For many years now its been common place for users to need access to their business email, calendars and contacts on their mobile devices. Over the years there have been different ways to achieve this, but by far the easiest to setup and the option with best support for access from any connection is ActiveSync.

MDaemon 17 MDaemon remains the leading alternative to Microsoft Exchange and Office 365, providing companies who need the security and control of their own mail server with easy to use features at a highly competitive price. 25 years on from MDaemon's launch, we see Texas-based developer Alt-N Technologies add yet more features to boost security and an update for Outlook Connector. Here are my highlights - don't forget, you can find the full exhaustive list of goodies in the MDaemon Release Notes.

MDaemon 17 MDaemon has long been a favourite for small businesses who demand the security and control only a dedicated email server can offer. In this latest major release, Texas-based developer Alt-N Technologies add yet more features to boost security, plus a raft of enhancements for users of their webmail service, a desktop replacement and genuine alternative to Outlook. Here are my highlights - don't forget, you can find the full exhaustive list of goodies in the MDaemon Release Notes.

MDaemon 16.5 It's inconvenient, it undoubtedly costs your business money and it has the potential to cause you headaches of epic proportions. Perhaps that's not the greatest sales strap line you've ever read? Well, that's because I'm not referring to MDaemon, in this case, I'm talking about your friend and mine, spam email. You know, that particularly enjoyable type where seemingly innocuous messages from colleagues/ suppliers/ customers, turn out to be from one of those aspiring Mr. Robot types hell-bent on crypto'ing the life out of your data. In 16.5 there's less chance of that happening as one of the new features of interest is the simple, but effective 'From Header Protection/ Modification'. That's not all - there's auto-updating, centralised Outlook Connector settings, an XMPP server (yes, I had to Google it too) and some improvements to Worldclient you've been asking for. Here are my highlights - as usual, you can find the exhaustive version available in the MDaemon Release Notes.

MDaemon 15.5Despite the rise in popularity of cloud services, many businesses still prefer the control, privacy and dedicated nature of their own email server. MDaemon has been at the top of the list of alternatives to Microsoft Exchange for some time, and with this latest release, Texas-based developer Alt-N strengthens their place with a range of new features to help small business owners and admins alike. In this post I briefly highlight the new additions I think you'll find most interesting, including a fantastic new addition to the spam protection armoury and some terrific news if you're an iPhone or Apple OS X device user. As always, this is just our highlights, a comprehensive list of all new features and enhancements can be viewed in the MDaemon Release Notes.

Ok brace yourself for a long ol' set of release notes! This minor MDaemon update really does highlight the many hours our friends at the Texas-based developer Alt-N Technologies are putting in to make MDaemon the best mail platform out there for small businesses. This one is mainly 'dotting the I's' as it were but there's an awful lot of them! Also if you've picked up one of the newer Android devices recently, you'll no doubt be pleased to hear that you can now connect it quite happily via ActiveSync thanks to the compatibility fix for KitKat.

20% off ActiveSync We’re running a terrific end of year promotion and the perfect opportunity to get your staff fully connected in preparation for a productive and profitable 2014. Simply purchase a new copy of ActiveSync for MDaemon Messaging Server via our Web site before the end of 2013 and you’ll automatically receive 20% off the RRP’s listed.

UPDATE: 10/12/13 Google released Android 4.4.2 today and I can confirm that this now fixes the Exchange sync issue on my Nexus 5. See below for more details... A couple of us in the office have just taken delivery of some shiny new Nexus 5's - fantastic devices we're really happy with but we've unfortunately both come across what looks to be a known issue setting up the ActiveSync connection to synchronise them with MDaemon Messaging Server. MDaemon has an integrated ActiveSync server but this issue with the devices will also apply to those of you who use Microsoft Exchange.

New MDaemon release MDaemon version 13.6 is out today and with it some useful enhancements, particularly if you're using ActiveSync with your mobile devices. Download MDaemon 13.6 View the release notes It's worth noting this release includes a whole host of minor tweaks to Worldclient (notable an HTML signature editor) and WebAdmin which you can read about in the release notes but I think it's the following you'll be most interested in.

MDaemon provides support for all of the major mobile platforms via its integrated ActiveSync support, so it's nice and straight-forward to connect your device, whatever it might be, and have your email, calendar, contacts and other important data available on the move. Until the recent release of iOS 7, there's never been the option available on the iPhone to synchronise notes, however we're pleased to let you know that it's here, and it couldn't be much easier to enable!