Running own mail server

[Bryan Hepworth]

> 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.
>

Hi

I'm in the middle of a similar exercise - I found the DNS how-to extremely 
helpful. You might want to give it a shot. I bought the o'reilly books too, 
but the how-to really does cover stuff very quickly. I had always thought 
dns was a minefield, but once you look at it logically for your network it 
all makes sense fairly quickly. I guess I'm a month into it now from my 
first stab at it. It's well worth the effort I do have to say.

Best of luck

Bry