mail server qustion
 

i am thinking about setting up a mail server

i have a dynamic ip that points to my linux server
and that give internet access to all my xp clients

i registered a free domain at no-ip.com (hhh.hopto.org) points to the linux server

now i want to run a mail server ( preferable using postfix)

where would be my mailing address?

would it be
user@hhh.hopto.org ????

where would be my pop3 server address? and my smtp addresss for the xp users running outlook express??

ok i am starting to install postfix

in the main.cf file

it asks

#myhostname = host.domain.tld
#myhostname = virtual.domain.tld

# The mydomain parameter specifies the local internet domain name.
# The default is to use $myhostname minus the first component.
# $mydomain is used as a default value for many other configuration
# parameters.
#
#mydomain = domain.tld



root@slackserver is the name of my server

but i have hhh.hopto.org that points to my ip on my server

what do i put in for these values?????
specifially the mydomain and myhostname

?????

If you have to make additions to your post
before someone replied please use the edit-
button, otherwise I'll assume that you're just
bumping it.



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Cheers,
Tink

thanks for the info tink i will keep it in mind


edit


ok i am totally confused

i have no idea how this stuff works


can someone that has set up a simple mail server please give me a run down

as i said before
i am using postfix and i have hhh.hopto.org (from noip.com) pointing as to my ip address


i have 3 xp clients that need to use the mail

the xp clients get there ips from a dhcp from the linux server

....

all i want to do right now is to be able to open outlook connect to the linux server send and recieve messages

i am using slackware 10 right now

i have this huge postfix book that is soo friking confusing....


can someone please please help this poor boy out????

yeah
bump...

A couple of things I can help you out with. I don't use postfix specifically, but I do run and have configured several mail servers at work.

Host/domain name - the name of your box usually matches whatever you named the mailserver as in your DNS for yoursite.com. For example, we usually name our mailservers mail.sitename.com. It can be anything, but I don't think it can have any chars in the name except alpha-numeric, so you can't actually be "root@slackserver". You could be root.slackserver.com, or mail.slackserver.net, or ju27sgh2bn.slackserver.org, etc., etc., but you must end in .com/net/biz/us/ any of those tags, and it should match EXACTLY whatever your dns is calling your mail server. If you didn't create the DNS file yourself and aren't sure, you should issue the command dig sitename.???, or nslookup -sil, set type=mx, sitename.??? (those commas are the return key, then continue with the next line). You should get the mailservers name, and IP.

The domain name should be yoursite.???, and the hostname.domainname.tld should be (whateverthe DNSsays).sitename.???

From your earlier questions, I get the strong impression that you don't know in detail what the DNS does, and what the mailserver does, and that may cause you some problems, but will probably be a good learning experience. Both the pop3 and smtp server for the window$ boxes should be the same name that you put into the hostname.domainname.tld field, I'd assume mail.sitename.com, but whatever you set is fine. Your address would NOT be user@hhh.hopto.org , you have no control over hhh.hopto.org, and they would not pass mail to that address to you. You would be user@hostname.domainname.com, or user@domainname.com is easiest.

On to much less pleasant subjects, you are going to have HUGE problems with a mail server on a dynamic address. For people to run websites off of dynamic IP means that whenever their box gets a new IP, there will be a period of downtime where the DNS take time to catch up, propagating the new address. Downtime isn't great, but it isn't a problem for websites. Mail is not that clean and easy. What if I try to email you, and my DNS looks for your mail address, and finds you at 20.20.20.1 according to your DNS. Problem is, your ISP moved you, and you are now 20.20.20.70. Some mail servers will try and continue to send the mail until it gets through, or fails a given number of times. Some will give up after failing only a few times, and I'd get my email bounced back to me, telling me your server couldn't be reached. To send email, not many, but a few places demand that you have a PTR record. A PTR is basically a reverse lookup, that says "IP 20.20.20.1 is mail.yoursite.com". You cannot have that, as your IP is flexible, and can be changed. You may run across people who simply can't receive mail from you, because their mail servers only accept mail from machines with PTR records. Also, much of what you send out will look to spam filters like spam. No PTR, chance you are spam goes up. So you'll lose emails intended for you, and some of the stuff you send out won't be received, because you look like spam. If you really want to run a mail server out of your house, then you will be MUCH better off spending the extra money for a staic IP. With a static, you can get the PTR record for your server, and you don't have to worry about losing incoming email, becasue your IP won't change.

When you have other problems, please post and somebody can help you through.

Peace,
JimBass

that cleared up a bunch of my questions

so baisically i should registar a domain name??
and i should geta static ip (alltho my ip hasn't changed in like 3 months)

how cheap can i register a domain name that would alow me to send mail thru it???

how do you obtain a ptr record? from the isp?

i will have more questions

Yes, if you want to both send and receive email, you'll need a domain name registered. You can simply send without registering a name, but that makes it super-spam, and any type of spam checker will flag you in a millisecond. You won't be able to receive anything from outside your LAN without a registered name.

It's great that your IP hasn't changed in months, but that doesn't change what I said - when you get changed, it will mess with you, and the PTR issue remains. By the way, do you have a real-world address from your ISP? If you aren't aware of how that works, if the address sent to your machine starts 192.168.x.x, 172.0.x.x -> 172.16.x.x, 169.254.x.x, or 10.x.x.x, you don't have a "Real world" address that can be reached by the public. If yor IP starts with any of those numbers, your server will only be able to send out, and not receive unless you talk to your ISP, and get IP or port forwarding set to your machine, and that is VERY unlikely.

You can register domain names for around $10 a year, and any of them allow you to send out email. When registrars charge extra for email, it is because they run your email off of their servers. You have your own mail server, so all you need is an A and MX record in your dns. You can't run DNS without a ststic IP, so you'll have to keep using that DNS service you mentioned before. Just make sure at some place in the DNS, they have an MX record, and the IP of your mail server. They should look something like this:

7200 IN MX 10 mail.yoursite.com


(then further down the form)

mail 7200 IN A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx




the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx should be whatever the IP your box gets from the ISP.


I used godaddy.com to register my domain for like $25 for 2 years, I'm sure you can find an equal or better deal without trying too hard. The big name registers (bulkregister, netsol) are usually more expensive.



Yes, the only person that can create a PTR for you is your ISP. Basically, the PTR has to come from whomever "owns" or leases the public IP that your server sits on. That is usually your ISP.




**************************************************************

Sorry! I just reread your eariler posts, under less influence of weekend celebration, and see that I made a mistake. If hhh.hopto.org is your registered domain name, then your email address WOULD be user@hopto.org. I thought hopto.org was the DNS services that you had, my fault for not reading correctly. Why in the world would you register it as hhh.hopto? If you follow my suggestion of making your mail server mail.hopto.org, then set mail.hhh.hopto.org as an alias. The part before the domain name isn't necessary, but hhh is just odd. You can put anything you want infront of the domain name. You can have say hhh.hopto.org point to one IP, and www.hopto.org point to another. Not a problem, just very very odd.

Correction Concluded**********************************************



Peace and Good Luck,
JimBass