Topic: mail domain setup

[cryblood]

here's one that i couldn't figure out!

I have a dedicated aDSL connection with a static IP and I am running e-smith 3.1 as my communications gateway.  I have a small lan here at my house servicing two users with 4 computers (all told).  I haven't decided whether to register my IP with a name, or just leave it with just an IP.  I am using the web server to serve a simple web page that will eventually become more and more complex as I learn more about how all this works (yes, I am a lifetime student).  Personally, I really like the idea of having my own domain name on the internet but I'm not sure if the cost is worth it as I will mainly use it for play.  

For now, Here's my bogle...  I really want to also use my e-smith server as my main mail server so that my mail comes directly to mi casa instead of to some srange place far far away!  but I can't figure out how to do that without a registered domain name.  I tried to set it up so that ppl would send the e-mail to my IP but that didn't work, and what is the name to use for the pop3 and smtp servers?

any help would be appriciated!

PS... Note, now that I have the DSL working my e-mail addy has changed to cryblood@telocity.com because I am getting rid of that tired ol 56k connection all togeather!  that will have to do until you can mail me via my beloved e-smith box!

[Joseph Morrison]

Hi cryblood,

For your setup, the best solution is to have your own domain, for example cryblood.com You would then ask your ISP to publish the following DNS records:

www.cryblood.com -> your ip address
ftp.cryblood.com -> your ip address
mail.cryblood.com -> your ip address

Then your ISP must also publish a special DNS record called an MX record:

MX for cryblood.com -> mail.cryblood.com

This tells all mail servers on the Internet that if they want to send a message to anyone at cryblood.com, they should deliver it via SMTP to mail.cryblood.com (which would be your e-smith server).

This is the best setup - direct delivery right to your e-smith server!

If you really don't want your own domain, you're probably best off configuring your email client to retrieve mail from the POP mailbox at your ISP (which it sounds like you're doing now). In theory you could use the multi-drop feature to get the e-smith server to fetch the mail, but there are several reasons why that's not as good a solution. Multi-drop is really designed for people who have their own domain and want to maintain many POP mailboxes on the e-smith server - but cannot use direct email delivery because they don't have a static IP address or a dedicated connection.

Good luck!
- Joe

[cryblood]

Thanx for the info!

[Mike Stoddart]

Excellent description there, but it might be worth checking that your ISP will publish this info. I use ADSL, and Im sure I'm not contractually allowed to register a domain name for my IP address. If that's the case, then the ISP won't be too happy about registering the 4 address mentioned in the post. Is the only solution then to run your own DNS server?

[Mike Stoddart]

Excellent description there, but it might be worth checking that your ISP will publish this info. I use ADSL, and Im sure I'm not contractually allowed to register a domain name for my IP address. If that's the case, then the ISP won't be too happy about registering the 4 address mentioned in the post. Is the only solution then to run your own DNS server?

[Kim Morrison]

Hi Mike,

We've never heard of an ISP that explicitly disallowed publishing DNS information for their IP addresses. Although we've never read the fine print on their contracts. If the ISP is unwilling to publish DNS information, you can always find a DNS service or second ISP to publish DNS records referring to your ADSL IP addresses.

We have heard of customers who have purchased residential connectivity (home ADSL or cablemodem) who are explicitly not allowed to run servers as part of their residential service agreement.  As a result, they did not want to ask their ISP/cable service provider to publish their DNS records because it would reveal the fact that they were running servers.  These customers resolved their dilemma by using another ISP to publish their DNS records.  

Naturally, we can't condone violating a service agreement with your provider. Some of the residential service providers have monitoring systems to detect servers at their customer's homes. (looking for such things as bandwidth usage).  And we know of several folks who have been shut down because they were discovered to be running a server.  

Anyways, I hope this helps!  Good luck and thanks for posting!

- Kim

[Charlie Brady]

Joseph Morrison wrote:

> For your setup, the best solution is to have your own domain,
> for example cryblood.com You would then ask your ISP to
> publish the following DNS records:
>
> www.cryblood.com -> your ip address ftp.cryblood.com ->
> your ip address mail.cryblood.com -> your ip address

It doesn't even need to be your ISP. You can combine dynamic DNS with a third party DNS management service.

Step one: set up dynamic DNS so that your host is registered as cryblood.DDNS.org (for some DDNS.org - see the e-smith manual for a few examples). Then contract a company or group that you trust to set up DNS for your domain or subdomain, say cryblood.com, or cryblood.friends.net (I made up friends.net - substitute any other domain that you can think of my.school.net, my.linux.user.group, etc - but they will need to be real, legal, domains).

They will know how to set up SOA and NS records, you won't need to worry about that. Then they can add a CNAME, www.cryblood.xxx, pointing to cryblood.DDNS.org, and an MX, cryblood.xxx, also pointing to cryblood.DDNS.org. If you know someone who will accept mail for you when you are not on the net, set up another MX record as well.

> This is the best setup - direct delivery right to your e-smith
> server!

Sure is.

I'm sure that some of this won't make sense to you. Find a good, basic, DNS resource on the net. Perhaps take a look at the Linux Network Administrators Guide - it's an excellent resource.

Charlie

[cryblood]

How confusing!

I'll definately take a look at the Linux Network Administrators Guide.  I shoulda thought of that one myself  (hey self! RTFM).  I never thought this could be so hard.  I went and registered my domain name with one of the regisrars on the internet and instead of recieving a confirmation, I recieved an email saying that they couldn't complete the reg. and NOW when I try to reg. it with another company (as the first said they weren't up and running yet) the new registrar says that that domain is taken!  I'm gonna make a few calls to see if I can get this all fixed tomorrow and if I find out that the first company (who, btw IS on the list of registrars that are accredited by icann but are listed as not being opporational yet. wish I'd have found that out first) has hijacked my domain name.  Theres gonna be heck to pay!  I'm sure that icann would like to know how screwed up one of their "up and comming" accredited registrars is!

sorry... I feel much better now...

anyway... i'll keep you posted.

btw, maybe someone should write a basic procedure on how to reg a domain and get it to point to an e-smith box that has a static IP.  I would, but as you can see, I've made a mess of it so far!   ~:>)