Collax Business Server

Collax Business Server is a free for non-commercial, private use Linux-based server-oriented operating system designed by Collax and engineered to deliver all the necessary network services within an amalgamate business environment. It features support for English and German languages.

Distributed as a dual-arch Live CD

The product is available for download as a free edition that comes with several limitations (see below a detailed list), distributed as a dual-arch Live CD ISO image suitable for 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (x86_64) hardware platforms.

The user must burn the ISO image to a blank CD disc using any CD/DVD burning software or write it on a USB flash drive of 1GB or higher capacity with either UNetbootin of GNOME Disks apps in order to boot it from the BIOS of a PC.

Boot options

First of all, you should change the language using the F2 key if you’re an English-speaking user, as it will default to German. Then, you have various options, including the ability to start the live environment or the text-mode installer, boot an existing OS from the first disk drive, check the filesystem and system memory for errors.

Includes a wide range of servers and services

Collax Business Server securely provides Internet, email, SMS, compliance, internal network communication, infrastructure, fax, groupware, data storage, and all the other services needed in a small or medium-sized business.

Bottom line

In conclusion, Collax Business Server is a decent server-oriented system that will help you to easily manage and secure network services, as well as to provide essential security functions, such as spam filtering, firewalling and virus protection.

However, there are many other free and open source server-oriented operating systems out there that include the same powerful features as this commercial product and we see no reason why you should buy Collax Business Server.

What is new in this release:

• New in Version 5.5.10:
• Zarafa Groupware: New Version 7.1.5
• With this Collax software update the new version 7.1.5 of Zarafa Groupware is going to be installed. This version includes mainly improvements, also for clients running on Windows 8 and Outlook 2013.
• Problems Fixed in Version 5.5.10:
• Security: Strongswan IKE Daemon for VPN Connections:
• In the source code of Strongswan, the IKE Daemon for VPN Connections a security hole has been discovered, which treated empty signatures as valid. This hole is going to be closed with a patch for the version 4.6.1.0.
• Web Proxy: Web Proxy does not start, Cache is deleted:
• When the proxy-cache has been emptied and reinitialized with the action "clear cache", the directory structure could not be recreated in some cases. This resulted in the Web-Proxy-Service being unable to start. This will be fixed with this update.
• VPN: Connection Can Not be Established Manually:
• If the network 'Internet' got routed like a local network, it wasn't guaranteed that the VPN tunnel connection got reestablished after a server reboot. In some cases it also wasn't possible to restart the VPN connection via the administator interface. This update adapts the routing rules for these cases and VPN links can be started as expected.
• VPN: Wrong Sender IP Address after Reboot:
• If there has been more than one IP address configured on a device used for VPN connections, a reboot resulted in the wrong Sender-IP being used for said VPN connections. The Sender-IP can now be configured explicitely for these routes.
• VPN: UTF-8 Character within PSK String:
• Using special characters like € or @ in the preshared-key resulted in missing connection information in the gui under System -> Monitoring/Analysis -> Link Status and System -> Monitoring/Analysis -> IPsec. With this version the generation of the connection scripts has been improved in a way that UTF-8 characters are being used correctly. VPN status details are being shown correctly with this.
• Authentication: Incorrect Calculation of the Primary Email Address when using ActiveDirectory and the Collax AD-Proxy:
• The calculation of default mail addresses was broken for various reasons when user data was imported from ActiveDirectory via the Collax AD proxy. With this update a number of additional configuration variables are introduced to be used by the Collax AD proxy. This allows the calculation of the addresses to be performed correctly during runtime rather than configuration time.
• Zarafa Groupware: Rewritten Sender Address, Wrong Primary Email Address:
• Newly created users got a wrong sender-address assigned, either with wrong maildomain or wrong user alias. For the same users the reply-address did not match the configured primary mail address. The corresponding filter used by zarafa to get the primary mail address has been adapted with this update. Zarafa users will now get the correct From-address assigned.
• Add-on Software: Files with suspicious extensions are filtered:
• Files with a suspicious extension (e.g. .jpg.exe) are filtered by the Avira scanner.
• System Management: Logfiles when Checking LSI Controller Fills up Hard Disk:
• With this update the monitoring of LSI raid controller is going to be improved.

Limitations:

• The software is for Commercial and Private use
• The software is for a maximum of 5 users
• The software is for a period of 1 year
• The software is for a maximum of 1 E-Mail domain
• The software is for a maximum of 5 links (networks)
• Support is not included with this license