[Techtalk] Setting up mailserver..

[Mary]

On Wed, Mar 27, 2002 at 07:03:50AM +0100, Alinda wrote:
> Hello techtalk,
> 
> I have a question, I run a mail-server on the server of our home LAN
> (with 3 very active users who receive loads of mail, and own two
> domain names, have an ADSL connection with a fixed IP. Now I have been
> wondering if you could set it up so I don't need intermediair pop
> accounts for collecting mail to keep the mail separated, that isn't
> addressed by name (ie mailing lists and bcc's), to the various user
> accounts.

I take it you are looking for something along the lines of:
 * someone addresses mail is addressed to housemate at example.com their
   machine, or ISP connects straight to your machine on the static
   IP.
 * your machine then 'knows' who it is for and delivers it straight to
   them.

This is a classic task and is no different from setting up any other
server to receive mail for a domain.

There are several things you need to do:
 * Configure your ADSL machine to receive mail for the two domain names.
   There are several programs that will let you do this: postfix, exim,
   qmail, sendmail. One may be installed already.

   Most of these by default reject all mail receiving attempts now, as
   otherwise your machine can be inadvertantly used to send (LOTS OF)
   spam. There will be some way to say 'accept all mail for example.com'

   The way to configure this varies based on program. All of them will
   have some way to say 'OK, mail to bob at example.com goes to bob, but
   mail to betty at example.com goes to bchambers, and all other
   example.com mail goes to lucy'. The usual term for this is 'virtual
   hosts' so you'll want to look at that section of the documentation.
   
 * Alter the DNS records for the two domain names so that your ADSL
   machine is the primary mail exchanger (MX) for the two domain names.
   Do this after you have the above working.

I'd also strongly recommend having a secondary mail exchanger if at all
possible if your ADSL connection is at all unreliable. A secondary will
hold your mail until the primary comes back up. There are a few people
on techtalk who have expressed willingness to 'exchange' secondaries,
and there are some cheap services that will do this for you.

If any of the above terminology is unclear, my assumptions are incorrect
or you run into any trouble at all setting any of this up, post again.

-Mary.