Hey everyone, I am looking to create a community website for my town. I would like to create a site that offers lots of things for the local people ut most of all I'd like to implement an email system, kinda like Yahoo. Where by all the people who sign up have access to a range of facilities, including a an email system, with their own email address (ie theirusername@mysite.com).

I was just wondering what I would need/have to do to get this to work?

Basically all I'm asking is, is this a hard thing to set up?

Originally Posted by Spud In Disguise

Basically all I'm asking is, is this a hard thing to set up?

Not if you have unlimted email addresses for your account and the time to set them up.

You can also use a third party provider , but there are going to add ads to the bottom of the messages.

Did I help? or confuse you?

I don't think you quite understood what I meant. I meant that I basically want to set up my own email website, like hotmail, yahoo or gmail - that kind of thing, not set up email aliases... actual have people send and recieve email on my website, which stores it for them etc...

or have a look at https://www.google.com/a/

Originally Posted by Spud In Disguise

I don't think you quite understood what I meant. I meant that I basically want to set up my own email website, like hotmail, yahoo or gmail - that kind of thing, not set up email aliases... actual have people send and recieve email on my website, which stores it for them etc...

errm Yes that'll be an account with unlimited addresses then.
One which supports pop3 mailboxes and /or webmail services.

That looks interesting, but it's not even in beta yet, I would probably want something a bit more stable really...

Originally Posted by chrishirst

errm Yes that'll be an account with unlimited addresses then.
One which supports pop3 mailboxes and /or webmail services.

Right ok, so what would be the stages in setting this thing up then? Are there any CMS's out there that do this?

definitely no CMS will.

it's a MAIL server you need and you would start with your host and see what your account offers.

hmm right ok, what sort of features am I looking for then? To make this as smooth a ride as possible?

Just about any mail server software will allow you to create an unlimited number of POP mailboxes, the limit any server can handle will usually depend on the the hardware it is running on.

For your requirements it will need an interface that users will be able to register on and either have it create a mailbox and login credentials or have it to email the mail server admin (or you) details for the mailbox to be created.
How you actually manage the system is down to your preferences.

hmmm, so do you have any recommendations for good hosts or how to get started?

What knowledge am I going to need? I am not familiar with many coding languages so I can see that may be a problem...