We are thinking about bringing our e-mail in house. We have a small AS400 with Legacy software. There are 30 PC workstations on various platforms connected to the network. We are considering Louts Notes so we would also have a scheduler and instant messaging without using the internet like AIM. What success have you all had with Louts Notes? Is there another product that might work better? Thank you

Max... I don't know if Notes can be set up on your AS400...so I assume you will need to set up a server for it...Set it up with Domino Server, easy install...For only 30 users, any old Pentium machine will work...I have installed it several times on a PII-300, (Old Compaq Prosignia servers) and worked real good... I really don't think there is very much difference between Notes/Domino and Outlook/Exchange...it's more a matter of what you get used to... One thing to consider, a lot of virus' are passed thru Exchange Server...I don't know this for a fact, but it is my understanding that many of those virus's will NOT be propagated thru a Domino server...If this is true, I suspect this is why I have installed Notes at several banks over tha past couple of years... I think Notes is a little more complicated to set up and troubel shoot than Exchange... And you can find experienced Exchange tech anywhere...Domino techs are a harder find... Hope this helps Steve

a Domino server (Lotus Notes server) comes for many platforms - including Linux, Unix, AIX. There might will be a version for AS400 - check it out. However, I've heard that a Domino server running on a mainframe is very slow. If you just want an e-mail server, I think MS Exchange is better. It's easier to perform many tasks than Notes. It's also easier to maintain. Notes is more than just an e-mail server. It's also a very popular database and web server. If you need these features, then Notes might be better for you. One important thing about the differences between the 2 is backup. Notes keeps mailboxes in separate files as oppose to Exchange which keeps all mailboxes in one database (Information Store). This makes backing up mailboxes in Notes a lot quicker and easier -- also easier to restore. Steve, The only reason that there seem to be more Viruses in the MS Exchange related world is because those viruses were written in VB which can manipulate Outlook and any other MS Office related application. It doesn't matter what e-mail server platform you use, if you don't have a mail scanning software or if it's not up-to-date, the viruses will get through.