Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
OT: Running Your Own SMTP Server
Robert Hutchins
>I posted yesterday complaining about TimeWarner/RoadRunner's SMTP restraints. Googling turned up several freeware programs that allow one to set up his own SMTP server bypassing his ISP's server.
Does anyone here have experience doing this? What are the downsides? Are there any inordinate risks that proper diligence, a firewall and being careful with settings won't overcome?
Mark, Dan - everyone. What say you?
TIA
Re: OT: Running Your Own SMTP Server
Bob Fawcett
>You kinda need your own DNS server as well. You can get around this if you have a domain name and your ISP will allow adding an MS record.
An SMTP server alone won't work in many cases. When sending mail, most sites look up the sender before they will accept incoming mail, so no DNS entry/s means no acceptance. You can't recieve mail if your SMTP server cannot be looked up in DNS.
There are also issues with making sure your server does not act as a relay for others. This is an anti-spam issue, and even if your server works to start with, you may get black listed if it relays spam from others.
Re: OT: Running Your Own SMTP Server
Phil Thien
>For about $10 a month, you can get a web site from someone like Webmasters (.com). As a benefit, you can have a couple hundred E-Mail addresses, no real limits to amount of mail you receive, and you can use Major Domo for sending E-Mail and managing your list.
Oh, and you have to register a domain. But there are deals to do that for $25 a year or less.
Got Several Domain Names
Robert Hutchins
>But my host (GoDaddy) doesn't support mail servers - at least I can't find out how to use them if they do. What is involved in setting up a DNS server? I thought there were only about a dozen of two of those in the world - to minimize maintenance interruptions yet ensure integrity and constantly updated lists. Why would I have to maintain a DNS server? Why wouldn't the SMTP server simply validate domain names on the Internet connection before serving the messages?
I'm aware of the potential for spammers to subvert my server, but would think that firewall settings and SMTP server software settings could throttle that fairly easily by controlling numbers and ports, not to mention sources (senders IDs) for mail. Obviously there is a great deal I don't understand about mail servers.
When I booted up today, I had 23 messages in inboxes, one of which was a nag message from TW/RR saying that I'm overquota. For $40 a month, one would expect a bit more inbox space. Email files are among the smallest types of files an IT manager encounters unless users are attaching huge files to them. Most people won't try to write War & Peace in an email editor. Besides, their complaint is about number, not space involved. TW/RR's business model SUCKS and not in the sense the word is used most often here. I REALLY HATE OLIGOPOLIES AND BELIEVE THEY SHOULD BE REGULATED BY PUBLIC COMMISSIONS!
Re: Got Several Domain Names
Bob Fawcett
>There are only a few ROOT DNS servers, but most all domains have an authoritative DNS server for the domain. Sounds like your ISP has one, but doesn't allow or maybe expect you to provide your own.
Find another ISP, or find split your actual access and domain to 2 providers. You can find one for your domain that allows you to do it.
Re: Got Several Domain Names
Robert Hutchins
>Hi Bob,
Thanks for the information. I don't have my domains hosted with my ISP. If I could get equivalent services from another source, I'd deep six my ISP. They are the reason I'm looking into alternatives. I don't have access to cable modem in this area except via TW/RR and I've already used - and got disgusted with - SBC's ADSL offering.
GoDaddy hosts my domains. I'm trying to solve my email problems without having to spend any more money, if I can.
What exactly IS your email problem?
Mark Goodall - ATL - tooljunkie
>You basically get what yuuo pay for in this arena. Your ISP provides you with free email POP and SMTP, but as you know it's limited, but remeber... it's free. GoDaddy also provides you with POP and SMTP servers fpr free... again limitations. You can get $3/month services, with higher capacities. You can spend $20/month and have an account with more capacities and fewer limitations. It doesn't stop there. And yes most SMTP services limit the size of lists to prevent spam/distribution lists. The more you are willing to pay, the more you get. If you can tell me what exactly you want I can recommend certain services that will fit your needs.
