trying to set up a webmail server for home. have DSL connection with router doing port-fwd'ing and dyndns set up. also have domain name of example.com and have MX record already pointing to mail.example.com but machine is named "homer". is that ok? how do i configure postfix to work? and will there be any other configuration needed for, say, Courier-imap (or any other components) regarding dyndns? thanks.

Points to consider:

* Set up dynamic DNS for the machine that actually connects to the Internet.
* Set up an MX record for your domain that points to the NAME of the machine that you just defined
* If your mail server is not your router and you are running masquerading, you will need to port forward incoming packets on TCP port 25 (smtp) to the internal IP address of your mail server.
* If your mail server is the one running your Webmail, you will need to port forward incoming packets on TCP 80 (http - unless you use something different) to the internal IP address of your mail server.

CAVEAT:

Changeover of dynamic DNS is not instantaneous - the minimum time will be the TTL (time to live) of the record, which may be a few minutes.

This means that should your connection go down and come up again with another IP address and someone else gets your old IP address, mail traffic could attempt to go to their machine, not yours. If their system is configured to accept mail for any address, they could get your mail.

PREFERRED SOLUTION:

I assume that your ISP gives you a mailbox? Use this, or another external mailbox to receive mail. Then, on your machine, run fetchmail to pick that mail up and deliver it to your internal mail server. Then use dynamic DNS to get you to your system so you can use the Webmail facility.

CONCLUSION:

Dynamic DNS is OK for most things, but a bit risky for mail.

I Use fetchmail with a 10 min crontab to run it.
then i set up Horde and IMP as my web mail so that I can view my 2 different emails accounts from anywhere I go.

Great - you're nearly there!

All you really need to do is, on our routing box, to forward the port that your Webmail runs on (80 for normal http) to the box running it, set up your dynamic DNS and test...

kbcnetau and e_larkin, thanks for your replies, although i still dont really have an answer to my question! i understand the issue of mail with dyndns, and i may use fetchmail before long anyway, but i just wanted to get it rolling this way first.

kbcnetau, i'm confused by your second post. did you think what e_larkin posted was instead a reply of mine?

so, again, do you (or anyone else) know how to set postfix for use with dyndns?

yourdomain.com points to your router, dyndns just hosts yourdomain.com and assigns an IP address to yourdomain.com, If your router has the right ports open like 143 for imap and pop 110 then it will be able to listen on those ports.

I dont think you need to set up a mail exchanger or anything like that, once you have the actual domain setup and working any traffic that come to yourdomain.com will go straight to your router or DSL/Cable. If the appropriate port is open say 110 for pop and somone send you email to you@yourdomain.com then it will know to use port 110 when it gets to your router. From there it connects to the mail server and says hey mail server do you have a user called "you", the mail server will reply yes if the account is configured and then accept the email and place it in the appropriate mailbox.

As far as configuring postfix all I think you would need to do is set the "Internet host name of this mail system", unfortunetly I'm not sure what file that is casue I use webmin to administer postfix.

You dont need an MX record so you can get rid of that, as far the machine name homer that is just fine that is only an internal machine name not a domain name.

for IMAP and POP just edit the config files and tell them the name of your domain www.yourdomain.com.

In order to setup up a mail client to get mail like outlook or evelution you would just simply point them to "Homer" if you are in your house. If you are not on your internal network then just point it to yourdomain.com and again if the appropriate ports are open it will send your email to you.

hope this helps atleast a little =)

Yep, I did. I've always used mailing lists and find forums confusing...

Hi,
I think that you should use Qmail for your mail server. www.qmailrocks.org has a great package and install instructions. You can even use a dyndns address! Also you may want to use uebimiau for your webmail! http://www.uebimiau.org/

hmm, interesting...

back the part about using dynamic dns, where is that in the process? i looked around a bit online (including the qmailrocks site) and didnt find anything. how does one set qmail to work with dynamic dns?