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[Avi Schwartz]

Jeffrey F. Bloss wrote:
> Avi Schwartz wrote:
>
>   
>> Jeffrey F. Bloss wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Colin Brace wrote:
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> On 12/28/06, Jeffrey F. Bloss <jbloss at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>>> I wouldn't want my home mail server to be my primary mail server
>>>>> either
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> Just curious: why not? Reliability?
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Even with a good quality UPS and an end user feed that's been solid
>>> for over a year, I feel a little timid about using my "home owner"
>>> setup full time. If the power goes out for more than about 15
>>> minutes or a neighbor decides it's a good idea to run his lawn
>>> mower into the switch box that sits in his front yard I'm sunk. And
>>> I'd have nobody to comaplin to. ;) At least with a "real" server I
>>> can zip over to the library and still do my thing.
>>>   
>>>       
>> Actually you are not sunk unless you need your email urgently.  Since
>> a legit mail server will retry delivery up to 5 days, the only thing
>> you are going to miss is spam.  After all that is how greylisting
>> works.
>>     
>
> Greylisting usually delays mail for single digit numbers of minutes, not
> hours or days.
>
> A "legit" mail server will attempt to redeliver mail for as long as the
> admin decides it should. There's multitudes of servers out there
> running on a three day rule. And I've seen some quit trying in one. If
> you're depending on admins to blindly accept the default setting of one
> piece of software you *will* be sunk.
>   

In more then 5 years of running my own server never had any such 
problem, even when my server was down for 2 days while I was rebuilding it.
> Even if every mail server on the planet tried to deliver for 5 days it
> wouldn't help the poor slob who called his provider and was told it
> would be a week before someone could come out and take care of his
> problem. There's no guarantee residential service outages won't cause
> lost mail even with a 5 day grace period. At least not at any service
> provider I've ever dealt with. 

If something like would have happened, I would have purchased a backup
MX from dyndns or similar which would keep my mail much longer then 5 
days. But then I would turn it off when I am back online since outfits 
like dyndns don't use the same spam blocking methods that I do.

> All that aside, there's a whole slew of other reasons you don't want to
> run a "home server" as a primary mail transport. There's all manner and
> form of craziness out there perpetrated in the name of "the war on
> spam" for instance. There's a considerable number of servers which in
> effect flatly refuse to accept any mail at all from any IP that it
> decides isn't in a block that would house a "real" mail server. RBL's
> are another such problem. If someone in your IP block gets infected
> with some mass mailer worm they'll list the whole block. That's a real
> common occurrence that most people don't see because they *don't* try
> to run mail servers from their kitchen table.
>   
That is why I setup postfix to relay via my ISP's mail server.  If they
decide to block Comcast's mail servers there isn't much I can do anyway.
> A home mail server is a marvelous way to both filter and sort your mail
> the way you want, and have normal access to your mail from across the
>   
Also, we keep too much mail for an ISP quota.

> street or across the continent (not some nasty web mail crapola
> interface), but as a primary method of transport it doesn't work on a
> number of levels. You'll either relay through a "real" host or you'll
> have problems sooner or later. And some of those problems will be
> unresolvable. Trust me, that's experience speaking. ;)
>   
As I said, I am running my own server for more then 5 years.  That's
also experience speaking. :-)

Take care now and have a lovely new year!

Avi