So, what is Exchange, Bert and Sandeep? Well, rather than tell you, let's take a trip. OK. Sounds fun.
So, they all hop in Sandeep's transporter and head to an ISP far, far away. After heading through the clouds and quite some space (actually probably a mile down the road), we arrive at Roadrunner. Sandeep parks the transporter and they all hop out. After knocking on the door, it opens and a very pleasant man welcomes them in. "Hi, welcome to Roadrunner, a subsidiary of Time-Warner. We are quite a large ISP for many customers including you. Our major job is proving you with Internet access and email services."
We're here to look at Tom's email system. The caretaker walks over to a room marked Tom's email. On the door, there is a sign stating POP3 and Port 110. There is a pile of email on the floor. "I do wish you guys would set your POP3 check on a schedule." So, Tom makes a note of this. "So, what is POP3." The man starts to talk, but Sandeep interrupts him. "POP3 is a protocol for receiving email. It is simply Post Office Protocol v3. Your email is stored here until your email program checks for it." "So, where is my sent mail." "Roadrunner relays it for you. No need to keep it around." "It generally is sent here, and we send it right out using SMTP or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol." "Well, what if I need a copy of it?" "Well, you are out of luck."
So, Bert begins to grab all of the email, and copies the entire room's code to his Flash Drive. "What are you doing?" "Don't worry Tom. We are going to move your entire ISP's email and put it on your computer. It is called Exchange. Of course, it makes sense since it exchanges email from your business to the outside world and vice versa, AND, it allows the sending of email to all of your users for HIPAA compliance."
So, we get back to Tom's computer, enter the code, set some things up, and he has Exchange. "So, how am I going to get email?" "Well you could use the POP3 connector and you would still be stuck with your ISP. The POP3 connector is lame, plus you have to wait on your incoming email."
"We are simply going to have all email come directly to your Exchange Server." "That would be cool." "You will need a domain name so the DNS servers can recognize your email address. So, you simply set up your domain name and change your AREC and MX Records, and all your email will be sent directly to your server."
"It seems complicated, but basically when someone sends an email to you, it is sent to a DNS server. The domain name server takes your domain name and changes it to your IP address 72.45.xx.xxx. Using your MX Exchange and ARECs that you set up on your domain host, the email is sent to your server or Exchange Server. Once this is set up, it is transparent so that email does not go to your ISP but directly to your computer. Your sent mail still goes through your ISP."
Sandeep jumps in, "The advantage of this besides quickness (e.g. mail sent, mail received) is that now your entire ISP's mail server is on your computer. The amount of things you can do now are endless. Compare this to Word. We all uses 1% of Word and then add things along the way. Same with your Exchange Server. You can journal all your mail so you have a copy of every email in and out. You can send emails with patient names to your staff. You can set properties on each user's email. With group policy and Exchange Management Console, you can do pretty much anything. To some, this ability is incredible. To others, why not just use their ISP."
