Hello, My boss just asked me to buy a new server for our office network. I know next to nothing about servers and networking, so I need someone to point me in the right direction.

He said he wants this to be our e-mail server with a network login. I have no idea how to set up an e-mail server, especially one that sends/receives e-mail using our domain name.

We use a terrible piece of order/inventory software called Mail Order Manager (MOM). Our computers currently connect to the MOM database through a networked drive. My boss would like to move away from this peer-to-peer MOM setup. The software publisher offers a SQL version of MOM, but it's way overpriced. Is there a better way to connect to these databases without using the SQL version?

Finally, the server needs to be running Windows.

Does this question make sense, is it possible, and can someone help me get started?

Thanks!