Pop3 connector for Exchange

We’re a small non-prof with 40 employees on XPP with Ofc2003 on a W2K3S domain - NOT SBS. We have a single Exchange 2003 for internal calendar share and mailboxes. We have an external mail host (GoDaddy). Each Outlook on the workstations had been configured with two accounts; one Exchange, and one to pop. The structure has been in place for four years and seemed like a reasonable idea at the time due to budget issues, and to avoid all the headaches of hosting our own email. We now need to support a handful of Blackberry's, and of course, there is still no budget.

I am having difficulty with the hosted email reconciliations. Seems the best solution would be to point our MX here and host our own, email but I am concerned about the administrative effort in time and management, not to mention trying to find sources of funding for a secondary server and licenses. We will not be able to afford a "front end" and "back end" topology, so hosting here on a single server in the DMZ seems foolish and more problematic than I want to deal with. I have looked at many POP3 connectors and have been thinking about that route.

I have read MANY comments from multiple threads; everything from setting up an ISA on Unbuntu, to setting up SMTP on Exchange to pro’s/con’s of installing pop3 connectors. Its now getting close to “zero-hour” and I need to roll out the handhelds. I have decided to stick to the pop connector solution. Since Exchange 2003 (NOT SBS) does not have this native, I need referrals for low-cost (preferably free) connectors that I can implement… I did get a quote from GFI, but until our new fiscal year, we just don’t have a technology budget to draw on…

I know @ some point we used Pop Con not sure how much it is.

I have this same scenario with 1 client.  I have used [ POP3 Connector by MAPILabs ] with great success.  It also works with Blackberry Professional Server.  The 50 mailbox license is about $200.  You can use it free for 30 days.

About Exchange, though, you don't need a front-end/back-end setup for 40 users.  And you don't need to put it in the DMZ either (just forward port 25 to the Exchange server - also ports 80/443 if you provide Outlook Web Access).  There's a decent post here on TechSoup written about how to reduce spam with Exchange 2003 without buying anything (just configuring it) - let me know if you need help finding it.  I forgot who wrote the guide.

Or you could implement SpamAssassin - [ found this post ] that links to a couple guides on how to implement it.  I don't know if the guides are any good as I have decided to purchase anti spam (and used to use a product called ASSP prior).

There are pros and cons to both set ups.  The easiest and quickest to hit the ground running would be the POP3 Connector as you've indicated.  I figured $200 one time is worth the cost.  And GoDaddy has multiple MX records, correct - so you don't have to worry about email senders getting an undeliverable error if your server is down for maintenance (though I fix that with mx backup from dyndns.com).

Anyway, hope MAPI Labs gives you what you're looking for.  If you're interested in just hosting it all on Exchange yourself, there's a lot of Exchange experience on these forums and we can help you there, too.