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.

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!

Up until quite recently I've always recommend that if you're an Android mobile user who needs access to your email, calendar and contacts, the best method was to use IMAP to synchronise your email and ActiveSync for the calendar and contacts. This two account approach works well but I've always been aware it could be simpler to set up. Thankfully, ActiveSync 'push' email was added to MDaemon in version 12, so you're now able to enjoy full synchronisation of both your email accounts, calendar and contacts with just a single ActiveSync account.

Over the last few weeks I've been experimenting with the latest Beta editions of MDaemon version 13 and thought it'd be beneficial to share some of the great new up and coming features you can expect to see in the release. Just before I wet your appetite with the first of them - don't forget, if you're interested in getting involved in the MDaemon beta test process you can apply to join the community by registering here. 

smartphones.pngAs MDaemon has evolved over the years there have been many different ways to setup syncronisation with mobile devices and with the the recent introduction of ActiveSync push email there is a new kid on the block but does this now make ActiveSync the best all in one method for email, calendar and contact syncronisation for all customers who can use it?
Read on to see our recommendations for each mobile platform and what advantages and disadvantages different methods have.