MDaemon is the third mail server I've tried, since starting with iMail and then Mailsite. I really didn't like the iMail interface and that's what prompted the move to Mailsite. However Mailsite was a source of constant frustration to me with its cryptic unintuitive interface and lack of ability to export sites to any other program except itself.

The master feature list for this program is too long to be listed here but is available at: http://www.janteknology.com.au/products/deerfield/mdaemon/features.asp. Basically MDaemon is billed as a server for small to medium sized business because it allows an entire organization to receive Email from a single mailbox provided by an ISP, without having to use expensive gateways, routers, or dedicated lines. MDaemon is designed to meet LAN and Internet Email requirements through a single POP3 account.

Some of the things I liked right off the bat with this program was the slick Worldclient inteface for Web based Email. It can be customized in many ways, and one great feature is you can give the client the ability to create new user accounts, taking the heat off you. The Kaspersky virus can integration installed seamlessly and immediatly got definition updates. Setting up multiple secondary domains is a straighforward process, something I had to do manually because Mailsite would not export to a standard format that MDaemon could import. If you enable the Webconfig client you can admistrate the server from anywhere through a port assignment.

So far I have not noticed support for WAP devices in MDaemon like Mailsite has. Whereas Mailsite uses a virtual directory mapping in IIS to facilitate the Web based email for each secondary domain, MDaemon uses a port assignment based upon the primary domain's TLD. This is a mixed blessing. If a primary domain relies on using an aliased "WWW" in front of its domain in order to resolve (perhaps because they have a dynamic IP and they have mapped it to an alias such as TZO), the alias will not work for finding Worldclient on MDaemon. It does free the Webmaster up from creating virtual directory mappings for each secondary domain as he must do with Mailsite however. So if you do use MDaemon for Web based email and you use an alias, make sure the host record in DNS for your domain is updated with your new IP the minute it changes, which you would need to do in order to ensure mail could find your server at any rate.

The right hand window pane in the client interface gives real time information for what is going on with the server based upon which tab you have selected at the bottom. While it is nice to know what in fact is going on at any time, information which is real hard to access in Mailsite, watching a response to ever instance of a clients mail client checking his mail in the POP window can be a bit overwhelming, information that would normally be found in a log file. Perhaps a quick launch button to the appropriate log file would make the interface less cluttered. On the left window the "right click" options are very sparse: "toggle" and "close" for the server heading, and no right click options for the domains that reside under them. This seems to be unconventional, it would be nice to see some configuration options for the domain properties here instead of having to drill down to them via the menu bar at the top or the large number of icons under them.

I have yet to work with customizing anti-relay and SPAM settings, and hope that I can point it to the same text file of banned domains and spammer addresses I used in Mailsite. The OS (Win2K) has not crashed as a result of this running as an NT service so far as I can tell. The downloadable PDF manual is well written.

After trying the Deerfield Website Server and not liking it when it insisted that it would not let me create a Website on the server unless the DNS resolved to that IP at that given moment (making it impossible to set it up on a backup server that is offline), I was not going to bother checking this product out. It turns out that this server had it Genesis with a completly different company (Alt-N) than Website that came from O'Reilly.

It is possible to download a trial and see if you like it. Pricing is based upon how many users on the server. The price for 6 users is $211.00 which means that for the limited number of Users that I require it for, it is nice that it is priced accordingly and is therefore affordable.

Obviously I'm still scratching the surface of this program, and because my experience is limited to only 3 mail server programs I'm not an expert. But I felt that what I have found so far may be of enough merit to others that I felt I should share what I have found so far. I like it enough that I think a purchase is merited.

Update:
Security: One of the forum users pointed out a potentially catastrophic security hole that would allow a spammer to use your mail server as an open relay, even if you had relaying turned off (the thread seems to have mysteriously disappeared from the Forum). Roughly it goes like this: MDaemon will allow local users to relay, and considers the aliases "Postmaster" and "MDaemon" in front of the domain name as local users. So a spammer that wants to use your mail server as a spam gateway simply places "Postmaster@a_local_domain.com" (where "a_local_domain" = a domain that is on the server) as the "mail from" (or perhaps it was the "reply-to") address, and MDaemon will then allow it to be relayed even if it is sent by a non-local user. In the forum it was suggested to combat the problem using IP blocking, but that solution is akin to closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, you would need to wait until the server had been used as an open relay in order to identify the spammer's IP address.

