Recommendations for running FreeBSD as a guest OS

[Michael Powell]

Bobby Walker wrote:

> I have a small network at work that, unfortunately, uses Windows 2003.
> I need a good mail server, but I do not have a budget for purchasing
> additional software.  Exchange requires too many hacks to configure a
> catchall email account, and Exchange and I do not get along very well.
> So, today while brainstorming, I thought why not run FreeBSD as a guest
> OS on the box.  Any suggestions for the best way of doing this?
> 

Another options may be to just use the smtp and pop3 that comes with Win2K3. 
You'll see these in the "Add/Remove Windows Components" under "Add or Remove 
Software" of Control Panel. These were previously on the Options Pack CD 
from which you installed IIS, but when Win2K3 came out they were added.

May not fit your requirements. But it is free and Exchange is high $dollar 
and in many situations is overkill. Postfix in a VM might suffice for a 
small load. Free: http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

The main problem I see is the default networking situation in most VM 
installs is NAT. This allows outbound/return traffic but will block incoming 
connection attempts. There are three different networking configurations you 
can choose from, and the one you want is bridge. It's also the most 
difficult to configure. 

I've used VirtualBox on a Linux machine for a while now but it's quite 
possible the VMware Server may be a little more mature for use on a Windows 
box. YMMV

-Mike