IIS, if I recall correctly, you can add one (or more?) Virtual SMTP hosts, and define there what should happen to incoming mails. There are a number of open-source and/or free webmail solutions you could link to this. (I found this just with a quick google around.)

In both cases you'll have to confige MX entries in the DNS records for the domains. So the mail system knows where to send the mails to.

Answer 3

If I remember right then the Plesk control panel is using SmarterMail in the background. So this should fit your needs too.

Answer 4

You can use hMailServer which is a free windows mail server http://www.hmailserver.com/