setupemailsrv
@mindspring.com
| [Servers] Email Server at home Does anybody host email server at home? I am trying to do it myself. I have a cable internet and am trying to get a copy of linux running email server. I will get dyndns for the domain name with my dynamic ip. What if i take my server offline? Is there any mail relay to forward to lets say gmail if my server is offline?
anybody has any good practice experience that can tell me about ?
many thanks | |
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Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI
 ·Comcast
 ·AT&T Midwest
 ·Site5.com
| Re: [Servers] Email Server at home Oh yes, it is possible to do but the issue is that you need a static address for mail. If you have a dynamic address, since the mail records are cached in DNS, if your IP changes you could have lost mail. To my knowledge, for mail MX records, you have to put not only a domain name, but a IP address as well.
Personally, if you are interested in having your own email, I would recommend looking at a number of providers out there that do it for you. Site5.com has a $5 a month deal where they host it for you. So for $60 a year, its a steal.
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My Domain
Nightfall's Hockey and Life Journal | |
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korstj
join:2000-08-26
San Diego, CA
·Cox HSI
| You have a couple of points to consider here. You said that you have a cable connection. Have you verified that port 25 is not blocked in either direction, ie. inbound and outbound? Most residential cable providers block inbound port 25 (which means you're out of luck), and many are now also blocking outbound as well.
As for your second question, what you are looking for is someone who will add your domain to their mail server and spool mail for you while your server is down. You would add their mail server as a secondary MX record, like this.
mydomain.com IN MX 10 mymailserver.mydomain.com.
mydomain.com IN MX 20 backupmx.somemailprovider.com.
The numbers in those records are preference. Mail servers will send to the server with the lowest preference first. If that server is unreachable, it will then try the next lowest preference. To learn more about this, search for "mail spooling" and "secondary mx". It's considered an old school service these days, though, so you might not to easily find someone who will do it for you cheaply. It can be quite the headache for mail admins. | |
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Jahntassa
What, I can have feathers
Premium
join:2006-04-14
Conway, SC | Nevermind the fact that most providers won't setup a Reverse DNS entry for your IP address, which many providers (AOL, Hotmail) require in order to receive mail from you. | |
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Lowtarget
Premium
join:2003-12-22
Alger, OH
clubs: | Re: [Servers] Email Server at home Might want to check your providers TOS. See if they allow users to run servers 24/7. Plus like the other person said. I would check to see if port 25 is not blocked first. | |
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DocLarge
Premium
join:2004-09-08
| I run my own email server out of my house. I initially set my domain at domainsite.com, followed by my mail records, and then had a friend allow me to funnel mail through his antivirus server before it hits my server.
I've got a static ip; additionally, my provider is wide open, meaning I can run whatever service I want as long as the bandwith I'm paying for can support it 
There are no negatives I can think of because when I go on base (I'm I.T. in the military) they bock hotmail, yahoo mail, gmail, and other well known webmail services, "but" I can always get to mine.
Gotta love it...
Jay | |
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setupemailsrv
@ans.net
| Re: [Servers] Email Server at home thanks doclarge:
i m just trying to test the technology and getting my hands dirty because I wanna learn more and wanna get more advance job when it comes and I am ready.
I doubt the cable internet blocks port 25. however, I don't wanna use the application based. I wanna setup the exchange in html based so i can check my mail everywhere. I m looking into this now and i believe sine i use html based, they have no way to block my email server unless one issue is the reverse dns zone. I believe I can run a dns server with a public ip on one NIC and setup a primary dns zone for that nic.
what do u think? | |
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SoonerAl
Old Enough To Know Better
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-23
Norman, OK
|  Re: [Servers] Email Server at home
said by setupemailsrv :
I doubt the cable internet blocks port 25.
what do u think?
Better check with your ISP. For example Cox HSI, my ISP, does block TCP Port 25...
»support.cox.com/sdccommon/asp/co···579e132a
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"When all else fails, read the instructions..." | |
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Leathal
Premium
join:2002-02-09
Toronto, ON
| said by setupemailsrv :
thanks doclarge:
i m just trying to test the technology and getting my hands dirty because I wanna learn more and wanna get more advance job when it comes and I am ready.
I doubt the cable internet blocks port 25. however, I don't wanna use the application based. I wanna setup the exchange in html based so i can check my mail everywhere. I m looking into this now and i believe sine i use html based, they have no way to block my email server unless one issue is the reverse dns zone. I believe I can run a dns server with a public ip on one NIC and setup a primary dns zone for that nic.
what do u think?
If your ISP blocks port 25 going out of your connection and you currently authenticate your email with the ISP you need to setup a smart host on your mail server using the same authenticating process to send your email out, if your ISP uses a different port than 25 you should try 25 first with authentication and if that fails use the port you have setup in your email settings.
Leathal | |
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Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL
clubs: | Take a look at no-ip.com They offer a lot of tricks to get around many problem that come with hosting such as port blocking and changing IP addresses. The biggest problem you may run in to is no reverse DNS. | |
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setupemailsrv
@apple.com
| Re: [Servers] Email Server at home thanks guys for all ideas. its really nice. i appreciate.
I do the reverse dns lookup at »remote.12dt.com and a couple of sites with reverse dns lookup tools. they all are able to resolve as follows: "userxxxxx.cable.mindspring.com"
Top Level Domain: "mindspring.com"
I believe the ptr record is their dns server. right? if so, i believe i wouldn't have problem sending email such as aol or hotmail that does reverse lookup in order to accept mails. right?
I got a dyndns name there, but not a really commercial name. the one i have is xxxx.homeftp.org something like that. does email transmittion accept this?
I m thinking about getting a commercial domain name with .com. I believe i also need a mail relay as well. as long as i can test how email server runs. this money is cheap.
learning and hands on are a great experience. | |
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Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL
clubs:
| Re: [Servers] Email Server at home Reverse DNS works like this. They look at the IP address of the e-mail server and find it's domain name. My IP was 71.1.76.252. The RDNS of that is fl-71-1-76-252.dhcp.embarqhsd.net. If the e-mail sent from that server is anything but address@fl-71-1-76-252.dhcp.embarqhsd.net then the RDNS test fails and it rejects the mail as spam.
I would really encourage you to sign up at no-ip.com and take a look at the tools they have available for dynamic IP hosters. They can help you overcome everything but the RDNS problem.
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»maxolasersquad.com/network/ My DSL Network Guide
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setupemailsrv
@apple.com | Re: [Servers] Email Server at home thanks maxo
so you are saying that for any RDNS ptr record, lets say using yr ip as an example, should be 252.76.1.71-in-addr-arpa.xxxx.com rather than the record u show rite? | |
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Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium,VIP
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL
clubs: | Re: [Servers] Email Server at home The specifics on RDNS aren't really my expertise, so I'd rather let someone else comment on that. Basically the domain from the RDNS of your IP and the domain name of the e-mail address. | |
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join:2006-05-15
Fort Frances, ON | Re: [Servers] Email Server at home Don't some mail servers go beyond simple reverse lookup and actually look for MX records? | |
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