Saturday, September 16, 2006
PopGUI for PopRoute - Affordable POP3 to Exchange Setup
Posted by Jon Westfall in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 08:00 AM
"If you've ever tried setting up an exchange server at your home, small business, or on any server that doesn't have a 100% reliable 100% always-on connection, you've probably needed a tool like PopRoute. PopRoute lets you "pop" your external POP3 accounts and route the mail from them into an Exchange Inbox. It's perfect for servers that aren't always connected (i.e. dial-up), have a rather shakey connection (making forwarding to the user's exchange email address unfeasible, or for otherwise fine exchange servers with user who stubbornly want their "other" email in their exchange account. The problem with PopRoute is that, while the price is right, the configuration interface leaves lots to be desired. ... The nice thing about PopGUI + PopRoute is that, for an extremely low price, you get the same ease of administration that tools costing $100+ provide."
Ok, I gotta admit, it's a little weird posting here about a piece of software I've written. But since it seems to be getting a bit more popular lately, I thought this crowd may contain some people who would get some use out of it.
Poproute is a nice lightweight program that simply downloads email from a POP account and routes it up to an exchange server. It's configured by a simple INI file, a file that for experts is fairly straight forward and easy to configure. The problem is that not everyone is an expert or feels comfortable editing an INI file. Additionally, Poproute requires that each mailbox entry be ordered sequentially (i.e. Mailbox1, Mailbox2, Mailbox 3), so removing a POP account high in the list (Mailbox2 for example) requires re-numbering (Which is a bit annoying).
With that in mind, I coded together a .NET 2.0 VB app that reads the INI file and helps make sense of adding, editing, and removing entries in it. I've set this up on one of my servers where the other admins aren't as familiar with the poproute INI file as I am and it seems to be working nicely. Of course since the original is free, I've decided to release my frontend free as well - all I ask is that you register with me so I can see how the app is doing, who is using it, and such.
For the record, I know that companies need to make a living - but the cheapest alternative to poproute I can find still runs around $75 or more - making poproute + PopGUI a fairly attractive solution (Although I may be biased :) )
Ok, I gotta admit, it's a little weird posting here about a piece of software I've written. But since it seems to be getting a bit more popular lately, I thought this crowd may contain some people who would get some use out of it.
Poproute is a nice lightweight program that simply downloads email from a POP account and routes it up to an exchange server. It's configured by a simple INI file, a file that for experts is fairly straight forward and easy to configure. The problem is that not everyone is an expert or feels comfortable editing an INI file. Additionally, Poproute requires that each mailbox entry be ordered sequentially (i.e. Mailbox1, Mailbox2, Mailbox 3), so removing a POP account high in the list (Mailbox2 for example) requires re-numbering (Which is a bit annoying).
With that in mind, I coded together a .NET 2.0 VB app that reads the INI file and helps make sense of adding, editing, and removing entries in it. I've set this up on one of my servers where the other admins aren't as familiar with the poproute INI file as I am and it seems to be working nicely. Of course since the original is free, I've decided to release my frontend free as well - all I ask is that you register with me so I can see how the app is doing, who is using it, and such.
For the record, I know that companies need to make a living - but the cheapest alternative to poproute I can find still runs around $75 or more - making poproute + PopGUI a fairly attractive solution (Although I may be biased :) )
