Yup, the nested folder bit is what I like best about IMAP, and I'm sure you can script something like Fetchmail to grab Hotmail and filter it into folders using procmail.
I like to think I have created the perfect mail server at work....
* two RAID mirrored 250gb drives for the mail spool * Cyrus IMAPD (the best IMAPD IMHO, the others have really crappy nested folder support) * Exim with Mailscanner (does virus checking with ClamAV) and Spamassassin * Mailman list manager
There are also only three publicly facing ports open, ssh, smtp and https, if a client is in our office they can connect directly with the mailserver, if they are out of the office using Windows they can port forward IMAP, SMTP and POP3 over SSH using a small windows program I wrote that is based on plink. https is open for webmail.
Something similar to that would work fine for you guys, the important part is some stable disk storage, so that should a disk fail you know you can recover... I'd stick a CD/DVD burner in there and burn backups regularly too (or rsync your mailspools to an offsite server somewhere)
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I like to think I have created the perfect mail server at work....
* two RAID mirrored 250gb drives for the mail spool
* Cyrus IMAPD (the best IMAPD IMHO, the others have really crappy nested folder support)
* Exim with Mailscanner (does virus checking with ClamAV) and Spamassassin
* Mailman list manager
There are also only three publicly facing ports open, ssh, smtp and https, if a client is in our office they can connect directly with the mailserver, if they are out of the office using Windows they can port forward IMAP, SMTP and POP3 over SSH using a small windows program I wrote that is based on plink. https is open for webmail.
Something similar to that would work fine for you guys, the important part is some stable disk storage, so that should a disk fail you know you can recover... I'd stick a CD/DVD burner in there and burn backups regularly too (or rsync your mailspools to an offsite server somewhere)