Greetings, all -

It wasn't too long ago that I discovered Linux/Ubuntu (in terms of actually USING it) and I've been completely blown away by the capabilities it puts in the user's hands! To think that someone can take an old desktop from a trash pile (literally, in my case) and turn it into a web server for ZERO dollars is absolutely crazy.

Anyway, I've been using said desktop as a sort of "dummy" machine to learn Linux. I want to be clear that I've got another computer for personal use and that I understand that setting up server software on any computer poses a security risk. Having said that, I have a few questions regarding mail servers and their setup on Ubuntu. Again - I'm comfortable with what I've done so far in Ubuntu (installing packages, terminal interaction, basic usage) but am still learning so please let me know if something is clearly documented elsewhere and I'll be sure to check it out there to save the explanation time.

My question is mainly this: if you have, say, a domain name through DynDNS (let's say example123.com) and it points to an Ubuntu system, does something like Postfix enable you to make your own email addresses such as user1@example123.com and have an email server from wherever the Ubuntu system is?

I've been following the basic Postfix setup here and have had success so far (down to the "Adding your local domains to postfix" section) bu wanted to make sure that what I'm intending to do is what I'm doing (haha... i hope that makes sense). That is: get domain name at DynDNS, host pages on LAMPP server, use Postfix to facilitate incoming/outgoing email for that domain name.

Again - not looking for any specific help. Just want to make sure I'm on the right track.

Thanks so much to all for reading this!

Hi there,

Well you are going in the right direction. I will just add up few things in that. As you said that if you have a domain name (obviously that can be resolved on the internet) and you have a server that you can turn into a mail server then yes you can have your own mail server. Apart from domain name there are other things that is required.

1. You need to have a public IP.
2. Need to have DNS server hosting your DNS zone.
3. Need to have an MX record for your mail server in your DNS.
4. Configure NATing so that you can have your mail server/DNS server behind firewall and using private IP.

1 members found this post helpful.

T3RM1NVT0R,

It's people like you who make open source so great. Thanks for taking the time.

I've got #1 covered and I'm pretty sure #2 (is this what I would accomplish by pointing my DynDNS name to my public IP?)

As for #3, I'm pretty sure I'm good with the MX concept (still looking on that one but DynDNS seems to have some tools to help with that). #4 is certainly good food for thought (or search engine) and I'll definitely be doing my homework there.

Might post some more questions along the way as well.

Thanks again!

You're welcome

For #2 DynDNS is this a site/domain_name_registrar with which you have registered your domain? If yes, then you can have a check with them if you can point your domain name to your DNS server and then you are good to go.

1 members found this post helpful.

For a long time I ran a mail server on a free dyndns site, so I will confirm that it is possible. There are, however, a few caveats.

One, I would recommend that you use their dns update software as opposed to the dns update feature built into most routers. My experience was that the routers just didn't work and I got bit by that fact three times. The software on the other hands is virtually invisible.

Two, running an email server on a dynamic IP is generally discouraged because as >99% of the zombie spam traffic comes from residential machines, most ISP won't accept email from a residential domain. The way around this is to use your ISP's SMTP server as a relay host. The mail will still originate from your at your domain, not your ISP. The only difference will be in the full headers you will see their SMTP server as the first hop in the chain of many to get to the destination. This can also be a problem because some providers will block traffic on port 25, which is required to send mail.

Three, DynDNS's site has a comment about MX records and you can create one, though if you don't mail will simply be sent to the root domain, e.g. to your.domain, not mail.your.domain.

Four, for NAT you can configure port forwarding in your router and this will work fine. You will need to forward port 25 for SMTP and either 110 or 143 for POP or IMAP. If you want, you can also configure the secure versions of them on different ports.

Lastly, I personally like this site as far as a Postfix how-to.

1 members found this post helpful.

Noway2 -

For some reason your reply notification didn't get emailed! Sorry for the lag.

Thank you so much for the information. That how-to looks great and has been bookmarked for sure.

Great to hear about the success you had with it! I see you use Ubuntu 10.10 - was this distribution used for your server?

Thanks

T3RM1NVT0R -

Thanks for the pointers!

I am currently using Ubuntu server edition. I started with it about 2 years ago. I say currently because I have been thinking of changing but it will take some effort to do so at this point. Overall, it make a fine system and performance wise, I have no complaints. Distribution upgrades, however, always give me trouble even though I wait several months before performing them. The forced six month update schedule is a little aggressive for me when it comes to servers. On the flip side, though, it really helps to keep all of your packages current, not just the ones like Apache and PHP which is a security benefit. If I were to do it over again, I would probably look at either Debian for ease of package management that I am already familiar with, or Gentoo for the configuration ability, or Slackware. At work, I run a server on Slackware, and have been quite happy with it. In that instance, the ability to customize the build scripts has been a real benefit to make it work with LDAP+Samba+Kerberos and to use ODBC drivers of MS-SQL servers.

1 members found this post helpful.

Noway2 -

I'll have to look into those other distributions (I've been stuck on Ubuntu since my intro to Linux - as you said, though, no complaints - might be good to see what's out there, though).

Sort of embarrassed to admit but I didn't even know there was an Ubuntu Server Edition! Haha - whenever I would need a download, I'd just jump straight to the first download link I saw! Yes - you can find my picture in the dictionary next to "newbie".

Thanks a lot for the info. I'll definitely be putting the ol' search engines to work.