Setting up own mail server from scratch

[David_Jones]

Hi,

I have a little project I would like to 'explore'.

I would like to set up my own mail server, using old machines lying around, and have it be able to receive email to my own domain and perhaps forward on to my main email address at work. I figure I could then give companies a different email address for each 'relationship' and know who was selling it to spammers etc (similar to what some sites on the web will do for free).

This is just a personal 'because I want to' type of thing - nothing critical.

I have access to an old laptop and another older desktop that could be servers. One is a PIII and the other a PII.

I have old Win98FE and Win98SE licenses spare, and I could use Linux I guess - prefer to avoid that if possible since I am already heading into one unknown area, but willing to try anything!

I will also need a different ISP account I guess. My T&C say I cannot 'host' a server on my current account.

So, where do I start?

Thanks,

David.

[DrZaius]

Hi David,

I'd strongly suggest against using Win98 for any type of server, it doesn't have the features and stability needed. Since you'll be running the server on older software, consider a dedicated software solution like ClakConnect (http://clarkconnect.org/) or e-smith (http://www.e-smith.org/intro/), which are both Linux based but you won't have to learn much since it's all hidden behind friendly interfaces. The advantage is that they will utilize fewer system resources and you'll have more control over the server. Hope this helps.

[Xayd]

FreeBSD or OpenBSD would be good for the OS, their default installs are minimal, you can add more as you see fit.

You need a static IP address first of all, so that you'll have to take up with your ISP.

Sendmail is already there, so the SMTP portion of the server is taken care of. Just be sure to get any security patches when you install your OS, Sendmail has not been without its flaws. Also be sure and set your relaying rules per the readme file, you don't want anyone under the sun to be able to use your mail server for a spam relay.

You need a pop or imap server to go along with that, but there are very small and free ones out there which are very easy to set up.

The only other hurdle to overcome is DNS, which is not as simple. For DNS purposes you can either host that yourself too, or pay for DNS service from somewhere else. Personally I pay for DNS from http://dns.widge.net, the cost is minimal, their downtime is nonexistant, and 12 dollars for a couple of years of service is a small price to pay for not having to wrestle with Bind ;). They also have a forwarding service, in case your server ever has problems you can have them forward your domain's mail to another domain or another account, which is a nice plan to fall back on should problems arise.

As for POP servers, I use VM-POP3D

http://www.reedmedia.net/software/virtualmail-pop3d/

It's free. The OS if you go with Linux or one of the BSDs is also free.

[Alex123]

www.dslwebserver.com is a good site for webservers, they might have good information for other type of servers.

See if you find it useful

Good luck!

[glc]

A decent free mail server that will run on Windows is Mercury Mail, from the Pegasus people.

www.pmail.com

[Statica]

If you are going to go through all that trouble to set up your own server on Linux then why use POP3 when you could be using IMAP? Its like building a computer today and insisting that it better be a K6 CPU :)

Edit: here's searchable database of IMAP
http://www.imap.org/products/database.php
(check out server products - they even have some free windows based servers:eek: )

[dj4uk]

Just stumbled acorss this post - I'm quite interested in doing the same. Whats is the difference between IMAP and POP then?

DJ

[David_Jones]

Whew!

Thanks guys!!

I will be buried in this for a while I think - lots of reading to be done by the looks of it.

I'll keep you 'posted'.

Thanks,

David.

[Xayd]

Originally posted by dj4uk
Just stumbled acorss this post - I'm quite interested in doing the same. Whats is the difference between IMAP and POP then?

DJ

The most notable difference is IMAP stores all your mail on the server, and allows you to create server side folders as well, whereas pop just holds your mail unsorted until either mail client or user tells it to delete it once it's been retrieved.

The glaring benefit therefore with IMAP is you have access to all email and all your filtering/sorting rules from any computer, since the messages are never deleted and the folders are server-side.

[Statica]

Some good sites:
http://www.imap.org/papers/imap.vs.pop.brief.html
http://www.lsit.ucsb.edu/mail/help/imapvpop.php
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/vumail/imap_pop.php
http://hepwww.physics.yale.edu/www_info/yalehep/mail/node10.html