Known Issues and Alternatives to Mailsrv Utility (172601)

SUMMARY

The Mail Server 1.1 utility (MailSrv) provided with the Microsoft Windows NT Server Resource Kit, Version 4.0 was designed as a basic SMTP and POP3 mail server. It was never designed or intended to be a mission-critical, secure, or enterprise-scale solution.

Microsoft has developed two full-featured mail servers to provide superior functionality and reliability. Microsoft recommends implementing a more secure and reliable mail service than can be managed by the MailSrv utility. Therefore, MailSrv has been discontinued.

MORE INFORMATION

The following problems have been reported with the MailSrv utility on the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource Kit CD-ROM.

Mail sent to the MailSrv server is held in the spool directory and is not distributed to the appropriate user.
Over a period of time, MailSrv might slowly take up to 100 percent of the available CPU cycles. Stopping or restarting local mail delivery service, POP3 service, and SMTP service, will release the CPU cycles.

The Resource Kit development team is aware of these problems and will post further information as it becomes available. However, the MailSrv utility is no longer included with the Microsoft Windows NT Resource Kit. MailSrv.Exe was not included on the Microsoft Windows NT Server Resource Kit, Version 4.0, Supplement One CD-ROM, and MailSrv will not be included with future supplements or releases.

Alternatives

Microsoft produces two robust, secure, and full-featured mail service solutions for an enterprise system: Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Commercial Internet System.

More information about Microsoft Exchange Server can be found on the following Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/

More information about Microsoft Commercial Internet System and other Microsoft enterprise solutions can be found at:

http://backoffice.microsoft.com/

If you are looking for a small-scale Windows NT mail server solution, you might find that a suitable freeware or shareware mail server is available. You can find a list of third party mail server vendors by going to the following Web site and searching for the Mail Server product category:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/isv/

This site is subject to regular change, and most of the freeware and shareware hyperlinks are frequently updated and replaced with newer links.

NOTE: Because the Microsoft Web site is regularly updated, these site addresses may change without notice. If this occurs, link to the Microsoft home page at the following address:

http://www.microsoft.com/