Configure mailserver(s)
 

hello there!

situation:

private homeserver, dynamic IP with wiki-software running
VPS rootserver, static IP, registered domain name *.com let's say "abc-foobar.com"

what i wanna do is to create email addresses with *@abc-foobar.com or resp. username for the asterisk.

they shall be forwarded to my dynamic IP mailserver.

this dynamic IP mailserver shall send email for members using a private wiki and forum running on dynamic IP yet.

how would i setup this? are there any simple howtos on the web? i'm really confused about all this stuff.


thx in advance!

regards
marquisor

First let me summarize to make sure I understand your desires correctly. You want to have an existing domain, abc-foobar.com, forward email to your home server, which in turns forwards the message to a mailing list. Is this correct?

If so, the answer is yes, there are ways to accomplish this. The first step would be for you to install your own mail server. Given that you want to create a mailing list application, I would recommend Postfix, which supports this capability. Postfix is an MTA, otherwise known as an SMTP server and it is capable of receiving (and sending) mail. There are lots of tutorials for installing it, the most common of which seems to be the one by Flurdy, here. Personally, I like this one.

Once you get your mail server up and running successfully and get it receiving messages from abc-foobar.com, the next step would be to install the mailing list application. There are a couple of them out there, mailman and majordomo being two popular ones. A google search will provide you with lots of information. Here is a link to get your started. BTW, the postfix.org site contains A LOT of useful information!

There are a couple of problems you may run into. The biggest being your ISP blocking traffic on port 25 (SMTP) and your recipients banning your traffic because you are on a dynamic IP. If this is the case, you will want to relay through your ISP's mail server, though mail will still appear as originating with your server.

Lastly, you will probably need or want a domain for your home server. Since you are on dynamic IP, you will want to use a service such as dyndns, which will automatically redirect to your location when your IP changes. They can also register a domain for you or you can use one of their free sub-domains (yes, free).

well for some webapplications running on a homeserver here (dynamic IP) i need an automated email server, which would be for automatic sign-up, verification mail delivery etc.
so as i read before very often dynamic IP emails aren't accepted (because of spam etc.) i thought of using my VPS therefore. which has some static IPs and even a domainname *.com

so i will need to setup two mailservers. one forwarding the stuff from dyn-ip to static-ip mailserver.
and the static ip mailserver delivery to the recipients on the WWW
i don't need any mailinglist features. just normal stuff like sign-up and notification emails started by a webserver.

i'm very confused with the exim wikis. they're written for advanced users (like much linux stuff). google'ing and so on brings very very much, too much information. and some information is simply wrong or security is deprecated (to say it in the linux slang).
it annoys me more and more, many solutions but security holes. so i'm still on search for GOOD sources of information.

the dyndns.org can even be handled by my router, yes. but i want a domain forwarded. (other thread)

regards
marquisor

If you are looking for a mail server that is easier to setup, I would suggest Zimbra or possibly Citadel. I have seen Zimbra recommended quite often with the comment that it took about 20 minutes to have a mail server up and running. I would consider Postfix to be medium on the difficulty scale and while there is a lot of documentation and it is well supported, it will certainly give you an education in Linux. Postfix can handle the relay aspect and forward between servers, such as from your VPS to your home, though you would need to have it installed on both locations.

If you want to forward web traffic, this might be best accomplished with either a proxy, or even more simply with a rewrite rule.

Overall, I think that if you want to have your home server appear as the 'front end' for your VPS, that you are going to be in for a lot of extra work.