Hi All

I've been struggling to solve a calendaring / contacts / email problem for a while now. My wife and I both work from home, with frequent visits out. We have an office space each with networked PCs. We constantly need access to update and read eachothers diaries, as we also juggle childcare.

Outlook seems to be the most suitable solution, but it wont share the .pst file, and therefore we'd need to run on Exchange. This, of course, would have the added benefit of us being able to update wherever we are with internet access via exchange web server.

Outlook 2003 seems ideal as it hosts multipe calendars which can be viewed (or not) using check-boxes - which would suit us really well.

I'm fairly confident under the hood and I have a couple of spare machines (a PIII and a PIV), and wondered if hosting exchange in-house would be a solution...?

Obvious issues would be buying the program - I've seen non-OEM copies of Exchange 5.5 with 5 CALs, boxed, on ebay for £150. Wil 5.5 run the Outlook 2003 front end? But then new versions seem to run into the thousands!

Will my PIV (Dell PowerEdge) be up for the job?

Is it a set-and-forget solution, or is there constant tinkering involved?

I have thought of the 'hosted exchange' idea, but wondered if utilising my spare machines would be more cost effective...

Help and suggestions would be most appreciated.

Kind Regards

Red