domain (especially email) hosting from home

Randy Edwards redwards at golgotha.net
Fri Jul 15 14:49:00 EDT 2005


 > How would I go about moving those services to my local machine
 > (offering email accounts to family too) with the least amount of
 > hassle and worry?

   The exact answer is easy -- just set up the services on your home IP 
address and switch your DNS (at whoever has your domain's DNS) to point to 
the home IP address.  From there, you can add users on your own machine for 
whoever needs a mail and/or shell account.  Users can then pull/send mail 
directly to your machine and you can easily add any web-mail package to 
provide that capability.

 > Is the short answer 'learn sendmail'?  I hope not.  I know that there
 > are a variety of SMTP servers, and I'm not sure which is favored for
 > simplicity.

   Debian a long time ago switched to Exim for its MTA.  The Debian mail gurus 
claimed it would give both security/stability and ease of use.  I've found 
that to be true.

   I use Exim mainly for "normal" things and have found it very easy to use.  
Debian's install (I'm not sure if this is in the "stock" Exim package) uses a 
simple shell script which asks idiot-level questions and suffices for most 
typical mail admins.

   Having run home servers myself, a question: What will happen when you 
decide to rebuild your machine and it's down for a day or two (or imagine 
some other maintenance issue which causes downtime)?

   As an added "cover my butt" layer I've used www.easydns.com in the past and 
highly recommend them.  For a small amount, they'll provide an easy to use 
web-based DNS interface and take care of your DNS issues on redundant DNS 
servers in both Canada and the US.  They'll also provide a backup mail spool 
for no extra cost.  Of course, EasyDNS runs on GNU/Linux too.  (Standard 
disclaimers: no financial interests in them, never worked for 'em, just a 
happy customer.)

 Regards,
 .
 Randy

-- 
Fast fact: One acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes or one acre 
of land can produce 165 pounds of beef.



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