Is your suggestion then to:
a) set up a domain that everybody must join
b) set up active directory (not even sure what that entails)
c) Set up Exchange Server
d) NOT set up an Email account for Exchange server, use it only for contacts, tasks, calendar
e) Have the people individually connect ther Outlook accounts to the email providers?
How would they, in that scenario, be able to synchronize their email folders between their own computers (desktop and laptop)?
I checked the SBS 2003 server and it allows me to add a "mail server (POP3, SMTP)" as a role. I suppose that is the Exchange Server, then?
No, i think that is the Windows POP/SMTP service. I don't have my SBS running (although i could bringi t up to check) but exchange is a separate service.
The problem with having the Exchange Server deal with the email (and having the MX record point to it) is that my internet connection is not too fast. For the company website I am using a hosting site (justhost.com), which also provides email for me and the other people. Access to the email is through POP3 or IMAP (or webmail), but I understand that Exchange Server cannot do that (synchronize with external email through IMAP). In addition to that, I and the other people also have other email accounts (hotmail, google, etc.) which they may want to integrate.
Exchange only needs to handle the local stuff and forward external mail to a smart host. It does not have to be nline all the time. Exchange can pop the mail and drop it in the mailboxes. It's an option offered by exchange and while its not recommended by Exchange admins, it works fine for small companies. There are pop connectors that can get mail from imap too. See
http://slipstick.me/pop for more information. The 3rd party connectors can deliver to public folders and seem to work better than the one in SBS.
On d and e above, I would use the mailboxes for mail too and use a smart host. ie, if the internet address is
user@justhost.com, set that as the default smtp in exchange. Set a smart host and it can transfer mail to smtp.justhost.com This allows them to easily email each other and external addresses at the same time. If the users also have gmail or hotmail accounts, they can set them up in Outlook. See
http://slipstick.me/sbssmtp
I know it probably sounds complicated, but its actually quite easy and works well. A lot of people will tell you that you need to set up exchange with mx and such, but it works just fine as a giant email client.