On Tue, Feb 01, 2005 at 12:21:01AM -0800, Neil Schneider wrote: > > Ralph Shumaker said: > > Neil Schneider wrote: > > > >>It's not the link, it's the mail server. Some ISPs mailservers are > >>really slow. I generally receive my posts within a few minutes after > >>sending them to the list. That's one of the reasons I run my own mail > >>server, I don't like slow email. > >> > >> > > To run your own mail server, is it necessary to have a constant > > connection? > > Generally speaking yes. A mail server has to be able to receive mail > 24/7 which means it needs a constant connection. >
Ralph, as Neil said, "Generally speaking yes". I'll give you the other side of the coin on the off-chance that it applies to you. Let's say you wanted to learn to run a mail server, and were only using a dial-up connection. In that case, you can still run a mail server but it just won't be as well connected. The general plan is to use fetchmail to pop your incoming e-mail off of your e-mail accounts, and have those e-mails put into port 25 of your local machine. That way, your server can use virus and spam filters just the same as it would otherwise, and you can deliver to your local users' mailboxes. Outgoing mail would need to be saved until the machine is on-line again so that the SMTP server can connect with the remote servers and transfer the mail. Some ISPs allow relaying by their customers, too. Downsides are that you have to dial in periodically to transfer e-mail. If you don't, then when you dial in to surf the Web, you'll sit there for 5-10 minutes just waiting for the mail to finish moving. Also, dynamic IPs and relays are the kinds of things that some spam filters look for to determine which e-mail to reject. I never had much problem, but it has been nearly 3 years since I've done that. I know that I occasionally had e-mails rejected. Fetchmail for the incoming e-mail is easy. Setting up the outbound e-mail to spool until a connection is made is very specific to the server software you choose. You'll have to do some research. Wade Curry (syntaxman) -- KPLUG-Newbie mailing list [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-newbie
