Topic: Clark Connect

[steever]

From Distrowatch ...

A major new version of ClarkConnect Server and Gateway has been released: "ClarkConnect 4.0 represents Point Clark Networks' most significant platform release. Thousand hours of research, software development, integration and testing have been invested in the 4.0 feature set." The new version includes a large number of new features including LDAP user management, group management; calendaring and collaboration with Outlook Connector; Horde webmail, Flexshare, Cyrus POP3/IMAP, DSPAM protection (in addition to SpamAssassin), ClamAV antivirus for mail protection (in addition to optional Sophos), SSL certificate manager, 1:1 NAT and MultiWAN, fault tolerance option in MultiWAN, AdZapper, Graphical Console and many other additions and software updates.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

[gregswallow]

Yup, execpt just be aware some of the features you quoted aren't in the free/community version - 1:1 NAT and MultiWAN, fault tolerance option in MultiWAN, Sophos, the Toltec Outlook connector, and it is limited to 10 mailboxes - more info - http://www.clarkconnect.com/info/compare.php

But congratulations to Clarkconnect on the new release.  There are probably some features in there that SME Server users would like.  Feel free to check the bug tracker for new feature requests in the "SME Server Future" category, and if there's something you'd like to see in SME Server that isn't in there already, feel free to make a detailed report, especially if you'd be interested to fund development of a certain feature.

[soprom]

CC has selected the Cyrus (Kolab) mail server instead of dovecot. This is a major step for offices using Outlook. This seams not to be much of a concern for contribs community but it draws attention for sure.

Jon Roberts has provided us with a package offering such a mail server.
See link:
http://www.westcountrybusiness.com/wba/westcountrybusiness/westcountrybusinesswebsite.nsf/OpenSection?OpenAgent&Section=8.3

[gregswallow]

#1 - I bet the SME developers know nothing of that persons work to use cyrus instead - tell the author of that contrib to make a bug report in the SME Server Future category.  I'm not saying that SME Server might use cyrus some day, but that is the place to announce any proposed changes to the distribution.

#2 - I personally would like to support GPL/Free software (ie, not the Toltec connector).  The newer versions of Horde apps are beginning to support the sync4j connector that works with Outlook.  Horde is very easy to configure yourself if you want to install the 3.1 or CVS version and play with the new features.  There's lots of posts about doing that on this board, and plenty of help on the horde.org mailing lists.
Some links:
http://www.horde.org/sync/
http://wiki.horde.org/SyncRoadMap
http://wiki.horde.org/SyncHowTo

[soprom]

I prefer GPL too but there are so many offices using Outlook that it is a major part of the context.

As of now, the only alternative I know is EGroupware with php5. It can synch with Outlook. When php5 will be available on SME, it'll be a good solution.

For now, I'll try the SME Server Future category. Thanks for your comments!