Set up an Email server on intranet without domain

Question

I work in a small office with about 35 people and we are all on a intranet. This network is not connected to the internet.

Is it possible to set up an email server, with which we could send emails to each other ( we don't need to send emails outside our network).

I cannot use a messenger service like Openfire, since the messages could be asynchronous and we'll like to get those emails in a email client like thunderbird.

Another obstacle we have, is that we do not have a domain name.

Any ideas on which free (as in beer) software could be used? we have both windows and linux machines.

Answer 1

I've used postfix for sending mail on a local network and dovecot to provide POP and IMAP mail collection.

You don't need to have a real domain name to set this up.

There are lots of HOWTOs that can show you how to set them up:

http://www.google.com/search?q=dovecot+postfix+local+mail

Answer 2

I found that I could use hMailServer

http://www.hmailserver.com/documentation/latest/?page=howto_set_up_local

Answer 3

Stacey Richards has provided the answer to your question, however be useful to know your environment, linux, windows etc?

Something like Sharepoint or similar, might be more useful. If you plan to bounce files between each other for editing and reviewing (only real reason I can imagine having LAN email) then you run the risk of versioning issue. A better option might be to implement a file sharing deamon which allows you to lock files, update it, share it, etc. Google Docs, Sharepoint o3spaces etc.

Answer 4

If its a closed network you could always just make up a domain. It won't touch the global DNS hierarchy so it doesn't really matter what you choose. Should you decide that you want to be able to send and receive global email, a free DNS solution can be found at http://www.dyndns.com. It is free to monitor IP changes and map a dynamic IP to a domain that resolves on the global scale.

But as others have said, a domain is not required to do what you want. It would however be much cleaner to implement some sort of DNS because I'm sure remembering all of the IP addresses you need to access on your network is a pain.

Cheers!