Mercury Mail Transport System -- Basic mail server for Novell and Microsoft Windows platforms.

The Mercury Mail Transport System from Pegasus Mail is a free and basic mail server for both Novell and Microsoft Windows platforms. Mercury Mail supports many features, but still seems lacking when compared to the majority of other email servers on the market today. 

The first noticeable difference is the number of SMTP relay controls; there are only three with Mercury Mail.  Other mail servers have configuration options for mail relay blocking and authorization that range almost into infinity.

On the positive side, Mercury/32, the version that supports the Microsoft Windows operating system, needs only 1.5MB of disk space and a maximum of 3MB of physical memory in order to run.  Mercury/32 packs in many features, such as integrated support for Novell networks and a strict adherence to current mail transport protocols. Notable features of Mercury/32 are its feature-rich support of mailing lists and other such mass email-communication methods, including notice boards, automatic list subscription and unsubscription, remote file delivery by e-mail, address-book lookup requests, and remote mailing-list management.

Because Mercury/32 is so small, obviously there are some features not included by in the basic server package. In this case, administrators will need to add more features via third-party plug-ins, which can be developed to allow custom automation of any mail process. This daemon interface is public and includes documentation and source code.

One troubling is how Mercury/32 interacts with Windows NT/Win2K: it does not support being run as a NT service.  They recommend the use of the SRVANY utility from the NT Resource kit.  Although the SRVANY utility is very useful, in terms of Mercury/32, it is still a third-party utility, and another point for failure on the mail server.

In the case of security, certain connection controls allow an administrator to manage which machines and users can connect to the various Mercury server modules. An administrator can also set up "kill files," allowing management of unsolicited mail by setting up lists of addresses from which you will not accept mail.  For administrators wishing to use Mercury/32 behind a firewall, the relaying delivery model used by the Novell version of Mercury is also available as a selectable module in Mercury/32.  As every administrator knows, operating a server behind a firewall (as long as the application has built in support for that firewall) is ideal for security.  It is very similar to using scissors to cut your servers network connection.

Mercury/32 is also ideal for server situations that use a dial-up ISP for its Internet connection.  A scheduling manager allows administrators extensive control over connection times and operation of the dial-up connection.  Mercury/32 is built to hold and store mail messages from workstations that are not required to be a part of the Internet (very similar to most other, if not all, email servers).

Pros: Supports dial-up; Configurable through programmable modules; small footprint; free

Cons: Not many advanced features; You get what you pay for

Operating Systems / Latest Versions:

Windows NT: Intel, Alpha - v3.5. Windows 2000. Windows 95/98 - v3.5. Novell Netware: v6.