If a customer approaches you with this what would do you tell them?

"Planning to setup Email Server which is capable of hosting 4000 - 5000 email accounts!"

I'd first of all ask them how much storage space per inbox they would require. Then I'd work out a cost per inbox in terms of that space and tally up a final cost with a little bit knocked off (due to the scale of the service).

If this in fact requires a full server be used I would place an order for a new server box making sure the client can cover the costs and a bit extra, to pay for my own management / account management fees.

Good question. I would first do what ya'll are saying. I would make sure the IP's I am going to be getting are not black listed by any major ISP's. I would get curious on what they are going to be using it for. If it is high intense you would have to get a high end server. But you want to cover yourself first. If they make money good for them if not it isn't your problem

Charging per inbox is a great idea. You would definitely need to get a high end server for this situation. I would make the person sign a 1 year agreement so that if they are black listed or use this server for spamming that you can cancel their server and keep the money to pay for any abuse that has occurred.

Great idea TheReason, outline the special conditions for the special circumstances.

Sounds like a great idea. Seems a little complex for taking on a client like this. I think I might steer away from them. LOL!

That charging per inbox is smart.

Ryan

What can I say, I'm full of smart ideas

lol in my TOS there is a 250$ fine with Spam complaints and being black listed... only had one

How much space per box?
If you have 5000 pop3 with 1MB you need at least 5gb, but you'd need far more than that, as each email will be larger on its way in and out due to encoding etc. plus 1MB per box is a very low quota.
Depending on the access methods being used, either pop3 or imap, the number of connections etc., would also put a lot of load on the server, so it would be ideally suited to a dedicate machine not a shared environment.

Also you will have to do some config on the mail server to let the size of emails coming in or going out so it doesn't time out on them etc... A lot of work

I would also figure in the cost of maintaining a web-based control system, be it open source or closed source. Someone hosting that many email accounts will want a way of maintaining them independently.

If it is for one large corporation, you should see if you can incorporate the account management into their HR system. This way they wouldn't be forced to enter the information twice for two accounts.

Also make sure it is clearly defined who handles end user support. For a large number of accounts, one could spend a good chunk of time debugging people's email clients.

Good luck. It sounds like an interesting project.


Regards,
Erek Dyskant