Import/Export: This one was a real surprise. It turns to be even worse than mailsite. Imagine you spend 8 hours entering all your user accounts and settings manually and now you want to export these to the backup server. Importing allows you 2 options: from .txt file or SAM database. Export allows 4 formats, three of which are proprietary formats for other specific programs such as Eudora or LDAP. The other exports to a .csv file format. I was shocked that there is no import option for .csv! I converted the CSV file to a .txt file in Excel only to learn I could just import the mailbox names, not the passwords, account settings, email address, etc. Now this is even more of a surprise: in desperation I simply copied the entire MDaemon directory from the source computer overtop of the target computer, overwriting all the files on the target machine. Everything copied over, including the passwords! This surely is a security hole. Then all I had to do was change the Primary domain configuration on the target computer and all worked fine. The MDaemon manual recommends using the SAM database as the best way, but that is not an option if you did not set your users up that way in the beginning, and it still won't export the passwords, and probably other important mail account settings for indivicual mail boxes. All the foregoing has caused me to revise my scalability rating to the lowest option.

Create new accounts via webinterface: An administrator can create new accounts, but apparently not a new domain via the web interface. So if he is on the road and someone wants a new secondary domain placed on the server, physical access is required. It would be real nice if you could assign a user administrative privledges over certain domains under his control, and not others. In the present version, it is an all or nothing proposition, if someone has administrative privledges, he has the power to change or delete any account on the entire server.

Filtering: I do not have the option to point to a text file containing email addresses and domains that I want banned. They would have to be entered one by one through the interface apparently. The filter does not give the option to reject or "bounce" mail back to the sender, preferring to place it into a bad message folder or delete it. For example, I know that every piece of mail that arrives for "Webmaster" is SPAM as I never use that name for anything at all. But I cannot get the server to reject it, and therefore the sending party gets the impression that I exist and I do not get deleted from the lists, just propogated even more. It does allow you to reject mail from 'null' addresses, although an RFC no-no, it is nice to have the option.

Virus Definition Updates: Earlier problems updating files have disappeared and it works flawlessly now, catching dozens of viruses every day.

Web Interface anomalies: You can tell the setup that you want the account holders to have the ability to change their real name field, as well as others. When they are in the WorldClient interface, their is an "options" tab that offers them the ability to change real name. However they may try, the name in fact does not actually save. Given that this is the case, why make it accessible in the WorldClient page in the first place? Then they find by experimentation that they need to go to the WebConfig interface which is a different website login, to change that account setting.

I said earlier: *In the Webconfig area, any account holder has the power to delete, create or modify THE ENTIRE LIST OF MAIL ACCOUNTS on the server!* I was wrong. I had not noticed that somehow one of the other account holders had been given administrative privledges. What would be nice here, if you could assign certain users administrative privledges over a number of accounts and secondary domains however.

Real Time info display: I have in fact changed my opinion on this. I have grown to like the fact that I can watch in real time what is going on with all aspects of the server in real time without having to open a log file. I wish that you could cut and paste information from here to the clipboard, then it would be easier to add banned domains and IP's to you filter rules by copying and pasting them. Once the real time display is refreshed I've found that I cannot seem to find the same information that was once there in the logs, at least in the SMTP.

Tech Support:
I was told I could get help from the following contact at Deerfield:
Messaging Supervisor
Deerfield.com
989.731.9200
989.731.9299 fax
christian.nelson@deerfield.com
I did not receive a reply to my email after 5 business days.

If you want support on the phone, you will have to pay for it. The CEO of the company does hang out in the support forum however, and recently more technicians from Deerfield have surfaced to help out. The result is that he is not overloaded so much anymore and since originally writing this review, the support forum appears to have improved greatly.

Conclusion: There are some anomalies, or should they be termed "eccentricities" in this program from the look of it. It would be nice if it was easier to import accounts from other programs or move your configuration to another MDaemon installation. And it would be nice if the server would reject mail for unknow users as opposed to just deleting or moving it to a designated queue. In the end I stuck with the program however. Version 6 should address a large number of the quirks that have been identified, especially making it easier to move your users to another server. The interface is nice looking and remains more intuitive than Imail or MailSite.

Recommended: Yes