cvassiliou
asked on
How to configure mx records for my mailserver at home
Hi,
I have set up a mailserver at home and I am trying to configure correctly mx records (in hover.com) to be able to send/receive mails.
The configuration is as follows:
{Hover (mydomain.com} <---> {modem (wan ip is known)} <---> {mailserver (static ip 192.168.x.x type, hostname=myfirstmailserver
First of all, do I have to configure both A type and MX type records?
If yes, I see that for an A type record I need to add a hostname (is this myfirstmailserver? or mydomain.com?) and an IP address (is this my modem's WAN IP?). Which are the correct values?
Also, I see that for an mx record I need to add a hostname ( is this mydomain.com?) a priority (I suppose 10 is ok) and another hostname (is this myfirstmailserver?)
Do I need to worry for anything else? (e.g. port forwarding on my modem or ISP related issues).
Please excuse my ignorance.
I have set up a mailserver at home and I am trying to configure correctly mx records (in hover.com) to be able to send/receive mails.
The configuration is as follows:
{Hover (mydomain.com} <---> {modem (wan ip is known)} <---> {mailserver (static ip 192.168.x.x type, hostname=myfirstmailserver
First of all, do I have to configure both A type and MX type records?
If yes, I see that for an A type record I need to add a hostname (is this myfirstmailserver? or mydomain.com?) and an IP address (is this my modem's WAN IP?). Which are the correct values?
Also, I see that for an mx record I need to add a hostname ( is this mydomain.com?) a priority (I suppose 10 is ok) and another hostname (is this myfirstmailserver?)
Do I need to worry for anything else? (e.g. port forwarding on my modem or ISP related issues).
Please excuse my ignorance.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Hello skullnobrains,
thank you for your post.
It seems that I 'm missing quite a lot here.
I will try to re-assess what should I do to have my own mail server.
I will also leave this post open since it seems that I will need your help again.
Thank you all once more
thank you for your post.
It seems that I 'm missing quite a lot here.
I will try to re-assess what should I do to have my own mail server.
I will also leave this post open since it seems that I will need your help again.
Thank you all once more
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
@frosty
i did not want to clutter the thread but since it is now closed :
expecting to send email without checking for that is foolish at best
did i ever suggest that he changes his PTR ? no
and btw, some ISPs allow that. usually this is reserved to business connections but not always. some people have different ISPs from you. some live in different countries and use ISPs you never even heard of
same here : likely but not sure (mine does not). given the fact that checking requires a single telnet command, it is even less time consuming than reading a post.
the main and first historic list is called the PBL (maintained by spamhaus) and mostly focuses on dynamic and LAN address pools rather than just home address pools. it is VERY far from being complete. completing it with heuristics was necessary last time i run a filtering mail server. i hope no mail server admin is dumb enough to reject mail ONLY because they are on the PBL, and the PBL includes many ways to remove yourself from it if you run a legitimate mail server.
i think i suggested the smarthost.
but using the ISP's SMTP without asking them is very likely to end up in account termination at some point if you send a few hundred email per day. below a conservative 20-50, you should be safe. most ISPs i know of have a treshold around 100, some are smart enough to trigger after a number of identified spam.
using an external service would require that they provide an alternate port if port 25 is blocked by the ISP
none of the above reasons apply, and this does provably work. been doing so a number of times. why the hell do you think one would need a gateway for incoming email ?
i did not want to clutter the thread but since it is now closed :
Skullnobrains - I would strong discourage cvassiliou from trying to go down the PTR record route or even bothering to look into that. It's a tangent he doesn't need to go down or worry about.
expecting to send email without checking for that is foolish at best
Even if his ISP were to allow him to change his PTR records (they won't)
did i ever suggest that he changes his PTR ? no
and btw, some ISPs allow that. usually this is reserved to business connections but not always. some people have different ISPs from you. some live in different countries and use ISPs you never even heard of
even if his ISP doesn't block port 25 (they very likely do)
same here : likely but not sure (mine does not). given the fact that checking requires a single telnet command, it is even less time consuming than reading a post.
other mailservers will still reject mail coming directly from his server because his IP address is in a block designated for home internet plans.
the main and first historic list is called the PBL (maintained by spamhaus) and mostly focuses on dynamic and LAN address pools rather than just home address pools. it is VERY far from being complete. completing it with heuristics was necessary last time i run a filtering mail server. i hope no mail server admin is dumb enough to reject mail ONLY because they are on the PBL, and the PBL includes many ways to remove yourself from it if you run a legitimate mail server.
He needs to use an SMTP smarthost, such as the SMTP server provided by his web hosting provider, or his ISP's SMTP Servers, or he needs to sign up for a third party SMTP service like Dyn.com's DynECT service.
i think i suggested the smarthost.
but using the ISP's SMTP without asking them is very likely to end up in account termination at some point if you send a few hundred email per day. below a conservative 20-50, you should be safe. most ISPs i know of have a treshold around 100, some are smart enough to trigger after a number of identified spam.
using an external service would require that they provide an alternate port if port 25 is blocked by the ISP
Having his mailserver directly receive mail via his domain's MX records is also still a no-no, for the reasons I stated above. He will still need to use an email gateway for his incoming mail.
none of the above reasons apply, and this does provably work. been doing so a number of times. why the hell do you think one would need a gateway for incoming email ?
ASKER
thank you soooo much for this lesson!!
It seems that I was about to make some serious mistakes here.
I will follow your instructions to use dyndns. Since I am doing this in my spare time it will take me some time but I am more optimist now.
Until I make it happen I will leave this post open.
Than you once more for your time.