Alentus BlackBerry Exchange Hosting Review

Alentus BlackBerry Exchange Hosting

Editorial Rating

Overview:

Founded in 1997, Alentus Internet Services (Alentus) is an SQL and Website hosting service. According to their Website, they are relied on by some of the world’s largest companies.

Pros: Alentus offers three hosting plans – Windows, Exchange Hosting and SharePoint. If you are an organization of more than 20 mailboxes, you can qualify for a discount. With their Exchange Mail tiered service plans, you get free Outlook 2003, unlimited email aliases and public folders, DNS/MX record services, spam filtering and anti-virus protection, and Outlook Web Access. As well, the prices are pretty reasonable. Extra storage is $5/100 MB. There don’t seem to be any set-up fees for their Exchange Mail accounts, although there are fees for their mobile services.

Cons: You can sync your mobile device to your desktop; however, you will need a cable or cradle. This is different from any other company – most offer you a wireless sync. As well, you have to have one of the more expensive plans to support BlackBerries or GoodLink devices.

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Detailed Provider Information:

Version of BES: Alentus uses Microsoft Exchange 2003.

Plans and Pricing: Alentus offers three service tiers. The Pro package offers a single 500MB mailbox for $11.95 per month. The Power package offers a single 1GB mailbox for $14.95 per month. The Premium package offers a single 2GB mailbox for $24.95 per month. An additional 1GB of storage on each plan costs $4.95 per month. BlackBerry service costs $14.95 per month per user.

Firewall Protection: Alentus has excellent security tools, including mail encryption, Kerberos authentication, digital signing and server- and client-side filtering.

Anti-Spam and Virus Protection: Updated anti-virus and anti-spam is included with all plans.

Set-up Fee: Alentus charges set-up fees of $49.95 for BES and GoodLink support.

Other Devices Supported: Alentus supports BlackBerry, Treo, and Pocket PC devices.

Customer Service: Alentus offers expert services, 24/7 support and a Tier-1 datacenter. They also have pricing in U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, UK pounds, Australian dollars and Euros.

Backup History Storage: Alentus performs daily backups to make sure your data is safe.

Uptime Guarantee: Alentus offers a 100% uptime guarantee.

Additional Services: The company also offers Dedicated Server hosting, Website hosting, software and hosted applications.

Fee to Change BlackBerry for Current Customers: There is a $50 fee for this service, as required by RIM for Alentus.

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1 Amit March 16th, 2010 at 2:58 am: My email has been down for 36 hours and Alentus won't answer their phone and I can't email them since they host my email. They don't even assure us that our email will ever be recovered or when email will be back on. I'd avoid them at all costs. I'm moving our email and hosting elsewhere.
2 Robert March 16th, 2010 at 0:02 am: Bad bad bad - I have been with Alentus for 6 years now and have gotten accustomed to the once-yearly email server meltdown that wipes out all our emails, address books, etc. (thanks Alentus, I know I should back them up myself!). Further, I enjoy that this enevitably happens on a Monday morning (of course no business emails coming in then!) or a Friday afternoon (see ya customer support 'till Monday!).
3 Kareem March 1st, 2009 at 1:42 am: These guys are terrible, not only are their prices more expensive than others, they have a lot of downtime. And the big WTF?! moment I got was after spending almost a year I realized that the customer support gave me the wrong Exchange address for Push Email. It's supposed to be the 2007 not the 2003. A year I was blaming the carrier and the phones then settled with scheduled ActiveSync. Never again Alentus.
4 Richard October 27th, 2008 at 16:44 pm: We've been with Alentus for 6 years now, however, since early 2007 we have experienced a lot of downtime, sometimes for extended periods of time (6 to 16 hours). It's unacceptable and they do not deliver a service you can rely on. Yes they have always been helpful when we've asked, however, if the basic site (including their own often) isn't working in the first place then words mean nothing.
I also can not recommend Alentus anymore and am in the process of taking all sites away from them.
5 Derek September 13th, 2008 at 21:47 pm: My Exchange has been down 16+ hours and all Tech Support or "Customer Service" can do is close my tickets. No updates, no information, no help. Any response is curt at best and often rude. We will move our web, Exchange and SharePoint hosting ASAP. Alentus has major problems and I recommend you stay away.
6 Diana August 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm: Alentus has been down for nearly 24 hours. Their voice mailbox is full. No tech support on weekends. All of my clients are down. My site is down. Email is down and no one is there to help. Stay away from these people.