Home IMAP server

[Jeffrey F. Bloss]

Colin Brace wrote:

> On 12/30/06, Jeffrey F. Bloss <jbloss at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> 
> > It doesn't just depend on the ISP, it depends on every mail server
> > you have any contact with at all. Even the "big boys" have
> > occasional problems getting mail through. The nice thing for them
> > is they have the leverage to get things fixed in a timely manner.
> > That's yet another reason not to run a primary mail server on a
> > residential account. People are more likely to tell you to go fly a
> > kite if you do have trouble. Starting with your own ISP.
> >
> > If your Speakeasy assigned IP worked for your needs that's great for
> > you, but anecdotal evidence from one or two ISP accounts is hardly
> > what anyone could call a "big picture". After more than 20 years of
> > getting computers to play nice with each other in every way shape
> > and form imaginable I can *guarantee* you it's not the big picture.
> > You were lucky to be the exception to a rule, and the situation is
> > getting worse not better.
> 
> A question then for you:  Up to now, my domains have been registered
> at ISP x, I have ADSL via ISP y, and web site hosted at company z. The
> primary mail server has been the web hosting company. I am thinking of
> giving the latter account up and hosting my pages on my own sever. If,
> following your advice, I don't run the primary mailserver myself, who
> then should I ask to do so? My ADSL ISP? Some other third party?

You're asking me... "Which vehicle should I buy, a 40 foot RV or a
bicycle?". I have no clue what your idea of good transportation is, how
many people you intend to move around and how far, what they're like, or
how much money you're wiling to spend on getting for A to B. :)

My gut answer is and always will be to do it yourself if you want it
done right. But I'm a gear head who enjoys fiddling with things other
people probably find frustrating. Because of that I'm  probably not the
best person to ask because I would tell you to do the fiber drop in
your living room with a rack bolted to the wall next to the big screen.

I wouldn't for one second consider letting my service provider handle
any "business class" email if I only had a residential agreement with
them. Residential users have essentially no service agreement at all,
and if something does go awry they can and will tell you to pound salt.

I also know that at least in these parts there's no difference between
residential an business accounts besides a couple more email addresses,
small portions of "off site storage" space, and an (optional) static
IP. That tells me even business accounts at my provider will be
problematic if I want to go full tilt "self hosted". Your mileage may
vary of course.

Third party providers are an entire chapter themselves. A lot of people
solve their problems by using something like SMTP.Com, essentially a
transparent "smart host" for your egress email. Ingress traffic is
still handled as you would normally, directly to you or through your
account provider. I suspect this is where you want to be, but that's
just intuition. What you'll need to do is talk to your ISP and get set
up with whatever sort of bare minimum account they offer to officially
let you run public servers, and host everything yourself with some
traffic like outgoing email being "proxied" by a third party.

Or you could have everything hosted off site. Google just turned up
over a million hits on "mail host". Good luck. <grin>

-- 
     _?_      Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
    (o o)         Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
-oOO-(_)--OOo-------------------------------[ Groucho Marx ]--
    grok!              Registered Linux user #402208
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 892 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20061230/cb4a47ed/attachment.sig>