I don't recommend setting up your own SMTP server because you'll get yourself blacklisted before you know it.
If you are getting into PHP programming, yuor PHP server will have PHP email capabilities and you can use that to send emails to larger diteribution lists.
There are no limits on the internet.
Happy Woodworking!
Woo Woo Woo !
Robert Hutchins
>Hi Mark!
Actually, RR has just ticked me off with their constant nag emails about 'quota exceeded' and their weekly promotional emails to my addys. I generally only have 15 or 20 emails in my inbox overnight - though sometimes the Porch gets backed up and I'll find a ton some mornings. My list of email 'buddies' that I routinely receive stuff from is fewer than 25. Yes, there are videos and graphics attached to a lot of what I get. RR's tech desk told me today that they have a 6mb limit per message and a 10mb limit for the outbox. They must have changed this fairly recently because the nag messages started only of late; and my email receipts are probably lower than they were in the past. RR also limits the number of addressees in a single message. I have a coupla mailing lists - all subscribers - that have 400-500 names in them. I send mailings about once a month and I have to chop them up into groups and send 4 or 5 or I exceed their limits. I suspect that some rubber-necked backroom number cruncher that got fired after participating in the Enron debacle has convinced the PTB to tighten the noose. And I'm tired of it.
I checked with ClearWire last week. I don't know that I'd be satisfied with their speeds, but I was told that they have no limits on incoming or outgoing email - even told they'd put that in writing. Although I don't have a need for a wireless connection, they are the only other game in town for (relatively) high speed connections. (I tried and left SBC's ADSL as stated in other posts. No one knows LESS about customer service than the phone companies, IME, and I had 40 years of running private networks. If TW/RR keeps it up, they're going to run me off.
And, yes, I speak a little PHP but don't consider myself proficient - yet.
Thanks for jumping in - and for listening to my rant.
Bob
Re: Woo Woo Woo !
Bill Hammond
>Why don't you just get a gmail account. You can pop it just like tw/rr, use your same email client and use either gmail or tw/rr to send mail. Plus when traveling you can access your mail on line from any computer.
Re: Woo Woo Woo !
Bob Fawcett
>Looks like you have a gmail account. Can you do what you want from a gmail account? That may be the way to go.
All of what I know is based on large connections to tier 1 providers for a large commecial enterprise. You wouldn't want to pay what we pay.
The idea behind POP3 email
Mark Goodall - ATL - tooljunkie
>POP3 emails boxes, unlike MS-Exchange, are not really designed to store email for very long, they are designed to hold email for you only until Outlook downloads it. In a perfect world you are connected 24x7 and Outlook gets new email at least one every 60 minutes, so POP3 email boxes don't have to be very large at all.
Most POP3 email boxes are about 10MB in size, if you are receiving more than 10MB in an hour, then someone (not you) is using email for something it wasn't designed for... transferring large files. Most of the POP3 email accounts I adminster are 100MB, and even then, they can fill up if not used properly.
A few clinets of mine have one or two cronic attachment senders that are always clogging up their buinsess email boxes. What we do in those cases is setup two email boxes, one "business" box, and one "play" box and then ask those prankster pals who love to send those videos to the "play" account.
500 addresses is really quite a bit for a non-commercial endevour, and most ISP, even the larger commercial ones will block sending out that mainy email at once. Depending on your circumstance, sometimes a letter to the ISP explaining the valid need to send out that many is all that is necessary for them to allow you to send that many. I have several clients that have asked and been granted the ability to send that many at once. But you have to ask for it. These are business accoutns, so I doubt you'll have much success convincing a residentail ISP to allow you that. Also remember that by forcing you to use other methods, they are helping fuel other businesses. The email campaing companies like http://www.emaximation.com/ wouldn't stand a chance if the ISP let you do it for free.
Happy Woodworking!