Topic: Don't need mail server

[Manny]

Hi, I am running e-smith 5.5.   I do not need a mail server and am just using ISP.  Is there a way to shut down the mail server completely or even just close port 25?

[k_graham]

>>Hi, I am running e-smith 5.5. I do not need a mail server and am just using ISP.

Do you ever wish someone could send you a 40 meg file but your ISP limits you to 5 or less ?

Using your own email server you can have someone send any size file, just by setting up an extra POP account that is checked each time you check your e-mail.

I have 3 additional POP e-smith accounts set up so people can send  any size file.

We are however using a web form set up using soupermail from http://soupermail.sourceforge.net so people have to send via a form to prevent  receiving spam via this route. The names of these mail addresses are not given out at any time so people must use the  form.

The accounts are set to provide our regular ISP address so replies goes through the spam filtered route as do replies to the replies.

k_graham

[Manny]

Actually my problem is I do not have any experience whatsoever setting up and running a mail server.  

But you got a point there.  Guess it's time to look for some how-to's on e-smith mail servers......  (BTW, I'm just using e-smith this as a gateway for my home network and for serving a personal website.)  

Cheers,
Manny

[Bill Talcott]

Manny wrote:
>
> Actually my problem is I do not have any experience
> whatsoever setting up and running a mail server.  
>
> But you got a point there.  Guess it's time to look for some
> how-to's on e-smith mail servers......  (BTW, I'm just using
> e-smith this as a gateway for my home network and for serving
> a personal website.)

There's not really much to it... Basically just setup your SME to be your MX in the DNS records, so that all email for your domain will go to the SME. Set up user accounts, and start checking that server instead of your ISP's server. You shouldn't really have to do any "setting up and running" on the server. It's all built-in and just works... There's even a contrib that allows the SME to check your other accounts (like manny@myisp.net) and have them go to your account (manny@mydomain.com). This way you can still get emails from your old accounts without having to check 10 different servers...

[k_graham]

> There's not really much to it... Basically just setup your
> SME to be your MX in the DNS records, so that all email for
> your domain will go to the SME. Set up user accounts, and
> start checking that server instead of your ISP's server. You
> shouldn't really have to do any "setting up and running" on
> the server. It's all built-in and just works... There's even

I'm not sure how others do it. I have my domains through www.mydomain.com which allowed me to go in on line and set up a subdomain, then I was able to set the subdomain up to my SME server for mail  MX by specifying my IP address.

[Manny]

Thanks for the replies.  Here's what I did.  Please tell me if I'm wrong.  

1. I already have a domain name registered with NamesDirect.com (I'll call it  www.mannysdomain.com for example).  They have a mail forwarding facility so that's why I did not really have no real need to setup my own name server.  I just forward my mails to whatever POP account I have with my current ISP.  

2. So that I do not have to mess with the current email setup (the wife will not like it if she cannot get her mails), I created a sub-domain called mail.mannysdomain.com.  Then I setup all email accounts under this subdomain to use my I/P address as the MX host.  

3. In e-smith, mail.mannysdomain.com is already setup as well as the email accounts so I do not have to do anything else (?)

4.  The NamesDirect setup states that I should allow for changes to take effect in 4.5hrs and 24-48hrs for first time setup.  So I can't do anything else but wait.  

5. After the MX records have taken effect, I should now be able to send an email from anywhere to user@mail.mannysdomain.com.  Did I understand it correctly?  

Cheers,
Manny