Running own mail server

[David G. Miller]

Edward Dekkers <edward at tripled.iinet.net.au> wrote:

> Hey there guys,
>
> for years I've run fetchmail to grab mail from my isp in multidrop mode.
>
> Now, my area is finally ADSL enabled. The ISP I'm going with gives out 
> free static IP addresses. I've also bought a domain name which is 
> currently parked.
>
> I'm pretty sure I can get the sendmail part sorted, but DNS has me 
> confused. At the domain name site, I can put in two name server fields.
>
> Originally I thought I could just run DNS here on my Linux box. But 
> apparently from what I understand of the reading I'm doing I'd need two 
> servers to do this.
>
> Other readings I'm doing are telling me to use my ISP's DNS servers and 
> have them set up the records for me.
I've been doing *EXACTLY* this for quite a few years.  Dan's advice will 
get you started on DNS but you should probably take things slowly.  Get 
your DNS set up and check that you can "find yourself" from outside your 
own network (e.g., go to someplace that provides public internet access 
and make sure you can connect).  Make sure your ISP allows you to run 
your own servers.  Many ISPs do not or require that you purchase a 
business account in order to do so.

As another poster has pointed out, you are supposed to have more than 
one DNS pointing to your network.  The internet police will not swoop 
down on you if you don't but your network disappears whenever your name 
server is down.  A quick reboot isn't usually a problem but you probably 
ought to have some sort of backup available in case you have a hardware 
failure that has your DNS down for a lengthy period of time.  As an 
example, my DNS box is also the primary server for my home network so I 
set all of the drives up with Linux software RAID and then confirmed 
that the box still functions if I remove a ribbon cable from any disk.  
In addition, I have an old PIII/733 that I typically use for testing 
that I can swap in if I have to.

Once you have your network "live" you can start messing with sendmail.  
Make sure you disable relaying from outside your network.  Getting a 
basic configuration working isn't hard and it's really nice to be able 
to control your own e-mail.  The only problem I've run into is my ISP 
still claims my IP address on a reverse look-up so there are a very few 
places (spamhaus in particular) who won't accept e-mail from my domain.

Cheers,
Dave

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