I am in a very similar situation. Limited budget etc etc. We applied for a school Gmail account from Google. We are now able to give everyone – students, teachers, staff – an account in the form ‘user@schoolname.org’. The best part is that it’s free, and everyone can access it via the Internet. People can choose whether or not to keep old e-mails on the server after they’ve been downloaded into Outlook.

ok so heres the scoop. we are using exchange server 2003 for our mail servers. the laptop has access to the web. we use outlook from office 2007 suite. the least complicated route is better for me and the staff. thanx alot

thanx for the info on gmail. it works great, but i still have a problem. my boss wants to be able to fully check her mail. new, old, everything, when she is not in the office. gmail is good dont get me wrong. but it doesnt accomplish all that needs to be. anything else to help me would be great. thanks alot

Would an e-mail backup solution work? Old e-mails can be stored in a file on the hard drive, using a utility (free) called MailStore (Google it.) Copy that file onto the users home computer, using a flash drive. New e-mails can be accessed through GMail. Of course, the user must take some responsibility for keeping the MailStore file updated.

This should be simple with exchange 03, of course you need to make sure Outlook Web Access is configured on the exchange 03 server. OWA does exactly what you need for this user. The user will navigate to the internet, type in the smtp address for OWA, then they will be asked to enter a userid and password, and finally the mail will load. There can be issues with the Global Address List, and Calendar, but this will give the user their entire inbox old and new email. Concerned that you are possibly using an exchange server with no firewall?? The reason I say this is that you are using an exchange server and this requires a domain, no firewall in place is sketchy. If you have a firewall it should allow a VPN connection created in XP to pass through and this will give the end user full access to everything they need on the network, if you go the vpn route be sure to change the dns entry in the TCP/IP properties of this connection to correspond with your networks dns. With a VPN it is also a good idea to add hosts files to the laptop for any resources on the network they will need. I hope this helps out.

If it is Exchange 2003, you should be able to use OWA (Outlook Web Access) or Outlook Anywhere. This will give your superintendent full access to everything in her email account. It’s just a matter of installing an SSL certificate as well as the RPC Over HTTP Proxy on the Exchange Server – assuming this hasn’t already been set up. Inexpensive, not overly complicated, and it gives you everything you need. If you don’t have a Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, I highly recommend it. For a small amount that should fit any budget (roughly $30) you can find complete instructions for all sorts of tasks, including this one

ok thanks guys i give it a try